Venture Studio from Crisis Impact 2023-2024
01.07.2024
Venture Studio from Crisis invest in, and support startups building innovative solutions to end homelessness. Our portfolio includes mission-aligned companies that are working to increase the supply of, or access to, good quality, affordable homes.
Key achievements:
- Delivered over 129 hours of support to ventures.
- Won and were shorted listed for several awards.
- Involved individuals with lived experience of homelessness in investment and growth programme processes to ensure solutions were impactful and grounded in real needs.
Key portfolio companies:
- Grand Bequest: Developing a platform for communities to regenerate empty buildings into social homes, 6,500 buildings graded this year. Venture Studio helped them access Crisis' expertise and research to advance their work setting housing standards.
- Urban Intelligence: a software company working with 24 local authorities to meet their housing targets by streamlining the planning process.
- Agile Homes: Building high-quality, affordable homes for those at risk of homelessness and training people released from prison on temporary licence in offsite construction skills.
One graduate said:“The opportunity helped so much in the latter stages of my prison sentence. I have been able to pay for school uniforms, mortgage payments and provide for my family.”
- Bridge Housing Solutions: A platform that helps families find long-term, quality homes. And has helped local government save an estimated £13m by sourcing social housing tenancies, rather than private sector accommodation.
- GoodPAYE: Transforming employee giving by enabling direct engagement between charities and supporters. They have worked with more than 47 charities and 36 employers and achieved an average monthly donation of £36 per supporter.
- Pfida: An ethical financial technology company providing debt-free homes. They have financed 104 properties, with another 210 homes in the pipeline.
Pfida case study:
They helped a family of seven, including five children, find suitable housing while relying on Universal Credit. No traditional bank was willing to offer them a mortgage and Pfida provided a housing solution through their unique interest-free product that enabled the family to secure a home.