Dear Impact Engine Community:

This morning, we announced the launch of a new $10 million impact fund, which will work to support and scale early-stage technology companies dedicated to improving education, health, economic empowerment, and resource efficiency in Chicago and around the world.

From our earliest days as an accelerator, we have always believed that many big social and environmental challenges in the world are also big market opportunities, and that supporting the most promising early-stage impact entrepreneurs with our time and money is one of the best things we can do to leverage capital for social good.

We have also learned along the way that we can be a valuable partner to investors and mentors who are intrigued by the idea that every investment dollar has an impact on society, and who want to be more intentional about making those impacts positive.

Most importantly, we have been able to bring these talented and passionate impact entrepreneurs, investors, and mentors together, creating an incredibly special community which has become an anchor in the growing impact investing movement. Chicago, with its long history of civic engagement, has been the perfect place to grow from.

I personally invested in Impact Engine at the very beginning and joined full-time as CEO in 2014 because of this promise—that together this community could become the base of something even greater.

With your support and participation, we have taken the next step together toward a better form of capitalism, where solely getting a financial return is not good enough. Today’s challenges require us to seek positive social and environmental returns as well.

Thank you for helping us get here. I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish next, together.

All the best,

Jessica Droste Yagan, Partner + CEO