EUVC VC | E510 | Emma Steele & Emily Trant on building ventures where profit and purpose scale together
Jul 2, 2025
Emma Steele, Partner at Ascension VC, and Emily Trant, Chief Impact Officer at WageStream, discuss the intersection of profit and purpose in tech. They dive into the concept of 'tech for good' and share insights on aligning social impact with commercial success. The duo examines the role of impact advisory boards and their potential pitfalls, advocating for strong intent and effective design. They also explore market failures, emphasizing how innovation can address social challenges and improve financial inclusivity for vulnerable communities.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Emily's Journey into Impact Tech
- Emily Trant shares her experience co-founding Tuco, building products for people with cognitive impairments.
- She learned that very vulnerable users have very different financial behaviors, like living in overdrafts as normal.
Market Failures Enable Impact VC
- Impact venture works best where there's a commercial model that solves a market failure.
- Technology can reduce delivery costs and improve access, aligning profit with social impact.
The Poverty Premium Funding Gap
- Emily Trant recounts struggling to find who would pay for banking products for vulnerable users.
- Everyone liked the idea but no one wanted to fund it, revealing the poverty premium challenge.