This article is part of a series by Ananda Impact Ventures Co-Founder Johannes Weber called “Make it matter” — Confessions of a founder Finally, I’m back in my bed in Munich. From here, when the night falls, I can hear lions roaring in the zoo nearby. We all need these wind-down times, the feeling of being safe, of belonging to something bigger. …

Interview with Sonia Allinson-Penny — Sonia, what does ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ (D&I) mean? D&I means embracing differences genuinely. You can have a diverse workforce, but if you are not genuinely embracing your diverse workforce, you are not being “inclusive”. It’s about not gravitating towards what you are familiar with, becoming at ease with difference and…

Zoe Peden’s personal story on becoming a Partner at Ananda Impact Ventures — In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck. — Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Hope New partner announcements at venture capital firms happen all the time, but encouragingly, it’s female partners who are increasingly celebrated. There are 60 female VC partners in the UK according to Sifted in…

This article is part of a series by Ananda Impact Ventures Co-Founder Johannes Weber called “Make it matter” — Equine metaphors It’s early evening in vibrant and entrepreneurial Prenzlauer Berg, and I’m sitting here with my Berlin team. We’re sipping pineapple juices, resisting our bartender’s desire to sell us something more alcoholic because two of our investment managers are breastfeeding. He lets us get away with it. This area…

A conversation with Tom Hooper, CEO & Founder of Third Space Learning — Tom, Third Space Learning (TSL) was transitioning from a start-up into a scale-up over the last years. How did the scaling journey unfold for you? There are many pains in the growth journey. We made two mistakes during our transition: We didn’t embrace the fact that school budgets were increasingly…

A conversation with Dr. Andy Blackwell & Dr. Valentin Tablan, IESO Digital Health — In the past 4 years, IESO has been undergoing a transformation from a technology enabled cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) provider to a much more ambitious AI-based solution. Does this journey surpass your wildest dreams? Andy: Actually, it has been a long-term vision of ours to build a massively scalable solution…

A conversation with Thomas Grübler, OroraTech — Thomas, OroraTech launched its very first nanosatellite called FOREST-1 in January 2022, congratulations. Did everything go as smoothly as expected? Yes, the nanosatellite is up in space, and everything is working well. We have demonstrated the capacity to build a highly miniaturized thermal infrared imager with an efficient cost-per-picture ratio…