California Management Review
California Management Review is a premier academic management journal published at UC Berkeley
by Jennifer Walske and Laura D. Tyson
This case centers on BV as it seeks to raise $20 million for its first standalone fund between 2014 and 2016. Wes Selke and Rick Moss, the two BV co-founders, had built their experience in impact investing when they founded and managed Hub Ventures (HV) (a smaller accelerator-type fund of $500,000) immediately prior to founding BV. Encouraged by the economic return and social impact from those early-stage, mission-driven HV investments, both Selke and Moss decided in late 2014 to raise a separate and much larger fund called Better Ventures Fund II (BVFII). This new fund would allow BV to make larger initial investments in its early stage portfolio companies and provide the needed capital to make add-on investments in subsequent financing rounds. The case discusses the challenges of raising capital for this new fund as well as BV's investment and impact theses, deal sourcing, and post-investment approach. The case eventually explores the next steps for BV, after successfully raising this first-time fund.
Pub Date: Dec 31, 2016
Discipline: Social Enterprise
Subjects: Finance, Entrepreneurship, Venture capital, Corporate social responsibility, Green business
Product #: B5882-PDF-ENG
Industry: Venture capital,Finance & insurance
Geography: California
Length: 24 page(s)
