Amsterdam’s Rubio Impact Ventures closes 2nd fund at €110M; to invest in 30+ impact-based startups

Amsterdam-based Rubio Impact Ventures, a venture fund focused on early and growth-stage enterprises that focus on positive societal and environmental impact, announced the closing of its second impact fund at €110M – exceeding its initial target by nearly 40 per cent.

The firm now manages an impact capital totaling €150M, almost 4 times more than a year ago. This development also underlines the increasing capital flows towards impact investment in Europe.

Investors in this second round

Rubio’s existing investors from its first round fund such as the EIF (European Investment Fund), ASR, and several successful Dutch family offices also entered Fund 2 and doubled their investment. 

New investors in Fund 2 include a.o. Triodos Green Fund, French institutional investor Candriam, and a large group of successful Dutch entrepreneurs bringing with them a wealth of scale-up knowledge in addition to their capital.

Creating real-world impact

Rubio Impact Ventures, previously Social Impact Ventures, is an impact venture fund based in the Netherlands with €150M in assets under management. The firm, which claims to be the first private fund in the Netherlands, invests exclusively in companies that actually incorporate purpose and impact as an integral part of their business, organisation, and corporate governance.

Rubio offers capital, expertise, and network access to help its portfolio startups accelerate to the next level. It measures success on both financial and quantifiable impact targets which are validated by an independent committee to ensure their objectivity. 

Rubio’s Managing Partner Helmer Schukken says, “Rubio is a true pioneer with a strong track record in the growing European impact investment market. With our first fund, we proved that impact and financial return can reinforce each other. And that is why we stepped up the pace with the second fund, to make even more impact in areas that are vital to the world.”

In its first fund, known as Social Impact Ventures, Rubio claims to have achieved a number of successful exits as well as follow-up rounds in growing impact companies such as OLIO, Samasource, and Sympower.

What to expect from the second fund?

Rubio Impact Ventures aims to help startups grow successfully to make an impact in a bigger, better, faster way than doing it alone. The firm plans to invest in more than 30 “ambitious” companies on the basis of three impact themes: circular solutions, people power, and healthy living.

Since the start of the second fund at the end of 2020, Rubio has already invested in 11 companies from Seed to Series A round. Few of the companies that have received capital include coffee brand Wakuli, cultivated meat pioneer Mosa Meat, and Litterati, an app that motivates people to collect and tag litter.