Partnering with VCCI’s Inclusive Growth Stream to Democratize VC to Underserved Canadians

The Ripple Ventures team is excited to announce that we have recently secured a $7.5M investment from the VCCI Inclusive Growth Stream into our Fund III alongside RBCx as a second anchor of our newest vehicle doing a final close at the end of this year. This comes from a portion of the $50M total allocation focused on enhancing access to venture capital for diverse fund managers and underrepresented Canadian entrepreneurs.

The support from the VCCI Inclusive Growth Stream is a stepping stone towards realizing our broader goals of democratizing access to education, networks, job opportunities, and funding. With this capital, we are able to continue to back underserved founders in our core portfolio and extend support through our distinguished RippleX Fellowship program, online course, and Fellow Fund. In collaboration with the Canadian government, we aim to broaden the reach of our online course that provides education on how to build venture-backable startups and how to become a VC for every university and college campus across the nation.

The Last Five Years

The RippleX journey commenced nearly five years ago and was a call to action to dismantle the barriers surrounding funding and access to venture capital jobs that stifle the potential of many gifted yet underrepresented entrepreneurs and aspiring venture capitalists.

Our flagship RippleX Fellowship Program, free online course & Fellow Fund has demonstrated the Ripple Effect, resulting in material impact for underserved student founders and aspiring VCs:

• Over $60 Million in VC funding has been raised to date by underrepresented founders after joining the RippleX program.
• Our program has helped over 75 underrepresented students, earn part-time or full-time venture capital roles post-program.
• 2,000+ students across 30 countries have enrolled in our free online course that is accessible to everyone. It has seen traction from folks beginning their career in tech to tech enthusiasts looking to get their start in venture.
• Fifteen cohorts have completed our flagship program, amassing a robust alumni base of 300+ individuals.
• Each cohort of our flagship program has maintained a minimum of 50% gender diversity and 90% ethnic diversity targets.
• The venture doesn’t stop here; our Fellow Fund is poised to back 20+ companies led by underrepresented founding teams in Fund III.

None of our success would have been possible without our amazing team. Our Ripple Ventures team is lucky to include RippleX Fellowship graduates who returned to work with us in full-time, part-time, and internship roles to continue their careers in venture capital and empower others. Our rigorous Analyst and Internship program provides underserved students the opportunity to pay it forward to others.

The investment team at Ripple Ventures reflects the essence of diversity, equity, and inclusion with ~80% ethnic diversity and ~70% gender diversity. This has attracted a higher proportion of founders from underserved backgrounds enabling us to host more inclusive events for the ecosystem. We would like to highlight our amazing team members who all currently work at Ripple and were hired out of the RippleX Program including:

• Nazuk Thakkar — Associate (Cohort 7 Alumni)
• Katie Ko — Analyst (Cohort 11 Alumni)
• Lydia Estreed — Analyst (Cohort 14 Alumni)
• CC Song — Analyst (Cohort 14 Alumni)
• We have also had great alumni complete our internship program including Isabelle Gan, Turja Chowdhury, Jay Lee, and Arielle Lok.

The Fellow Fund

Through the Fellow Fund, which focuses on investing $25–75K checks into underserved founders building within Ripple’s thesis areas (enterprise and devtools), we have already backed three Canadian startups with underserved student founders including:

• Artemis: Founded by Josh Gray (CEO) and William Shi (CTO), the company aims to create the fastest and most intelligent analytics experiences with data from across different sources. Read more about our investment here.
• WaivetheWait: Founded by Shreyansh Anand (CEO) and Tabassum Pasha (COO), WTW produces software plugins that empower clinics to optimize and automate patient communication to save doctors and clinic staff precious time. Read more about our investment here.
• Asepha: Founded by Eunice Wu (CEO)and Can Uncu (CTO), the duo is determined to revolutionize the way clinicians can reference literature and guidelines by using retrieval-augmented generation to provide succinct answers. Read more about our investment here.
• Through this initiative, the fund will target to invest in 20–25 companies through this strategy.

Partnering with Canada’s Largest Institutions

Our journey that commenced half a decade ago has garnered the backing from the largest Canadian and global institutions such as:

• The Royal Bank of Canada is our anchor LP in Fund III and a title sponsor of the RippleX Fellowship Program
• The Federal Government of Canada through VCCI’s Inclusive Growth Stream, as our second anchor LP in Fund III to create a more inclusive and equitable venture capital ecosystem
• WSGR (Wilson Sonsini) partnered with us to launch a RippleX module on term sheets to help student founders understand financing documents

We are very thankful and appreciative of the VCCI program for supporting us through this investment as it reaffirms our mission to create ripples of change by forging a more inclusive and equitable venture capital ecosystem in Canada.

Written by Dominic Lau, Partner at Ripple Ventures and Founder of the RippleX Fellowship Program.

Contact: dom@rippleventures.com

Link & Resources:

• Ripple Ventures: https://www.rippleventures.com/
• RippleX Fellowship: https://fellowship.rippleventures.com/
• Founders Seeking Funding: https://airtable.com/app7YM1KIxjnuyEAD/shrG0Gd8qTTb0Uko9
• Sponsor the Fellowship: https://airtable.com/shrhKh1uD85ZGEoBY
• Become an LP: https://form.typeform.com/to/DKF7SCfx?typeform-source=ripple-ventures.typeform.com