From left: Paul Watson, Julia Hildebrand Daniel Paul, Niamh McKenna and Paul O’Hara
Social enterprise player ChangeX has raised €350,000 in an extended seed round that brings the total amount of funding raised to date to €850,000.
New investors in ChangeX include Vic Parker from Spectrum Equity, Mike Lee from MyFitnessPal, former McKinsey director Denis Tinsley, CAF America from the Robert Wood Johnson Donor-Advised Fund, and Enterprise Ireland.
Returning investors include Alberg Wenger, managing partner at Union Square Ventures, and John O’Farrell from Andreessen Horowitz.
‘We’re excited by the opportunity to make ChangeX increasingly valuable for changemakers in Ireland and to launch in our first US city later this year’
– PAUL O’HARA, CHANGEX
Existing investors also include Storyful’s Mark Little, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield, financier Dermot Desmond and some high-profile Silicon Valley investors.
Powering the social good
Not-for-profit start-up ChangeX is working towards its first US pilot with a launch in a US city this summer.
The organisation, a service aimed at social entrepreneurs, has grown 49pc every month for the past year with 350 people starting ideas in their communities.
Revenue comes from software-as-a-service (SaaS) for social entrepreneurs, as well as selling impact to foundations, companies and governments around the world trying to solve specific problems.
ChangeX, a former Siliconrepublic.com Start-up of the Week, has also won the support of Facebook’s GlobalCauses endeavor for marketing and support and also counts support from Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and Intercom.
“Our group of investors continues to go from strength to strength, adding more resources, expertise and network as we grow,” said Paul O’Hara, founder and CEO ChangeX.
“We’re excited by the opportunity to make ChangeX increasingly valuable for changemakers in Ireland and to launch in our first US city later this year.
“We take great encouragement from the growing number of people using and benefitting from ChangeX and from the ever-strengthening network of partners and investors that believe in our mission to build thriving communities by connecting the best ideas and people to make them happen.”
