Loyal VC, a global venture capital firm founded by INSEAD alumni with over 150 investments across over 35 countries, and INSEAD, The Business School for the World, announce a partnership to further fuel venture development and investments towards INSEAD alumni and student founders in delivering the next generation of successful business ventures. Under the agreement, Loyal will invest in entrepreneurs who graduate from INSEAD and give a portion of profits from those investments back to the school.
Loyal VC and INSEAD enjoy shared values – especially those of diversity, a global perspective, listening and learning, personal and professional growth, and being a force for good.
Within Loyal VC’s startup index fund, over 80% of the companies leverage technology to address one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals aligning with the INSEAD mission of “business as a force for good”. Meanwhile, more than 30% of portfolio company CEOs are female, nearly 30 percent are from emerging markets aligning with INSEAD’s commitment to diversity in all forms and tackling regional and global challenges.
“INSEAD takes pride in being the #1 non-US MBA programme for unicorn founders, as rated by Pitchbook[i] said Peter Zemsky, Deputy Dean and Dean of Innovation at INSEAD. “Entrepreneurship and venture capital is an instrumental part of INSEAD’s history. The man considered to be one of the founders of the venture capital industry, Georges Doriot, a French-born, naturalised American was also the founder of INSEAD. As the years progressed, INSEAD’s commitment to being a Force for Good™, combined with alumni from 175 different countries, and a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem, enable INSEAD-affiliated ventures to deliver both social and economic impact in countries around the world. INSEAD’s decision to partner with Loyal VC represents our commitment to seeing capital and advisory support mobilised in aid of our alumni and student founders.”
“Since 2018, Loyal VC has been working alongside INSEAD and its alumni and students to fund over 50 graduate startups, as well as supporting research by professors and students in both investing and impact measurement” said Kamal Hassan, co-founder and general partner, Loyal VC. “Our own unique phased investment process, designed to minimise investor bias and hence generate higher returns for our limited partners, is a good example of the sort of innovation that INSEAD graduates are known for.”
“As INSEAD alumni ourselves, we value the strength of our relationship with INSEAD. Our INSEAD connection goes beyond the founders that we invest in and also includes alumni connections across our LPs as well as many of Loyal’s 400+ advisor network, who are instrumental in accelerating the growth of our founders’ businesses”. Michael Kosic, co-founder and general partner, Loyal VC went on to share, “We are also proud of the Founder’s Pledge, encouraging alumni entrepreneurs to give back a portion of their future success to an INSEAD programme of their choosing.”
[i] https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/pitchbook-universities-2020
