Page 53 - Powerlist 2020

X men and women: L-R Ezechi Britton,
Yvonne Bajela, Eric Collins, Erica Motley
and Paula Groves

INVESTING

FOR IMPACT

bottom line is absolutely critical. is only as good as its investment team.
IMPACT X Investors who believe, as we believe, The team powering Impact X is among
INVESTMENT TEAM that the people who are going to come the strongest I have ever seen.”
CEO - Eric Collins up with the next big products, services Sir Lenny Henry, Impact X’s second
Chair, Impact X Investment and business models are going to be Vice-Chair said, “Under-represented
Committee – Ric Lewis inclusive. And that’s where the next innovation is found in many categories
AirBnB or the next Uber is going to and not isolated to technology
General Partner – Paula Groves
(UK and Silicon Valley) come from.” companies which get much of the
The idea of Impact X itself came press. Impact X is using similar diligence
Principal – Yvonne Bajela
from a defining spring meeting among and valuation modelling to invest in
Principal and CTO-in-Residence the black “great and good” of the UK creative innovators alongside digital
Ezechi Britton
who had connected via the Powerlist. companies.”
Creative Partner – Erica Motley They agreed annual fundraising and So far, Groves has been “blown away”
(UK and Paris)
grant-making was not a sustainable by the calibre of the talent and the ideas
model and decided Impact X was the Impact X has uncovered. These include
good. And that is the training that I permanent solution to the problem. black female scientists working on
have always had throughout my entire Powerlist 2019 number one Ric technology to impact satellites in space
life. The standards by which we make Lewis is Impact X’s Chair. Explaining and improve the quality of sound on our
our investment decisions and by which why he took on the role, he said: “I am mobile phones.
we coach and train entrepreneurs are increasingly impatient and motivated to She says the impact on the younger
born out of Silicon Valley. Because take on the problems that others only generation will be immeasurable and
if you can’t meet the Silicon Valley discuss, to reframe those challenges believes, as do the rest of the team, that
standards then are you really going to as business opportunities and to pool their work will leave a lasting legacy
be successful in the long term?” specialised resources to drive results; because they are tangibly levelling the
Since its quiet inception almost a to execute and repeat. To leverage the playing field for the under-represented.
year ago, Impact X has identified over opportunity, Eric Collins has recruited “Being a part of a society where
400 under-represented companies, a world class roster of people to both you don’t feel like you’re a second
vetted businesses with current funding found and back Impact X and to class citizen is what we’re all trying to
opportunities in excess of £300m and comprise its talented investment team.” achieve,” she says.
invested in nine of what they say are Business veteran, Ursula Burns, “Knowing that you don’t have to wait
Europe’s most promising innovative Impact X’s Vice Chair, is the former for someone else, and that you can
ventures. And their doors are open to head of Xerox and was the first black create your own opportunities and be
people who want to invest. woman to run a Fortune 500 company. in charge of your own destiny... that is, I
Collins says, “We are looking for She said, “A fund is sustainable only if think, the core of what it means to have
investors who believe that the double it can deliver returns. Therefore, a fund a happy life.”

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