Slides from our October 28th webinar with Dr. James Tansey and Jana Svedova on UBC's Impact Investing and Seed Fund Strategy.

1. Fuelling Social Innovation and
Entrepreneurship in Higher Education

2. Impact Investing @ UBC
James Tansey, Executive Director
Jana Svedova, Director Impact Investing
Centre for Social Innovation & Impact Investing

3. Centre for Social Innovation & Impact Investing (S3i)
• Founded in 2009
• Objective: leverage business tools to advance social
innovation and sustainability through research and
application
• Focus on three stages of the innovation process: invention,
incubation, investment
• Activities: research, training, and practice
• Core team of 5, fellowships, internships
• Coast Capital Savings Innovation Hub accelerator
• Impact investing program launched 2013

4. Impact Investing at S3i
• Began with an exploration of the space, opportunities
and challenges and where S3i could contribute
• Publication: “Demystifying Impact Investing”
• Challenges:
• Funders – lack of access to information, desire to engage
but not actively making investments
• Pacific Impact Investor Network
• Early stage funding – early risk capital for ventures, pipeline
for investors
• Impact Seed Fund at UBC

5. entrepreneurship@UBC
• Supporting UBC entrepreneurs from idea to funding
• Open office
• Accelerator program – 5 week lean launchpad
• Startup space
• e@UBC SEED fund
• Aspect biosystems: 3D printing of human tissues
• Target Tape: surgical tape
• Elix: wireless electrical power transfer

6. e@UBC Impact Seed Fund
• Modeled on e@UBC SEED fund
• Seed capital for impact ventures from UBC community
• UBC/e@UBC
• S3i/Coast Capital Savings Innovation Hub
• Structure:
• UBC Management Inc, wholly owned by UBC
• Board of Directors
• Investment Committee
• Funding from donors to University, returns reinvested

7. e@UBC Impact Seed Fund
• Why a philanthropic fund?
• Still difficult for ventures (impact and traditional) to raise
seed funding
• High risk for funders
• No tax incentive to fund impact ventures
• Philanthropic fund enables funders to use philanthropic
capital to seed ventures
• “Pioneer gap” (Monitor Group/Acumen), Catalytic capital
• Need for catalytic capital is recognized in the start-up
sector
• Tax incentives (ex. BC Venture Capital Tax Credit)

8. e@UBC Impact Seed Fund
• Funding component of full range of support for
social innovation at UBC
• Curriculum: entrepreneurship 101, new venture design,
social entrepreneurship
• Student engagement: Chasing sustainability/Net Impact,
UBC SE Club, ARC Initiative, Sauder Africa, CBEL
(Changemaker showcase)
• Internships: Sauder S3i (impact investing/iHub)
• e@UBC Lean launchpad (mpact ventures)
• CCS Innovation Hub/Sauder S3i

9. Impact Fund moving forward
• Fall 2015 – fundraising
• 3 million by 2018
• 2016 – begin funding, pipeline examples:
• Arbutus Medical – low cost surgical drills
• Tapp Global – affordable, self-cleaning water filter
• Wize Monkey – coffee leaf tea

10. UBC Impact Seed Fund
Questions?
jana.svedova@sauder.ubc.ca
SauderS3i.sauder.ubc.ca
@SauderS3i