SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Earlier today, the U.S.-based Celo Foundation announced the launch of its “2% for Web3 Impact” pledge at the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) Investor Forum in The Hague. An industry-wide initiative incubated within the Foundation’s Social Impact Collective, the pledge is kicking off by actively helping onboard 100+ impact investors to Web3 and make their first investment in the space or provide liquidity, for example, to impact lending protocols.
The GIIN Investor Forum, where Celo Foundation President and Co-Founder Rene Reinsberg spoke of Web3’s potential to solve mass-coordination problems, is the largest in-person global gathering of over 1,200 attendees from 60+ countries with a goal to advance and scale the global impact investing market.
In total, the GIIN estimates that over 3,349 organizations currently manage $1.164T in impact assets under management (AUM), with 2% representing $20B. “Celo’s mission is to create the conditions for prosperity––for everyone,” says Reinsberg. “The Celo ecosystem brings together the Global South and North by making access to capital easier and shifts our financial system to become regenerative. We look forward to bridging impact investors and Web3, and highlighting the potential of crypto to have real-world benefits.”
Through the Foundation, impact investors will have access to learning sessions on Web3 investing, 150+ alliance members, including Kickstarter, Deutsche Telekom, IDEO, Uniswap, and Climate Collective, the Celo Camp Web3 startup accelerator, and the Foundation’s Social Impact Collective, including Grameen Foundation and Mercy Corps Ventures, a leading impact investment fund.
“We are delighted to be members of the Celo Foundation’s Alliance for Prosperity,” says Scott Onder, Mercy Corps Ventures' Managing Director, “With the Foundation’s proven track record of leveraging innovative Web3 tools to drive the financial inclusion and climate resilience of underbanked communities, and partnering with them on pilots across Kenya, we're excited about this two-percent pledge to scale collaboration with impact investors from around the world.”
Currently, the Celo ecosystem consists of over 1,000 mission-aligned projects in 135+ countries, with builders creating innovative Web3 applications. For more information and to join the Celo Foundation’s “2% for Web3 Impact” pledge, please email socialimpact@celo.org.
About the Celo Foundation
The Celo Foundation was founded in 2017 to support the growth and development of the decentralized, open source, mobile-first Celo platform to help build a carbon-negative financial system that creates the conditions of prosperity for all. The Foundation is guided by the Celo community tenets and contributes to education, technical research, environmental health, community engagement, and ecosystem outreach—activities that support and encourage an inclusive financial system. For more about Celo, visit https://celo.org/.
