Australia's Giant Leap closes second impact fund with $30m

A first close of AUD 15m came in August 2021. NRMA Insurance is the cornerstone investor, supported by unnamed foundations and family offices.

There were also several individual investors, including venture capitalist Roger Allen, Mark Joiner, chairman of QBI Insurance’s Australia business, and Kate Morris, co-founder of Glow Capital Partners.

Giant Leap was founded in 2016 by Rachel Yang, Will Richardson, and Adam Milgrom (pictured, left to right) with a focus on sustainability, health and wellbeing, and empowering people.

Richardson is a former head of impact at CVC Venture Managers, one of Australia’s first VC players, and serves as managing partner. Yang, a partner, is an equity investment advisor for the Victoria state government and a former chair of Startup Victoria. Milgrom is a director at Future Super, a superannuation fund, and Tripple, a family office.

Giant Leap defines an impact start-up as an early-stage business that is high-growth, technology-enabled and with a business model that inherently links every dollar of revenue to measurable positive social or environmental outcomes.

“This is all in line with our belief that investing with purpose leads to greater returns. The companies we work with have an unfair advantage over their competitors due to their ability to win both talent and recognition for their broader contribution to society and the environment,” Richardson said in a statement.

“We're continually inspired by the work that's going on aboard. But I also believe Australia has come a long way in the past five years regarding its contribution to the impact investing trend. Closing this fund is yet more proof that this is fast becoming a mainstream means of investing - and society and the environment will stand to benefit from that.”

Giant Leap said it reviewed about 1,000 impact start-ups in 2022, up from 861 in 2021 despite a broad decline in the domestic VC space. Standout investments from Fund II include More Good Days, a psychology-based pain management service that received funding from Blackbird Ventures in March. The plan is to build out the portfolio to about 25 start-ups in the next five years.

The firm claims that to date its portfolio has diverted 1,103 tonnes from landfill, saved the healthcare system AUD 42.4m, and helped 2,503 people due to reduced bias in the hiring process or improved access to employment. There is also a commitment to ensure that at least 55% of the portfolio consists of women-led companies.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Fundraising
• Venture
• GPs
• Australia
• Impact investment
• Giant Leap
• Fundraising