Empower your community: become an Ada Ventures Scout
Earlier this year, we announced the launch of the second cohort of our Ada Angels. Today, we are delighted to be re-opening the Ada Scout application process.
The Ada Scout program is one of the central tenets to the Ada Ventures inclusive investing strategy. The Ada Scouts in our current cohort have helped us to deliver on our thesis and find and fund founders with breakthrough ideas solving the hardest problems that we face. In return, the Ada Scouts have received a financial incentive, direct, exclusive access to a venture fund, and some have gone on to be investors in UK and European funds (more details below).
In our first fund, 9 out of the 28 companies (32%) we invested in were referred to us by Ada Scouts. This translates to £45,000 being paid to individual Ada Scouts in referral fees, and each Ada Scout being entitled to 10% of carried interest generated by that investment (more details below). For more info on how venture returns work, please see here.
The Ada Scouts also helped us to reach, at seed stage*:
- 10 times more all-female teams than the UK benchmark;
- 6 times more all-Black teams than the UK benchmark; and
- 2 time more all-‘Other’ ethnicity/race teams than the UK benchmark.
*These are the results of a research program we did with the University College London (UCL) Behavioral Insights Exchange (BIX)program, summarized in this article.
Ada Ventures Fund II was launched at the end of 2022, and we are on track to invest in an equal proportion of Ada Scout sourced investments compared to Fund I: 30% of the companies we have invested in, or in the process of investing in for Fund II, are Ada Scout referrals, including Blakbear. Read more about why we invested here.
So, what’s the difference between an Ada Angel and an Ada Scout?
When we launched the first Ada Ventures fund in 2019, we had an Ada Scout community of around 10 scouts. Since then, this community has grown to close to 100 members, the majority of whom are leaders of minoritized groups in UK tech and VC.
We wanted the Ada Scout network to empower these individuals to (a) have direct access to a venture capital fund where they otherwise wouldn’t and (b) champion the founders and operators in their communities and help them to find funding. Through referrals by Ada Scouts, we would be able to find and fund the most extraordinary founders solving the hardest problems that we face.
Who are we looking for as an Ada Scout?
We are looking for people who:
- Are actively involved in a community of underrepresented tech talent in the UK and Northern Europe; and
- Have access to very early stage companies in any one (or more) of our sectors of Climate Equity, Economic Empowerment and Healthcare and Ageing.
We welcome applications from anyone who fit the above criteria to be an Ada Scout. However, we are also specifically recruiting Ada Scouts who:
- are based outside of London; and/or
- identify with being in, or are leading in, a community of potential founders from a demographic that is minoritised in tech & VC, including in terms of: gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation (LGBTQ+), religion / culture, disability or neurodiversity, age group and socioeconomic status.
What we invest in
We invest into pre-seed and seed stage companies which are based in, or have strong links to, the UK.
Please read more about our thesis here: LINK
What you get as an Ada Scout
If we invest into a company brought to us by an Ada Scout, you will receive a £5,000 finder’s fee and 10% of the fund’s carried interest (profit share) in the company (if any). Carried interest will only be payable if the investment generates 5x and the fund is paying carry.
You will also be part of a large (& growing!) community of Ada Scouts, including a calendar of events covering things like: how to assess a pitch deck, investing in tech bio, questions to ask founders in first meetings, investing in AI. These are held online and/or in person. You will also have access to the custom training program we have built over the past four years.
Application Process
Please complete the application form linked here.
We are reviewing applications every 3 months, so you will hear from us by these dates if you apply by 30 March, 30 June, 30 September or 31 December in each year.
Depending on numbers of applicants, we may revise this timeline and will try to get back to you sooner.
We will be selecting applicants by scoring your application based on:
(1) the strength of your community / network and where our scout community has gaps currently, i.e.:
- what is your involvement with your community / network of minoritised groups in UK tech and VC; and
- the number of people / prospective founders in your community; and
(2) your access to potential founders in our three sectors of Climate Equity, Economic Empowerment and Healthcare & Ageing.
(3) In the application form, we ask that you tell us which minoritised groups are represented by your community, including women, transgender or non-binary folk, disabled people, ethnic/racial minorities, the older generation, sexual orientation, low socioeconomic status or minority religious groups. This will have some influence over Ada Scout selection as we curate the Ada Scout community to try and reach underrepresented groups in tech and VC. This will not be the sole criteria for selecting Ada Scouts.
If you are shortlisted, we ask that you do a 15-minute call with a member of our investment team as a final step in the selection process.
If you are unsuccessful, we will share your scores with you but unfortunately we will not be able to provide any further feedback. Please do sign up to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to keep up to date on more opportunities as they come up.
Interested? Please fill in the application form here. If you don’t hear from us by the dates specified above, please double check your junk/spam inbox.
We’d be delighted to hear from you!
