Our vision to scale innovations and build transparent global supply chains would not be possible without the support of our Partners. As leaders in their respective industries, our co-investors and supporters recognize the growing need for more scalable and transformative innovations that can increase transparency and improve working conditions.
At Working Capital, we identify opportunities to accelerate the development and deployment of innovative, market-based solutions to meet the growing corporate need to protect vulnerable workers and source responsibly. To do this, we invest in early-stage companies led by bold, inspiring entrepreneurs.
We are open to new possibilities and eager to explore emerging, disruptive technologies that can help companies improve working conditions in their global supply chains. We hope to hear from entrepreneurs with innovative ideas about how we can collaborate to build a better, more responsible future.
The Fund is operating and investing in a space within venture capital and technology innovation that is experiencing significant growth, increased market opportunity, and strong investment tailwinds.
The Working Capital Innovation Fund was established in 2017 with a unique mission and a highly-differentiated thesis about how to support systemic improvements in respect for labor rights. Supply chains are rife with labor risk, including widespread forced and child labor, underpayment of wages, unsafe workplaces, and restrictions on worker organizing. The private sector faces increasing pressure to understand and address these risks in their operations and extended supply chains, driven by tightening legal requirements in the US and Europe. At the same time, the present toolkit available to brands, retailers, and their suppliers presents inadequate for this task. Social audits are the intervention most frequently arrayed against supply chain labor rights at a large scale, yet they suffer from serious credibility and efficacy questions. Working Capital is thus uniquely situated to offer an alternative, as it seeks to invest in companies that provide tools which brands, retailers, and suppliers can use to improve their visibility into supply chain risk, provide preferences for high performing suppliers, and engage workers in an effort to source responsibly.