We co-founded Ada Ventures in 2018 as equal partners and launched the first fund in late 2019, making our first investment in March 2020 as the UK and Europe went into successive Covid lockdowns. We founded the firm and named the fund “Ada” as we were inspired by the story of Ada Lovelace – particularly her contribution working on the Analytical Engine with Charles Babbage in the 1830s. Some of her predictions about what algorithmic ‘thinking machines’ would be able to do are coming true in the era of generative AI in 2024.

Ada Ventures was founded on our shared belief that there are people like Ada Lovelace in the world today. These are visionary, talented people whose ideas could positively impact society. However they are undiscovered, unconnected to capital and lack the support to make their ideas a reality.

We created Ada Ventures to find those people, to invest in those people and to accelerate their ideas to global success. When we built the firm we designed every aspect, our internal operations, investment strategy and investment process (sourcing, selecting and supporting) with an inclusive lens.

We were convinced that by doing so we would both generate best in class financial returns (alpha) but also build a far more inclusive industry and generate significant positive societal impact, particularly on underserved and vulnerable people in society. This is what we call Inclusive Alpha®, a term we created in October 2023, which you can read more about in our 2024 report, linked below.

Check & Matt
Co-founders, Ada Ventures