2023 called for celebration with the approval of our 21st investment for Alberts Impact Ventures. We have built a diversified portfolio spanning across four focus areas – equality, vibrant culture, healthy minds, and sustainable environment – reflecting our commitment to fostering positive impact, and proudly achieving a near equal gender split among our founders.
Ushering in five exceptional new startups, the Alberts Impact Ventures portfolio welcomed Harvest B, Mindset Health, Circle In, and Samphire Neuroscience, along with the addition of Future Group following the successful exit of our previous investment in Verve Super.
Investing for impact
Embracing the theme of equality, Circle In and its co-founders, Jodi Geddes and Kate Pollard, are committed to “creating a better world for working caregivers.” This involves equipping managers with tools to support their staff, fostering a culture of care at work, and providing caregivers with the resources to navigate their current roles.
Focusing on mental health and wellbeing, Mindset Health, co-founded by brothers Alex and Chris Naoumidis, is revolutionising healthcare as a hypnosis-based digital therapeutics company targeting chronic mental and physical health conditions. Similarly, Samphire Neuroscience, co-founded by Emilė Radytė and Alex Cook, is on a mission to be “a lifelong partner to every woman across her lifecycle health needs”, with their neural stimulation headband addressing PMS, food cravings and period pain.
Highlighting our environment and sustainability focus area, Harvest B, co-founded by Kristi Riordan and Alfred Lo, develops, manufactures and combines multi-protein sources to offer affordable and healthy protein alternatives to meat, accelerating the planet’s transition to a sustainable food system.
Harvest B co-founders Alfred Lo and Kristi Riordan.
2023 also saw us further our support for ULUU, with a follow-on investment in the seaweed company. Co-founded by Michael Kingsbury and Julia Reisser, ULUU is creating a new biomaterial to replace plastic, and boasts a carbon-negative production process and marine crop that aids in removing pollutants from the ocean.
Leading the charge
This year, Alberts Impact Ventures initiated the reporting of gender equality statistics across all stages of our investment process, as part of the new Equity Clear initiative. Launched by Alberts in 2022 in collaboration with Scale Investors and Giant Leap, it sets a standard for gender reporting among Australian VC companies, with the aim of closing the gender parity gap. Since inception, nearly 50 local VC firms have joined us in promoting transparency on gender equality, as well as in building support for greater investment in female-identifying founders. Equity Clear, spearheaded by Alberts investment manager Lisa Fedorenko alongside Samar Mcheileh of Scale Investors and Rachel Yang of Giant Leap, earned the trio a mention on Fortune’s 2023 Change the World list for their dedication to advancing equality.
Inaugural founder retreat
In October, Alberts hosted its inaugural founders’ retreat – a testament to the collaborative spirit that defines our portfolio. Over two days, 24 founders and co-founders from Alberts 20 portfolio companies spanning Australia and the world came together for a series of enriching talks, workshops, a mini-Great Australian Race, yoga, numerous communal meals and drinks, providing a well-deserved opportunity to unwind in the beautiful harbourside surrounds of Q Station Manly. Esteemed guest speakers included Katherine McConnell, founder and CEO of green energy unicorn, Brighte, who shared her insights into her founder journey; Ed Cowan, investment team member at TDM Growth Partners and former Australian cricketer, who spoke on the importance of culture to a company’s success; Simon Neaverson of Govern Right, who spoke on the A-Z of governance; and Emily Albert, Alberts executive director, who shared why impact and ensuring positive ESG (environmental, social, and governance) is paramount.
Executive Director, Emily Albert, presenting at our inaugural Founder Retreat.
Winning formula
We celebrate the significant recognition garnered by our portfolio companies in 2023. Some standout achievements include Conserving Beauty’s Natassia Nicolao taking home the Victorian Accelerating Women award at w Telstra’s Best of Business Awards; Harvest B’s Kirsti Riordan receiving the Excellence in Manufacturing trophy at the Women in Industry Awads; and Verve Super’s CEO, Christina Hobbs, won Founder of the Year in the Women in Digital’s 2023 Awards, while Verve Money won for Best Social Impact Innovation at the Finder Awards, which also honoured Amber’s Dr Aleksis Xenophon with the Innovator Champion Award.
RapidAIM placed first at Bayer’s Grants4Tech Pest Monitoring Challenge in their category and won Best Founder at the Australian AgriTech Awards, while Tixel’s UK team won Best Ticketing Technology at the UK Event Technology Awards. Samphire Neuroscience won innovation of the year at the Women’s Health Innovation Summit Europe and the Lithuanian Award for best EU Investment in Modern Medicine. Meanwhile, MGA Thermal received a Top 10 Gold Award in The Australian Manufacturing Forum’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers, as well as the Business Hunter Award for Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion.
It is also a source of great pride to witness many of our portfolio companies named among The Australian newspaper’s Top 100 Innovator list for 2023, including Circle In, Tixel, MGA Thermal, ULUU, and Mindset Health. And a shoutout to Alberts investment manager, Lisa Fedorenko, who was nominated by the local climate tech community for Investor of the Year at Climate Salad’s Australian Climate Tech Awards.
As we look ahead, we will be continuing our support of founders driving purposeful expansion and development. Our ongoing commitment includes additional follow-on investments in the pipeline, and plans are in place to further invest in and champion pioneers addressing the most pressing issues, with six additional investments slated for finalisation in 2024.
