Mercy Corps Ventures

Entrepreneurs around the world are deploying disruptive business models and transformative technologies to solve the biggest challenges of our time. Simultaneously, we believe that the next generation of highly-scalable and commercially successful startups will evolve in emerging markets to confront these challenges. However, they are often undercapitalized and don’t have access to the resources they need for their ventures to survive.

We’re an impact-first, early-stage investor, using catalytic capital and targeted support to fuel startups growth and help them realize their vision. Founded in 2015 as the venture capital arm of global development agency, Mercy Corps, we’ve supported 32+ ventures to scale and raise over $125 million in follow-on capital. Our portfolio centers around solutions that build climate resilience and financial resilience in frontier markets, so that people have the agency and dignity to withstand disruption, plan for the future, and thrive. Through targeted support, strategic collaborations, and insight sharing, we further catalyze the ecosystem towards smarter, more impactful investments.

In order to help people join the global economy and lift themselves out of poverty, we advance emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions that accelerate global financial inclusion. We partner with companies to pilot the application of distributed ledgers, digital assets, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain tools to provide reliable and direct access to financial services for un/underbanked populations.

Mercy Corps Ventures also managed the Innovation Investment Alliance, a funding collaborative between USAID’s Global Development Lab and the Skoll Foundation that granted over $50 million to eight, proven social enterprises and generated the Scaling Pathways series with insights on how to scale social impact.