Skip to main content Skip to secondary navigation
Stanford GSB

Stanford GSB Impact Fund

Evaluating start-ups.
Studying best impact investment practices. 
Investing in companies that make a world a better place.

Our Purpose: Impact Investing

The GSB Impact Fund is designed to expose students to the process of “impact investing”– the intentional investing for both financial and measurable social and environmental returns.

The Fund is managed by students with oversight from professors Paul Pfleiderer and Ken Singleton, and under the guidance of the Center for Social Innovation. Additional faculty, alumni and expert practitioners provide strategic guidance on co-investing, sourcing, structuring deals, measuring impact, portfolio allocation, and exits.

The Fund is an evergreen fund that invests in early-stage for-profit ventures seeking both financial and social and environmental returns. The Fund’s investment mandate is geographically flexible, and the investment priorities will vary from year to year based on students’ interests and market activity.

Stanford GSB
Our Investment Approach

Evaluating Companies Based on Strong Business Fundamentals and Compelling Social Impact

The GSB Impact Fund invests in early-stage for-profit ventures that make the world a better place. We believe that the most impactful social enterprises are viable businesses that offer scalability of financial returns and measurable impact.

Stanford GSB
Announcement

Latest Round of Investments

The GSB Impact Fund is proud to announce investments into AlgiKnit, Honest Jobs, and Matriark Foods. Each received an early-stage investment to support innovation in their fields. 

The ventures were selected among hundreds sourced by student-led deal teams spanning seven verticals: education, energy and the environment, fintech, food and agriculture, healthcare, justice and urban development.

Meet the Student Investors

The GSB Impact Fund is managed by a group of student leaders. Under the guidance of faculty, alumni, and expert practitioners, student participants gain experience in impact investing.

Rachel Densley

Rachel Densley

Co-Chief Investment Officer

Yuchen Zou

Yuchen Zou

Co-Chief Investment Officer

Emily Sheng

Emily Sheng

Chief Operating Officer

GSB Impact Fund Annual Report

Review the accomplishments of the GSB Impact Fund in our 2022-23 annual report.