For-profit

Good Ventures LLC

Website:

www.goodventures.org

Formation:

2012

Type:

Impact Investment Firm

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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. 12 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 MIT4 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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