IMPACTASSETS 50™
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
ImpactAssets 50
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
Conscious Venture Partners, LLC
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Media, Technology and Mobile
Place-based ImpactFirm Overview
Conscious Venture Partners is driven by its beliefs: (1) talent is ubiquitous; opportunity is not, (2) ideas that create a more equitable society will be the big businesses of the future and (3) companies that create value for all stakeholders create better returns for investors. As an early-stage venture capital fund and impact investment platform, we seek to create opportunity for prosperity for diverse entrepreneurs, under-estimated communities and exceptional investor returns through economic inclusion. By investing in under-estimated founders, looking for ideas that break down barriers to access and promoting a new theory of business, we create opportunities for founders, no matter where they come from or what they look like. We support diverse entrepreneurs other investors ignore for the wrong reasons. In doing so are creating a more just, joyous, equitable, and prosperous society for all.
Years of Operation: 10 years or more
% of Capital from Top 3 Investors: 25% – 49%
We invest in high-potential diverse founders operating at the intersection of profit and purpose who are creating stakeholder-focused companies and using innovation to break down barriers to access, increase equity and create a more equitable and profitable society for all.
In 2018, 2.2% of all venture capital funding was invested in female founders and 1% in African American and Latino founders. Paradoxically, this is an important societal issue and, it has tremendous return implications for investors. In their 2018 report entitled The Trillion Dollar Blind Spot, Morgan Stanley suggests VCs are missing out on $4.4 Trillion in value because of bias against women and minority-owned companies. In a subsequent research paper, Boston Consulting Group data demonstrates the fallacy of this approach: On average, women-lead startups in Boston raised less than half as much as their male counterparts, yet, they earned 78 cents per dollar invested compared to 31 cents for men. We invest in diverse entrepreneurs with a focus on eliminating artificial barriers of race and gender to fund high-potential entrepreneurs pursuing opportunities to create more resilient cities and more equitable, sustainable and prosperous communities.
Three things truly differentiate us from others in the industry: First, we are one of the few investment and training platforms in the Country specifically focused on educating entrepreneurs about the intricacies of stakeholder capitalism. Second is an innovation we developed during COVID to take our training program virtual and expand our reach: FounderTrac is the most robust and complete online learning management and investment analysis environments in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The platform has become one of our primary screening tools when considering investments. A number of investors tout their portfolio company support. We continue to develop and enhance ways to support our portfolio companies, meeting with them regularly, in addition to quarterly information gathering, combining our broad networks, cadre of mentors, deep subject matter expertise and hands-on experience. Our model is built on our founder’s background of 35+ years of entrepreneurial experience and 19 years of impact investing expertise.
Investment Example
R3 Score was founded by an African American mother-daughter team in West Baltimore, MD. The mother was a professional who, after an unfortunate business turn of events with a disgruntled employee, served a 70 month Federal prison sentence in 2007. After living a straight life before prison, serving her time, being an exemplary inmate and committing herself to rehabilitation, she was amazed at how the stigma of incarceration followed her everywhere after her release. It was based on this experience that she dedicated herself to helping deserving previously incarcerated individuals reclaim their lives. R3 Score is a technology platform that creates the equivalent of a “credit score” for returning citizens. The company seeks to reduce the harm that prison causes to individuals and their families by helping bankers, hiring managers and others recognize ex-felons for the people they have become and not the people who landed themselves in prison.
Leadership and Team
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Jeffrey Cherry – CEO/Managing Member More Info
Jeff Cherry is Managing Member of Conscious Venture Partners, general partner of our funds, and our top investment professional. He received his B.S. and Master’s degrees from The Catholic University of America. A serial entrepreneur with 35+ years as an operating CEO, board member, investor and advisor to startups, governments and Fortune 500 executives, Jeff has founded 7 companies (with 3 exits) and generated over $200 million in revenue. His first company was named to the Inc. 500 list in 1997. Jeff spent 6 years on Wall Street managing a $690M hedge fund focused on impact investing. |
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Joseph Valis – Member More Info
Conscious Venture Partners, LLC is a venture capital fund manager built on a foundation of 35 years of entrepreneurial experience and 16 years of impact investing expertise. We believe that talent is ubiquitous, opportunity is not. And companies that create value for all stakeholders create better returns for investors. We invest in diverse founders, creating equity, prosperity and impact for diverse communities, by creating solutions to big problems they understand better than most. |
Financial Performance
Impact Performance
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Percentage of Total Assets Under
Management that are Impact Investments: |
75% – 99%
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A main focus of our interview and selection process both for our accelerator and our funds is the impact of their product or service on breaking down barriers to access, from financial services, health care, technology, education, food, and overall reducing racial and gender bias.
As a firm we encourage our portfolio companies to establish intrafirm social and environmental sustainability practices. Many of our companies, however, are too early to have a credible process established for measuring their internal impact. As they grow we encourage them to establish policies for ESG and corporate culture and to share them with us. As early-stage founders, often with very small teams, we do not want to overburden them with strict requirements such as B Lab certification before they have the capacity to do so credibly. That said, all of our founders understand our point of view and we work with them from day one to consider how they will address sustainability issues as they grow. We help them implement these plans along the pathway.
Impact Tracking and Monitoring
Learn More
901 S. Bond Street, Suite 203, Baltimore, MD 21231 USA
Apply for the IA 50 2022
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