Lumina Impact Ventures

An urgent social and economic challenge

For the United States to stay competitive, economists and labor-market experts say millions more people will require education beyond high school – education that prepares them for informed citizenship and success in a global economy.

Attracting new ideas and new capital to an urgent social challenge

The urgency of this looming talent deficit calls for innovation in how we take on pressing social and economic challenges. LIV expands the foundation’s efforts beyond grant investments to engage the private sector in ways that generate ideas, build knowledge, and attract new capital to create new learning opportunities for all.

Empowering entrepreneurs to create solutions that can scale and spread

LIV elevates entrepreneurs of color and those from low-income backgrounds while fostering a collaborative and founder-friendly ecosystem. Drawing from Lumina’s extensive networks, we make smart introductions and connect portfolio companies with trusted advisors and other non-financial resources they could not find elsewhere.

Talk to us

Our portfolio:

Impact Investments

Ecosystem Grants

In addition to direct equity investments in early-stage companies, LIV provides grant funding to organizations working to build the impact investing ecosystem and support underrepresented founders.

• Camelback Ventures – an accelerator focused on addressing inequities of entrepreneurship by providing coaching, capital, and connections to underrepresented entrepreneurs.
• New Profit — a leading accelerator with a long history and proven record of scaling high-impact nonprofit organizations.
• U.S. Impact Investing Alliance – a field-building organization committed to raising awareness of impact investing in the United States, fostering deployment of impact capital and working with stakeholders to help build the impact investing ecosystem.
• Village Capital – an accelerator that finds, trains, and invests in entrepreneurs solving real-world problems. (Lumina’s investment focused on entrepreneurs in education.)

An evolving foundation strategy

By leading the way on equity investments in promising, scalable technology-enabled solutions, LIV expands Lumina Foundation’s financial tools beyond traditional grant investments. With a focus on social and learning returns, along with expected financial returns, LIV draws from Lumina’s extensive networks to foster a collaborative impact investing ecosystem by initiating cross-sector discussions, shaping new financing practices, and identifying and bringing together strategic partners.