Navigating Venture Investment Strategies

In this episode, Adriana Stan is joined by Jon Coker, founding partner at Eka Ventures, to unpack how the team behind the £68M Fund I has backed 21 early-stage companies driving systemic change in consumer health and sustainable consumption.

They dive into the team’s shift from MMC Ventures to launching a new kind of impact fund, the lessons learned from backing 3 unicorns, and why founder learning velocity is Jon’s No. 1 metric for long-term success.

Eka Ventures is an early-stage VC fund with a clear mission: to back the founders building a more equitable, sustainable future with business models that scale both shareholder value and societal return.

Here’s what’s covered:

• 01:50 Jon’s journey from analyst to co-managing partner at MMC
• 05:15 Launching Eka Ventures: why impact needs its own home
• 08:30 Choosing the themes: consumer health & sustainable consumption
• 12:45 Building conviction around shared value
• 16:00 Distribution in health: why access is half the battle
• 19:25 Generalist vs. Specialist: where Eka fits in
• 23:10 Fund I analysis: what worked and what didn’t
• 27:45 Operating in the “real world”: why it’s harder, but worth it
• 30:10 Lessons from unicorns and founder growth
• 34:00 The problem with how VCs evaluate “team”