Early next year, we will launch Mozilla Ventures, a first of its kind impact venture fund to invest in startups that push the internet — and the tech industry — in a better direction
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Many people complain about today’s tech industry. Some say the internet has lost its soul. And some even say it’s impossible to make it better.
My response: we won’t know unless we try, together.
Personally, I think it is possible to build successful companies — and great internet products — that put people before profits. Mozilla proves this. But so do ProtonMail, Hugging Face, Kickstarter and a good number of others. All are creating products and technology that respect users — and that are making the internet a healthier place.
I believe that, if we have A LOT more founders creating companies like these, we have a real chance to push the internet — and the tech industry — in a better direction.
The thing is, the system is stacked against founders like this. It is really, really hard. This struck us when Mozilla briefly piloted a startup support program a couple of years ago. Hundreds of young founders and teams showed up with ideas for products and tech that were ‘very Mozilla’. Yet, they also showed up with stories of not being able to find mission aligned investors, or mentors and incubators who shared their vision for products that put people first. They felt frustrated before even getting going.
Mozilla did what we could to help — offering mentorship and small pre-seed investments to dozens of companies. But we also saw the huge need to do more, and to do it systematically over time. Mozilla Ventures will be our first step in filling this need.
Mozilla Ventures will be a $35M+ venture capital fund for early stage startups whose products or technologies advance one or more of the values in the Mozilla Manifesto. Privacy. Inclusion. Transparency. Accessibility. Human dignity. The fund will look for companies and founders who are aligned with these values — and then, like other investors, will look at their team, their product and their business. And, where all these things add up, we’ll invest.
The fund will be led by Managing Partner Mohamed Nanabhay, whose appointment I am announcing in this blog post. Mohamed brings a decade of experience investing in digital media businesses designed to advance democracy and free speech where those things are hard to come by. Which perfectly sets him up for the job ahead — finding and funding founders who have the odds stacked against them, and then helping them succeed.
Over the past few months, Mohamed and I have spent a good amount of time thinking about the basic thesis behind the fund (find great startups that align with the Mozilla Manifesto) — and testing this thesis out through conversations with founders.
We’ve already found three companies that validate our belief that companies like this are out there — Secure AI Labs, Block Party and heylogin. They are all companies driven by the idea that the digital world can be private, secure, respectful, and that there are businesses to be built creating this world. We’re honored that these companies saw the same alignment we did. They all opened up space on their cap table for Mozilla.
Our first few months of conversations with founders (and other investors) underlined something else: we have more questions than answers. Almost everyone we talked to was excited by the idea of pushing the tech industry in a different direction, especially the younger founders we talked to. On the flipside, everyone sees huge challenges — existing tech monopolies, venture funding growth at all costs, public cynicism. It’s important to be honest, we don’t have all the answers. We will (collectively) need to work through these challenges as we go.
So, that’s what we will do. Our plan is to continue talking to founders — and making select investments — over the next few months. We’re also talking to fellow travelers like: Lucid Capitalism, a brilliant team of venture + ESG experts helping us to design the fund; and also networks like Startups and Society and Responsible Innovation Labs that are building communities to tackle these tough questions. And, we’re speaking with a select group of potential co-investors (LPs) who share our values. We will launch the full fund with at least $35M during the first half of 2023.
If you are either a founder or potential co-investor, we would be happy to talk to you. Email hello@mozilla.vc
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