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For-profit

Good Ventures LLC

Website:

www.goodventures.org
Formation:

2012
Type:

Impact Investment Firm

Good Ventures LLC is a for-profit investment subsidiary of the Good Ventures Foundation. Created in 2012, it donates its net earnings to the Good Ventures Foundation to support grantmaking in the areas of left-of-center criminal justice reform, farm animal welfare, pandemic preparation, and scientific research. [1][2] Good Ventures LLC supports for-profit organizations working to improve disease testing, develop medical therapies, and support COVID-19 vaccine research.

Investments

Good Ventures LLC, along with the Good Ventures Foundation, supports organizations at the recommendation of Open Philanthropy, a center-left funding nonprofit. Rather than donating to an organization because of its nonprofit tax-status, Good Ventures LLC invests in various for-profit ventures aligned with Good Ventures Foundation’s left-of-center agenda. [3]

In 2021, at the recommendation of Open Philanthropy, Good Ventures LLC invested in OliLux Biosciences for the development of diagnostic and treatment tools for tuberculosis. In 2020, Good Ventures LLC invested in VasoRX, a biotech company launched by researchers at Yale and MIT[4] to develop new testing and therapy for vascular diseases. [5]

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Good Ventures invested in a point-of-care diagnostic platform company called Binx, to support the incorporation of Sherlock Biosciences’ COVID-19 assay into Binx’s diagnostic platform. It also invested in a new drug candidate against COVID-19 being developed by Riboscience and a nanoparticle COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Icosavax. [6]

In 2018, EicOsis received a $5 million investment from Good Ventures LLC for its development of an oral treatment for neuropathic and inflammatory pain. The same year, VasoRX and Dementia Discovery Fund received a $5.4 million and $14 million investment, respectively, for each company’s development of new medical therapies. [7]

Shortly after its founding, Vicarious FPC received a $15 million Series A investment in 2012 led by Good Ventures LLC in support of the company’s artificial intelligence software. [8]

Leadership

Good Ventures LLC belongs to the Good Ventures family of organizations founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna.

Moskovitz co-founded Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg and served as Facebook’s first chief technology officer and vice president of engineering before leaving the company in 2008. [9] He went on to co-found Asana,[10] a workflow software company.

Cari Tuna worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal before co-founding Good Ventures. She sits on the Good Ventures Foundation board as president. She has an undergraduate degree from Yale University in political science. [11]

References

  1. “Governance.” Good Ventures. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://www.goodventures.org/about-us/governance. ^
  2. Good Ventures. “Grantmaking Approach.” Good Ventures. Accessed May 3, 2021. https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/grantmaking-approach. ^
  3. “Other Investments.” Good Ventures. Accessed May 3, 2021. https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/other-investments. ^
  4. Mayer, Kevin. “Atherosclerosis Could Be Reversed by Nanoparticle-Encapsulated RNAi Drug.” GEN, August 27, 2019. https://www.genengnews.com/news/atherosclerosis-could-be-reversed-by-rnai-drug/. ^
  5. “Other Investments.” Good Ventures. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/other-investments. ^
  6. “Other Investments.” Good Ventures. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/other-investments. ^
  7. “Other Investments.” Good Ventures. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/other-investments. ^
  8. “Other Investments.” Good Ventures. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/other-investments. ^
  9. “Asana Leadership.” Asana. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://asana.com/leadership#moskovitz. ^
  10. “Asana Leadership.” Asana. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://asana.com/leadership#moskovitz. ^
  11. “Cari Tuna.” Open Philanthropy. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/team/cari-tuna. ^
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