International Corporate Finance

INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE FINANCE 50 LEADERS

Leaders League. What made you shift

your career path, from consulting to

mainstream private equity and then to so-

cial business investment?

Machtelt Groothuis. While I had a great

time in strategy consulting, working from

the inside with many large and small com-

panies, shifting to PE enabled me to be in-

volved with a company for a longer period of

time and have real influence on how compa-

nies develop. It also helped me learn about

all aspects of doing business, not only strate-

gic but also finance, legal, fiscal, marketing,

sales and operations. But I got increasingly

disappointed with how investing in mains-

tream PE is still just about money, in spite of

the great influence you have on companies

as a PE/VC investor. I think this influence

is both a moral obligation and an opportu-

nity as I believe that making money and a

positive impact on society go together in the

long run. Through my old employer, McKin-

sey, I met Willemijn Verloop, who had set up

an innovative charity called War Child and

was working with social enterprises in the

Netherlands. Together we decided to set up

the first independent fund for social enter-

prises in the Netherlands.

Leaders League. What sets Social Impact

Ventures apart from other firms that sup-

port social entrepreneurs?

M.G. The most important thing that sets

Social IV apart is that we have a very expe-

rienced team and can provide both capital

and venture support. All five partners in

the team have highly complementary back-

grounds. They act as active partners to the

management teams, helping them achieve

their growth plans for example by finding

talent to augment their teams, and figuring

out impact reporting. Along with our own

team, we have a network of companies that

help us, partly pro bono, like McKinsey and

PWC.

Additionally, our fund is large enough to

help companies with follow-up financing

during their growth phases.

Leaders League. Just last month Social

Impact Ventures closed an additional

€19m for its Fund I. How hard is it to

raise money for an independent social

impact fund?

M.G. It took us two and a half years, if

that may be considered a measure of how

hard it is. We were very lucky to get the

support early on from a group of investors

who believed in the team and saw the need

and the opportunity in the Dutch market.

Our first closing of €11m was the basis to

start talking to larger investors like EIF.

Their due diligence process is very strict,

but at the same time they bring a lot of

knowledge about how similar funds in Eu-

rope operate.

One of the things our investors like is the

fact that the partners co-invest in the fund

through a social carried interest which is lin-

ked to both financial and impact targets. In

this way our interests really are aligned with

the fund.

Leaders League. If you could point out

the three most important things that so-

cial business funding needs right now,

what would they be?

M.G. For me, numbers one, two and three

would all be: more success stories about how

businesses aiming to provide solutions for

our society’s problems, become successful

both financially and in their impact mission.

More success stories like Greyston Bakeries

internationally and Tony’s Chocolonely and

Buurtzorg in the Netherlands are needed to

draw investors, and entrepreneurs, to the so-

cial business space.

Leaders League. Does Social Impact

Ventures plan to expand outside of the

Netherlands anytime soon?

M.G. Not for this fund. We do help our

companies with international expansion, but

we are focussing our investments on social

businesses in the Netherlands as we believe

our local presence is critical in providing the

type of support we give.

Social IV is the first independent fund for social enterprises in the Netherlands.

The company believes that the power of entrepreneurship can create solutions to the

social and environmental challenges that the world faces right now. It acts as a hands-on

investment partner, providing social enterprises with financial resources as well as

business support to help them achieve their social mission and financial goals.

OUR PARTNERS

CO-INVEST IN THE FUND

THROUGH A SOCIAL

CARRIED INTEREST

LINKED TO BOTH

FINANCIAL AND IMPACT

TARGETS

“Making money and a positive impact

on society go together in the long run”

MACHTELT GROOTHIUS

Co-Founder and Partner,

SOCIAL IMPACT VENTURES

EXPRESS BIO

(^) 1995: Started management consulting
as an associate at McKinsey and Company
(^) 2002: Took on the role of Investment
Manager at AlpInvest Partners, followed
by a short stint at Taros Capital
(^) 2006: Became director at 3i Group plc
(^) 2010: Was elected as a member of the
supervisory board at Unica, and in 2013
at Amsterdam Commodities
(^) 2014: Co-founded Social Impact Ventures
with Willemijn Verloop
€30 million
Total funds raised for Social IV Fund I
Startups
that Social IV Fund I has already invested in