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Blair Miller, Managing Partner of the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, discusses the new $100mm impact fund
“One of the fascinating things for me is just how open and giving others in this space have been. It has been incredible to be welcomed in and for people to share knowledge openly in an effort to help accelerate our development..the impact community is truly that: a community.”
“We have a strategic intent to support emerging fund managers who complement our fund thesis and who can help us enable more investment into early stage companies…that said, the lion’s share of our investments will be on a direct basis.”
– Blair Miller, Managing Partner of the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good
In late 2020, TELUS, one of Canada’s largest telecommunication companies, launched a $100mm corporate impact fund. Named the Pollinator Fund for Good, the fund invests seed and Series A capital in social entrepreneurs working across four impact areas: environment, agriculture, health, and inclusive communities. In addition to early-stage social enterprises, the fund is also investing in other mission-aligned impact funds. To date, the fund has announced investments into a refugee microlender, two impact funds and an upcycling tech company.
Joining this episode is Blair Miller, the Managing Partner of the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good. A 20 year veteran at TELUS, Blair has launched and scaled a number of innovative products internally and will now use that skill set to help scale and guide social entrepreneurs externally. During the conversation, Blair talks about how the TELUS culture of social capitalism led to the fund’s creation and what other corporates can learn from their experience.
Featured Voices
Managing Partner
TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good
Host
Additional Resources
- Learn more about the fund’s first four investments:
- Rhiza Capital, an impact investing fund
- Tidal Vision, a producer of non-toxic, biodegradable synthetic chemicals
- Windmill Microlending, a microlender serving immigrants and refugees
- Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, an Indigenous-led and owned social finance intermediary
- Find Blair on LinkedIn
Money + Meaning is the official podcast of SOCAP. The series aims to expand the conversation around impact investing and strategies to finance and support social change while stimulating innovative and valuable new partnerships across sectors.
