Social ventures balance profitability with an impact mission to delivery positive social, environmental, or cultural change.
What are social ventures?
Academic and student founders often seek equitable, sustainable ways to translate their research into real-world impact. Operating outside the university provides greater freedom and access to diverse funding options. Founders are often motivated by their values rather than profit, ensuring their venture remains mission-aligned as it grows.
We’ve helped social ventures thrive in Humanities, Social Sciences, Medicine, Science and Engineering. The products of our social ventures range from medical devices and technology through to social service delivery and training.
OUI leads ImpactU, a collective of UK universities working collaboratively to support and raise awareness of mission-driven businesses emerging from our ecosystems.
OUI sources and screens a pipeline of investable, research-led social ventures and encourages co-investment from impact investors. Our social ventures are almost always research-backed interventions where the idea has been tested, peer-reviewed and shown to work, and they are looking to scale up delivery of that intervention more widely.
Get in touch to find out about investment opportunities
