Viaduct Ventures

Viaduct Ventures, a spin-off from the Impact Hub Zurich, provides micro venture capital in early-stage socially/environmentally responsible companies in Europe.

Our mandate is to seek social and/or environmental responsible companies based in Europe with:

• Significant impact - a product or service has the potential to solve a relevant social/environmental problem or improves existing solutions substantially


• Scalability of impact - demonstrate a clear path how to scale activity outputs


• Measurable improvements  (intended outcomes) - individual beneficiaries and/or environmental change over time


• Team - top team with clear roles


• Financial sustainability - a clear business model with the potential for break-even in 3-4 years as well as the ability to pay back a loan over time


• Advanced stage - typically 1-3 years old with clear growth plans, existing clients and a proof-of-concept 

If your company fits the above description, we invite you to complete the profile on GUST as detailed as possible, preferably in English. Once you are done, you are invited either to select „Share your Profile" for direct notification, or just hit „Apply for Funding“ and choose Viaduct Ventures - so that your data is visible to us.

Please note: You can choose how your profile is visible now or later (e.g. only Viaduct Ventures or all GUST user). Obviously, you can edit your profile details or its visibility at any point of time. Viaduct Ventures brings together social/environmental responsible („impact“) companies with a small group of private investors, foundations as well as partners and sponsors mainly from Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Your information is shared amongst that circle only. Potential co-investment opportunities are pre-discussed together with you.

And then what?

Starting December 2015 and for the following 18-24 months (i.e. we consider candidates for a potential investment during our investment period roughly from now until the end of 2017), we will review uploaded company profiles. Those, which contact Viaduct Ventures directly, are kindly asked to complete the GUST profile as well.

After an initial screening, we filter and evaluate the scope and scale of any company by analyzing its business, revenue and societal impact model. Our due diligence process follows the generic industry standard and involves two stages of approval from our investors before a deal is considered. A typical deal consists of the following features:
- base case is a loan with a duration of 3-5 years for CHF 100-250k or the equivalent currency
- up to CHF 500k with a co-investor
- staged in 2-4 tranches triggered by agreed milestones 
- no amortization, i.e. principal to be paid at end of term (early redemption options possible)
- annual interest +/-2% market rate paid quarterly (1-2 years grace period possible)
- 1-5% revenue share paid annually (depending on revenue model and set interest rate)

Complementary to the financial capital from our investors, Viaduct Ventures offers non-financial capital:
- hands-on support of around 0.5 day/week, especially in strategy and finance
- access to our broad network of industry experts

Important: After the initial screening we try to provide a feedback to you as soon as possible, typically within two weeks. We DO NOT consider organizations outside of our mandate (e.g. geographically non-Europe) or if the provided data is incomplete. If an organization is declined during our review, it means that the company does not fit the specific scope of our mandate. We encourage those particular entrepreneurs to promote their GUST profile to other potential interested parties.