Backed by Northzone, Balderton & more, London-based ImpactVC comes out of stealth

London-based ImpactVC, a venture capital firm, announced on Tuesday that it has come out of stealth after its incubation period at Big Society Capital, a UK-based impact venture fund. 

ImpactVC’s launch comes at a time when the impact investing market is expected to grow to $823.83B in 2026 at a CAGR of 18.1 per cent. 

ImpactVC comprises 160 community members from 120 venture firms, including Northzone, Balderton, Partech, and more. 

The founding team consists of:

• Arfah Farooq, ImpactVC Community Manager
• Claire Kearney, Big Society Capital
• Douglas Sloan, Big Society Capital
• Ellie Broad, Big Society Capital
• Katie Fulford-Smith, Big Society Capital
• Nicholas Andreou, Impact Edge Consulting

Impact investing is an investment strategy enabling investors to generate positive and measurable social and environmental impact. 

ImpactVC will help startups that are solving world problems across the UK, Europe, and beyond with knowledge, tools, and resources 

“We’re in the ‘decade of purpose’ with a 7x increase in funding to impact startups in the last five years. In addition, there is a growing trend across the venture ecosystem as people increasingly make choices about where they work, spend, and invest with reference to values,” says the company. 

The VC firm has launched an “ImpactVC Playbook” to help​ VCs source, select, and support the most exciting impact startups and help them maximise their potential. 

Anna Skarborg, Head of Sustainability at Northzone, says, “We are seeing companies with huge potential to scale and develop appear in the impact venture space. At the same time, we need to understand better how to combine this potential with our generalist platform and traditional focus. ImpactVC can be vital in helping us share learnings and best practices and collaborate better across generalist and impact VCs.”

Melina Sánchez Montañés, Investment Principal & VP of Impact, says, “The playbook feeds into the systems change the role that AENU aims to play: to attract more attention and funding into impact venture capital, we need to share learnings and build capacity in the ecosystem, especially among the new generation of impact managers.”