Impact investment is a nascent
industry in China. This month, we learn
from one of this country’s pioneers:
Venture Avenue. Established in 2009
as a consulting firm for philanthropic
organizations, it started to explore the
field of impact investment in 2012.
Diinsider visited Venture Avenue’s senior
associate Mandy (Zhang Zhen) at her
office in Tsinghua X-lab, which has an
incubator for startup social enterprises.
Image: Venture Avenue
Change Magazine opens a
new column “Dialogues with
Impact Investors” where we
interview impact investors and
learn from their experiences.
32 Change Magazine
Diinsider: Can you tell us how
Venture Avenue started? projects. Is it still your main
source of revenue?
Mandy: In 2008, China had a
devastating earthquake in Sichuan
Province. It attracted many
organizations and volunteers
to do relief work. Mr. Zhang
Hongyan, then working for Boston
Consulting Group, conducted a
pro bono consulting work for One
Foundation. He soon realized that
many non-profit organizations
need consultancy. He founded
Venture Avenue a year after. M: It is still our main revenue so far.
D: It seems that you provide
consultancy and assessment
services for corporate social
responsibility and charitable
D: Could you tell us how many
social enterprises you have
invested in so far?
M: Since 2012, we have invested
in a total of six social enterprises.
We started investing in them
at an early stage. We provide
low-interest loans and equity
investments for 5 –7 years. For
equity investments, we usually
take 5–10% shares with between
500,000 to 2 million Chinese
Yuans.
Dialogues with
Impact Investors:
Ventu re Avenue
D: When it comes to choosing
a social enterprise, is there any
particular social issue you focus
on or prioritize? with ICT expertise, so we also
prefer projects with ICT solutions,
such as ricedonate.com and Yixiu
Academy.
M: We prefer to invest in
education, information technology
and initiatives working for
disadvantaged groups. Education
and disadvantaged groups are
our concerns. We have a team D: So how do you select which
social enterprise to invest in?
M: We look at the business model,
the scale of impact, and whether
it will evolve into a benchmark in
the field. Before we make final
decisions, we also interview their
clients. The social enterprise must
also overcome the barriers of
the social problem which will be
difficult for other competitors to
duplicate. For example, a better
understanding about clients, and
a stronger founding team may
stand out among competitors.
D: Based on your experience,
what are the challenges faced by
impact investment?
M: It is difficult to identify qualified
projects. Most of them do not have
a concrete business model. At the
same time, it is equally difficult
to find competent founders.
Some only have experience with
Image: RiceDonate, one of the investees of Venture Avenue
Change Magazine 33