Mountside Ventures becomes a B Corp
In an effort to help build a more resilient and transparent venture capital and startup ecosystem that better serves all stakeholders, we are proud to announce that we have been certified as a B Corporation® (B Corp), the gold standard for responsible businesses.
As the first early-stage fundraising advisory firm in Europe to become a B Corp, we are excited to join a growing group of companies pursuing purpose, as well as profit.
This prestigious certification, issued by the B Corp movement, means we have met rigorous social and environmental standards and recognises our commitment to accountability and transparency.
What is a B Corp?
The B Corp Certification is awarded to companies that meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability. It is a symbol of trust that underscores our commitment to using business as a force for good.
It addresses all of a company’s operations and covers five key impact areas across Governance, Workers, Community, Environment and Customers. The certification process is rigorous, where applicants are required to reach a benchmark score of over 80 while providing evidence of socially and environmentally responsible practices relating to energy supplies, waste and water use, worker compensation, diversity and corporate transparency. To complete the certification, companies also need to legally embed their commitment to purpose beyond profit in their articles.
Over 8,000 businesses worldwide have been certified as B Corps. The community in the UK represents a broad cross-section of industries and stages, with over 2,000 companies, including VCs such as Felix Capital and Octopus Ventures; and brands such as The Guardian, Innocent and Abel & Cole.
Our B Corp journey
As an ICAEW member firm and having set up the firm alongside two co-founders from the Big Four, we were fortunate that much of the governance best practices were already built into our DNA — with trust being a critical factor in our way of working.
Further, when we started the firm, transparency was at the core of our vision — we wanted to make the fundraising market more transparent and bring more efficiency to one of the biggest pain points facing founders and investors (VCs fundraise too!).
Therefore, although the process was time-consuming, taking us over a year to ensure we met the strict requirements, it was a lot less difficult than it could’ve been.
Becoming a Certified B Corp is an important next step in our journey, not only to continue making a positive impact on the European tech ecosytem, but to join a group of companies advocating for a positive impact on society and the environment.
Our commitment to Excellence and Impact
At Mountside Ventures, we believe that business can be a powerful force for positive change and the B Corp certification strongly aligns with our values and mission. We are excited to have joined a global community of businesses that are committed to redefining success in business and striving to create value for society, balancing profit with purpose.
Following a year of learning and feedback with the B Corp team, I am incredibly proud to have become one of the first B Corp™ certified early stage fundraising advisory firms in Europe.
Our goal has always been to accelerate the growth of the next generation of founders and funds who are making a positive impact on the world. This certification is a strong testament to our commitment to social responsibility and I look forward to leveraging our fundraising expertise to drive positive change.
Becoming a B Corp allows us to showcase our transparent processes and mission-orientated objectives, giving our clients and other stakeholders reassurance that we have their long-term interests at heart.
Our impact so far includes:
- Equipping under-represented founders through our free fundraising accelerators, focused on female and ethnic minority-led businesses, to close their pre-seed and seed rounds more efficiently.
The fundraising programme is like nothing I’ve come across before. It’s a crash course on every step of the fundraising journey, provided by experts who are fully plugged in to the investment landscape. I would recommend it to any founder no matter what stage they are at. Aadit Shankar, Founder, Atcha
- Advising startups driving positive change and empowering founders to close quicker with more strategic investors and on better terms;
As technical founders, we needed trusted experts to help guide us through the institutional investment process, which was completely new to us. Mountside’s experience and expertise across all aspects of the investment process, from prep through to negotiating heads of terms, was invaluable and always delivered in a friendly and professional way. Paul Chorley, Co-founder, AutomatePro
- Educating Family Offices on investing in tech through our VC Academy;
The Family Office VC Academy was a triumph. Even for a relatively experienced ex VC fund manager and serial venture investor like myself, the content was fresh and enlightening, the panels, great people sharing rich experience & knowledge and the other attendees were like-minded serious investors. Nigel Meir, SFO
- Working with forward-thinking Limited Partners in identifying and assessing the next generation of emerging managers;
Mountside has an exceptional network of VCs & top-tier LPs, alongside leading industry voices. Their platform provides the basis to allow sophisticated parties to meaningfully engage in connections to further enhance the ecosystem. Naureen Zahid, OpenOcean
- Promoting transparency in an opaque private market by sharing best practices through the publication of industry-first reports such as our Term Sheet guide, our VC Fund-of-Fund report last year and our upcoming Corporate VC report being published next week, empowering both founders and funds.
I can see this Term Sheet report becoming a staple of founder education in the market, Chris Smith, Managing Partner, Playfair Capital
- Making our fundraising resources freely accessible to all founders including the latest investor database of angel networks and VCs investing in European founders, fundraising templates and guides on types of investors.
- Striving for more accountability in the early-stage advisory market, which is full of unregulated brokers, charlatans and individuals charging hefty retainers to early-stage companies whilst pursuing an ineffective spray-and-pray strategy with investors, doing more harm than good with early-stage founders.
The Mountside team understand the ecosystem well, give sage and well grounded advice and are very well connected. Richard Anton, General Partner, Oxx
Next Steps
The journey is by no means over. In fact, we’re only just getting started!
We will set ambitious goals for the future, including improving the way we measure our impact, continuing to work with founders, investors & lenders who are striving towards positive change, and sharing best practices with the industry.
Our hope is that our journey can inspire other Venture Capital funds, Limited Partners, Lenders and Startups to focus on purpose, as well as profits, and together we will make a more equitable, sustainable and successful future for all.
About B Lab UK:
B Lab UK is transforming the economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet. A leader in economic systems change, their global network creates standards, policies, and tools for business, and they certify companies — known as B Corps — who are leading the way. To date, their global community includes over 8,000 B Corps in 96 countries and 162 industries, and over 150,000 companies manage their impact with the B Impact Assessment and the SDG Action Manager.
About Mountside Ventures
Mountside Ventures is Europe’s leading accelerator and award-winning early-stage advisory firm, on a mission to optimise the fundraising process for founders and funds and be their first point of call.
🌱 For pre-seed and seed startups, we run free fundraising accelerator programmes.
🚀 For Series A and Series B companies, we provide interim CFO and fundraising support, enabling founders to raise their next round of funding faster, with a more strategic investor and significantly less time spent by management.
💰 For VCs, we provide warm introductions to vetted, relevant and investor-ready companies raising their pre-seed to Series B round of funding, and through our LP conferences & roundtables, connect them to Family Offices & Limited Partners.
🤝 For LPs and Family Offices, we identify best-in-class emerging venture capital firms raising their next funds and provide best-in-class educational workshops.
