Positive Ventures, a Sao Paulo-based venture firm, has secured $10 million for its latest fund.
Positive Ventures has raised the capital from an impressive list of LPs including investor Luis Stuhlberger, founding partner of Verde Asset Management and Teresa and Cândido Bracher, who was the chairman of Itaú-Unibanco, Brazil’s largest bank. The Brazilian venture firm’s self-described mission is to “invest in startups where every dollar of revenue is also delivering environmental or social impact.” I spoke with co-founder and co-CEO Fabio Kestenbaum who emphasized the importance of such an investment strategy in a country like Brazil that has had its share of corruption over the years. (Kestenbaum co-founded the firm with Andrea Oliveira and Bruna Constantino). Positive Ventures prides itself on being guided by the United Nations as part of its Global Compact initiative. It also has a top tier B Impact Score, meaning as a B Corp. that makes impact part of its core strategy, it’s doing pretty darn good. The firm’s sweet spot is early-stage — Seed and Series A — ventures “that can deliver outsized impact and financial return,” according to Kestenbaum. Its average investment size is $500,000, but the firm can go up to $1.5 million in follow-on rounds. Positive Ventures seeks to back impact-oriented early-stage companies “building breakthrough solutions to tackle massive challenges related to inequality and climate change.” Partner and CIO Murilo Johas Menezes is based out of the Bay Area and leads the firm’s offshore strategy and investments in companies.Investments
Positive Ventures is sector agnostic but keeps three impact megatrends in mind when sourcing deals:- Planetary Boundaries, such as recycling, carbon, sustainable systems
- Social Resilience, such as financial services, credit, workforce upskilling and
- Institutional Voids, focused on emerging economies’ most pressing challenges such as education, health and rising technologies.