Circular Economy

Ashoka is one of the world’s leading organizations supporting social entrepreneurs. Founded in 1980, Ashoka pioneered the concept of social entrepreneurship and has built a global network of changemakers working to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Through its flagship Ashoka Fellows program, the organization identifies and supports high-impact entrepreneurs with funding, mentorship, and a powerful global network. Ashoka’s broader mission is to create a world where everyone is a changemaker, embedding social innovation across education, business, and civil society.

Better Ventures is an early-stage impact venture capital firm investing in founders building solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The firm backs companies across climate, health, circular economy, PropTech, and sustainable consumer sectors, with a focus on scalable technologies that deliver measurable impact. Operating with an “impact + return” philosophy, Better Ventures supports entrepreneurs not just with capital, but with access to a curated network of operators, angels, and advisors. The firm positions founders as the drivers of change, helping them scale companies that generate both financial returns and meaningful environmental and social outcomes.

Beyond Impact is an impact investment firm focused on accelerating the transition to a more sustainable, animal-free economy. Founded in 2017, the firm backs companies developing alternatives to animal-based products across food, materials, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods. The firm’s mission centers on building a “kinder, cleaner, healthier world” by investing in scalable businesses that reduce environmental damage, eliminate animal suffering, and improve human health. Its portfolio targets high-growth sectors such as plant-based foods, alternative proteins, and next-generation biomaterials.

Circular Valley is a Germany-based innovation ecosystem and startup accelerator dedicated to accelerating the global transition to a circular economy. Often described as the "Silicon Valley of the Circular Economy," the organization brings together startups, corporations, research institutions, governments, and investors to commercialize circular innovations across manufacturing, materials, construction, energy, mobility, textiles, packaging, food systems, and industrial technologies. Through its Circular Economy Accelerator, Circular Valley provides mentorship, corporate partnerships, pilot opportunities, investor access, and a global network to help early-stage companies scale technologies that reduce waste, improve resource efficiency, and enable circular value chains. Since launching its accelerator, the organization has supported 178 startups from 45 countries that have collectively raised more than €350 million in follow-on funding.

Circulate Capital is a leading impact investment firm dedicated to accelerating the circular economy in high-growth markets. The firm invests in companies building resilient circular supply chains, with an initial focus on plastics and expanding into broader circular economy solutions. By partnering with multinational corporations, institutional investors, development finance institutions, and entrepreneurs, Circulate Capital finances businesses that reduce waste, increase recycling infrastructure, improve resource efficiency, and generate measurable environmental and social outcomes alongside competitive financial returns.

Climentum Capital is a European venture capital firm investing in early-stage climate hard tech companies driving the sustainable reindustrialization of Europe. The firm backs B2B technologies addressing emissions and resource constraints across energy, industry, infrastructure, and supply chains. Climentum focuses on companies moving from early commercialization toward industrial scale, providing capital and operational support for hardware, deep tech, and first-of-a-kind deployments. Its portfolio spans seven European countries and includes companies working across industrial decarbonization, energy systems, resilient supply chains, and climate infrastructure.

Closed Loop Partners is a leading investment firm dedicated to accelerating the transition to a circular economy. The firm innovates, invests, and operates to build the circular economy, focusing on optimizing supply chains, advancing natural resource efficiency, and driving economic value. With over a decade of experience, Closed Loop Partners has kept over $7.5 billion worth of materials in circulation through their investments and engaged with more than 50 corporations across the firm. The firm is comprised of three key business segments: Closed Loop Capital Management (their investment group managing venture capital, private equity, and catalytic capital & private credit strategies), the Closed Loop Center for the Circular Economy (an innovation center helping businesses solve material challenges), and Closed Loop Builders (an operating group that incubates, builds, and scales circular economy infrastructure and solutions across the U.S.). Based in New York, their team includes former industry CEOs, CFOs, senior executives of government agencies, and fund managers with an average of 20+ years of operational and investment experience.

Collaborative Fund is a leading venture capital firm established in 2010 that backs entrepreneurs pushing the world forward. The fund operates at the intersection of for-profit and for-good, supporting companies across five main sectors: Consumer, AI, Money, Health, and Energy. Their portfolio includes notable companies like Lyft, Reddit, Sweetgreen, Impossible Foods, and Commonwealth Fusion Systems. The firm focuses on identifying and supporting businesses that combine financial returns with positive social and environmental impact, investing in category-defining brands and transformative technologies that address major challenges facing society.

Fashion for Good operates as a platform for collaborative innovation that unites the fashion ecosystem to transform and build a regenerative industry. They focus on fostering collaboration and facilitating connections to bring innovative solutions to the forefront, with particular emphasis on next-generation materials, tier 2 decarbonization, footwear circularity, textile waste, and transparency and traceability. Their mission centers on creating a comprehensive platform that enables innovation scouting, collaborative validation, and commercialization and scaling of sustainable fashion solutions. They operate by continuously tracking emerging innovative solutions, facilitating joint testing between brands, innovators and suppliers to validate performance and impact, and co-creating commercial models that address key scaling barriers. Fashion for Good has established itself as a significant force in the sustainable fashion ecosystem, having scouted over 3,500 innovators and supported 187 of them through their innovation pipeline. Their platform approach has generated substantial impact with over €2.31 billion in capital committed and 421 implementation cases, demonstrating their ability to bridge the gap between innovation and market adoption in the fashion industry.

Regeneration.VC is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage Consumer ClimateTech startups focused on driving the circular economy through sustainable innovation in materials, consumer products, and carbon solutions. The firm specifically targets climate-focused companies that are working to transform unsustainable consumption models and create regenerative value chains. Their mission is to regenerate consumer industry value chains to meet planetary boundaries, recognizing that humanity currently consumes nearly twice what Earth can replenish and that 7 of the 9 planetary boundaries have been transgressed. They operate with a theory of change centered on transforming the "take-make-waste" consumption model that drives climate change and biodiversity loss by investing in solutions that enable circular and regenerative approaches. Regeneration.VC matters in the impact ecosystem because they take a rigorous, data-driven approach to measuring circularity and regenerative impact through their CRISP protocol, developed in partnership with Circle Economy Foundation. The fund brings together a multi-disciplined team of investors, entrepreneurs, scientists, and corporate leaders, with strategic advisor Leonardo DiCaprio, positioning them as a significant player in scaling breakthrough technologies that can deliver outsized net environmental benefits.

Superorganism is the first venture capital firm dedicated exclusively to biodiversity. The firm invests in pre-seed and seed-stage startups developing technologies and business models that protect, restore, and regenerate nature while creating scalable commercial outcomes. Based in San Francisco and New York, Superorganism backs founders tackling biodiversity loss, climate resilience, conservation technology, regenerative agriculture, ocean health, circular economy solutions, and nature-positive innovation. Its investment strategy focuses on three core themes: addressing drivers of species extinction, advancing climate and biodiversity solutions simultaneously, and enabling breakthrough technologies that improve conservation outcomes. Through its mentor network of leading entrepreneurs, scientists, conservationists, and investors, Superorganism helps founders build companies that create an abundant future for both people and nature.

Verlinvest is an international, family-backed evergreen investment company founded in Brussels in 1995 by AB InBev family shareholders. It partners with entrepreneurs building category-defining consumer brands across food, beverage & FMCG, health, consumer technology, and lifestyle. Portfolio companies have included Oatly, Vita Coco, Tony's Chocolonely, Who Gives A Crap, and Chewy.