Mercy Corps Ventures

Entrepreneurs around the world are deploying disruptive business models and transformative technologies to solve the biggest challenges of our time. These startups have the potential to reach 3.3 billion climate-vulnerable people, 1.4 billion unbanked people, and 162 million small businesses with innovative climate-focused and digital finance products that could drive their resilience. However, they are often undercapitalised and don’t have access to the resources they need for their ventures to survive and scale.

Mercy Corps Ventures invests in and catalyses venture-led solutions to increase the resilience of underserved individuals and communities. Founded in 2015 as the impact investing arm of Mercy Corps, we’ve supported 43 early-stage ventures to scale and raise over $396.7 million in follow-on funding. Our portfolio is 50% female-founded and centres around solutions in adaptive agriculture and food systems, inclusive fintech, and climate smart technologies, so that those living in frontier markets can withstand disruption and plan for the future. Through capital and support, piloting new approaches, action-oriented insights, and rigourously managing impact, we catalyse the ecosystem towards smarter, more impactful investments.

In order to support the development of cutting-edge innovation in emerging markets, we partner with companies to responsibly pilot nascent and high-impact technologies, such as blockchain. This sits alongside our work as investors, informing our investment thesis and supporting underserved groups to join the global economy and build their resilience to climate change.