NEWS
Recent press, public appearances, and other 50Y news
Ela was a part of the "Future of Finance Breakaway" panel together with James Joaquin (Co-founder & Managing Director, Obvious Ventures) and Colin le Duc (Co-founder & Partner, Generation).
Ela & Seth were among 25 people invited to try clean chicken meat at a tasting event organised by our portfolio company Memphis Meats. All the chicken meat served at the event was produced from cells in Memphis Meats lab.
Ela gave a talk about Fifty Years’ mission and the future of capitalism.
Ela delivered a keynote speech about the future of capitalism at this year’s Worlds Fair Nano.
The Economist Impact Investing team published interview with our founding partner - Ela.
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We invest in companies using technology to solve the world’s biggest problems, using UN SDGs as a proxy for “problems”. We believe that these tech-enabled businesses solving real problems will be among the most profitable.
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B the Change media published a long profile of one of our founding partners - Ela.
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Madej says that Fifty Years stands out among impact investors because of how it vets portfolio companies.
“Our first question is: Can the business significantly contribute to solving one of the challenges as defined by the UN Sustainable Development Goals?” Ela says.
“Second: Can it be a massively big business?
And third: Do the founders genuinely care about positive impact?”
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Ela & Seth co-hosted an Impact.Tech event "Challenges of 2017 & Onward, and How Tech Can Help".
During this Europe's biggest tech festival (15,000 participants) Seth gave a keynote on our work at Fifty Years. He was also on a panel about investing for impact & led an impact investment roundtable during the Slush "Investor Day". Ela was on the food tech panel & had an interview + open Q&A on the Slush "speaker studio" stage.
Watch Seth's keynote:
Seth was quoted in a Financial Times article about the impending food revolution.
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“The traditional food system is broken in every way,” says Seth Bannon, founding partner at Fifty Years, an early stage venture fund in San Francisco that has invested in food technology companies. “It’s terrible for the environment, it’s economically unfavourable and it’s not great for human health.”
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Mr Bannon, of Fifty Years, who has invested in Memphis Meats, calls its approach the “second domestication”. “Traditionally we have domesticated animals to harvest their cells for food or drink,” he says. “Now we are starting to domesticate cells themselves.”
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Seth was quoted in a BuzzFeed article covering the way a firm called Josephine is providing contractors with stake in the company.
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Bannon is not an investor in Josephine, but is intrigued by Wang’s belief that there’s
“a better way to organize a tech company.”
As an investor, I see this as a grand experiment that could either be totally unworkable, or maybe lead to a paradigm shift in how businesses are organized,” he said.
“Often, as an investor, that’s exactly where you want to be. High risk, high reward.”
Ela was judging demo day presentations by social impact companies.
Seth gave a talk "Aligning Profits & Impact in High-growth Startups".
Seth was a part of an Investor Panel session, speaking about investing in biotech companies.
"This New Silicon Valley VC Firm Wants To Fund Solutions To The World's Biggest Problems" by Adele Peters.
"Fifty Years - The new Silicon Valley VC that wants to save the world AND make money" by Mike Butcher.
Ela was on a panel about the future of investing.
Watch her panel here:
Seth was on a panel about the future of cryptocurrency and blockchain: "On-Chain Off-Chain Blockchain: The decentralised Revolution". Both Ela and Seth were judging and had a talk about investing to save the world during the "Challenge day" of the festival.
Seth gave a talk "Impact is the New Mobile".
Watch his talk here:
Ela and Seth gave a talk “How to Eat Glass”, in which they shared their own stressful journeys of entrepreneurship and the daily routines that help them manage the rollercoaster. Watch their talk here:
Seth explains how Impact is the New Mobile.
