Impact 50 List — Investors Seeking Profit — And Pushing Change

To com­pile The Impact 50 list of the most notable impact investors, Forbes iden­ti­fied pri­mar­i­ly U.S.-based indi­vid­u­als invest­ing in ven­tures striv­ing to have a pos­i­tive social or envi­ron­men­tal impact both domes­ti­cal­ly and around the world. We researched U.S. bil­lion­aires, as well as mem­bers of Forbes’ lists of the high­est-paid ath­letes, high­est-earn­ing celebri­ties, 30 Under 30 and America’s Rich­est Self-Made Women. We also spoke with experts in the field of impact invest­ing. Those on our list had to have been involved in impact invest­ing for a year or more, either with deployed cap­i­tal or per­son­al invest­ments, and be respect­ed in their field.

Nancy Pfund

AREA OF IMPACT: Diver­si­fied

More than 50% of the com­pa­nies in which Pfund’s ven­ture cap­i­tal firm, DBL Part­ners (short for “Dou­ble Bot­tom Line”), invests have a female founder or a woman in the C‑suite. In 2015, DBL closed on its third impact fund, with $400 mil­lion to invest in com­pa­nies with pos­i­tive social, envi­ron­men­tal or region­al eco­nom­ic impact. Last year, its port­fo­lio com­pa­ny The Real­Re­al, an online con­sign­ment shop pro­mot­ing a “cir­cu­lar econ­o­my,” raised $300 mil­lion in an ini­tial pub­lic offering.

To learn more about oth­er Investors Push­ing for Change, please vis­it Forbes.