Releasing Giant Leap’s impact calculator and benchmarks that we use to compare impact opportunities as part of our screening process. — >> Try the impact calculator on the original Giant Leap post << The comparison challenge of impact investing Impact investing is the practice of allocating capital to maximise both beneficial outcomes for people and the planet alongside financial returns. When comparing opportunities for financial returns, investments are easy to compare with a standard dollar figure.

To celebrate the milestone of completing the portfolio of our First Fund, we’re sharing our top lessons for aspiring impact angel and VC investors so far. — Last month, Giant Leap announced its investment into Swoop Aero, marking a key milestone: the completion of the first Giant Leap Fund which we launched in 2016. Our mandate for that fund was to invest in 20 exceptional companies that had a positive impact built into their DNA.

Giant Leap welcomes a new Analyst to the team, Hannah Mourney. We’re thrilled to have her! GL: To kick things off, what people should know about your background? ‍ HM: I studied Biomedical Engineering and Arts (German major) and completed my engineering honours thesis on the design of two paediatric…

“On the surface, an optimistic belief might seem no more valid than the stance of pessimism. But the deep history of new ideas makes it very clear that the optimistic stance of believing something is possible is a requirement to make anything new real, and is thus more powerful than…

What we’re thinking about 🌎 The latest IPCC report contained both harsh reality checks and hope for addressing climate change. On one hand, much damage of human warming is irreversible and we have a 67% chance of remaining under the 1.5C target by 2040 even if we make an extraordinary u-turn to reduce carbon…

What we’re thinking about 🌻 For the first time on record, impact VC is on track to blitz other impact investment types in attracting funding. Halfway through the year, it makes up more than 60% of the $7b in funds raised for impact. With strong focus on energy and health, impact investors are clearly…

Food for thought 💡Investment and innovation in cleantech has kicked up a notch in recent years. But cleantech only gets us so far in addressing climate change. 🤯Alongside crucial cleantech investment, we need massive systems change via social innovation — the realm of health and education startups. Only by improving economic wellbeing will…

What stopped us in our tracks 💌Chamath Palihapitiya of Social Capital, a US-based VC that has built a tech portfolio with almost half of its companies directly solving problems of climate, health, and education, published his 2020 annual letter back in May. In it, he called for rethinking food systems not just for climate, but also…

What stopped us in our tracks 🤯Teletherapy apps still have some major obstacles to overcome. Molly Fischer shared a collection of dud user experiences with Talkspace, an app promising 24/7 access to therapists, from one therapist juggling over 200 patients simultaneously to another copying and pasting the definition of “depression” to their patient (who just so…