We built our brand around two things: impact and gender parity – and it paid off.

The company

Leanox Impact Capital invests in highly scalable impact tech startups. We’re proud to have roughly 50 per cent female founders in our portfolio – that’s rare.

The team

I founded Leanox together with my then partner, now husband Thore Vogel. We met thanks to RSM, when I did an exchange semester at EADA Business School as part of my Masters; Thore was pursuing an International Masters in Finance. We worked together on a research challenge and hit it off!

The opportunity

It’s rare for two people as young as us to start a VC firm. I was only 24 in 2021 when we started. Yet somehow, we saw the opportunity in it. We thought: “Let’s turn our disadvantage into our advantage and attract a more diverse group of founders.” Better access to founders means better access to investors. We’ve learned a lot during the past four years and were recently honoured to be listed in Forbes’ 30 Under 30.

The big idea

When we hosted our first pitching event, I realised I was standing in a room full of men – that’s the nature of the VC industry. So we decided that our priority would be to build a brand that attracts brilliant male and female founders. Our big goal was to have 50 per cent female founders in our portfolio and, ideally, also 50 per cent female investors. We built our brand around two things: impact and gender parity – and it paid off.

How it works

Very simply, we take money from people who have plenty of it, and invest in people without a lot of money, but with great ideas. 

Funding

Investors give us their money for 10 years. We invest that into promising companies during the first five years of our fund’s lifecycle. We then prepare for exit during the second five years. A VC fund aims to make three-to-six times the amount we were initially entrusted with. While that sounds promising, don’t put all your money into VC – since it’s the riskiest asset class. Statistics suggest that out of every 10 startups VCs invest in, between three and five will fail. A similar number will do okay, but there’ll be one or two that hugely outperform, making 10x or even 100x the investment. They’re the ones that bring in the money. That’s why we invest early and then reinvest in the winners of our portfolio to ensure a large stake in the companies that move the needle.

The future

Impact isn’t the highest global priority right now. And in times of recession or crisis, investors often want liquidity, which VC funds don’t offer. That led a lot of VCs to leave the market. We stay, since we know that startups born in recession are leaner, more flexible and tend to outperform. That’s why now is the perfect time to invest in startups. Valuations are down and people work harder. Everything comes in waves, and we’re here to navigate ourselves and our startups through rough storms and calm sea.