AI enabled opportunities for Impact VCs: Nesta Impact Investments provides capital to early stage mission-led tech ventures raising Seed to Series A rounds. We invest to develop sustainable, scaleable and innovative products and services that benefit people and the planet. We invest alongside Nesta’s Mission themes, in companies that work towards reducing carbon emissions; tackling obesity, and reducing the educational attainment gap. AI cuts across all of our investment themes, and we were delighted to be able to co-host an ImpactVC event at Nesta bringing people together to discuss what the ..read more

Imagining a more flexible grid:  Nesta Impact Investments invests in solutions which will accelerate the decarbonisation of UK households. We have been looking at the role of demand flexibility in supporting efforts to deliver a net zero grid, by tuning demand for energy to match increasingly variable weather-dependent supply. Grid flexibility will bring valuable benefits to householders through: Lowering electricity system costs – and therefore all of our energy bills. Allowing households to take part in demand flexibility provision by turning up/down their consumption to help balance t ..read more

Is pre-K investment about to boom? Investment into pre-K – edtech for under 5s – is taking off, with venture capital funding almost tripling in the last decade. Nesta Impact Investments continue to explore and invest in the pre-K sector. We used machine learning and data science to analyse key investment trends and identify where opportunities may lie. Here’s what we found: Investment into edtech for under-fives has grown 3.4x over the past ten years, and the UK is leading the way in Europe, behind the US globally Companies that produce entertainment and educational content for under-fives ar ..read more

Nesta Impact Investments recently led a £1.5 million investment into Q doctor, a platform that allows video consultations between patients and their healthcare providers. Below, Manish Miglani explains why now more than ever these digital technologies are helping the NHS to keep seeing patients across the UK.  Due to COVID-19, video calling or conferencing has become an essential part of our day to day lives. Many healthcare providers have also had to shift to remote working, seeing more patients across video calls or via the telephone.  Historically, the NHS has struggled with digit ..read more

#####TEXT##### The post DAJTEMU appeared first on Impact Investments ..read more

#####TEXT##### The post DAJTEMU appeared first on Impact Investments ..read more

#####TEXT##### The post DAJTEMU appeared first on Impact Investments ..read more

#####TEXT##### The post DAJTEMU appeared first on Impact Investments ..read more

How our investment teams are helping to level the venture capital playing field We are proud to announce that Nesta Impact Investments has been certified as a Level 2 Diversity VC Standard fund. Now we want to create even better outcomes for diverse founders and our investment teams. At Nesta, we want to make sure that the capital we invest is accessible to everyone, and that the companies we invest in are supported in the best possible ways. As has been shown by multiple reports, over the past 10 years, teams led by minoritised ethnic groups or female entrepreneurs have received a fraction of ..read more

Directors’ Responsibilities: Not Just a Free Lunch   Nathan Elstub  A long time ago I wrote a blog on board information as a guide to our team and for people we invest in to help them design effective information packs for boards.  This was intended to be one of a series of blogs on the topic of effective governance, the rest of which never got written.  I have now been prompted to correct this, so here goes with round 2 of the series – what is the purpose of a board and  why do we need directors in the first place? There are two interlinked answers to this questi ..read more