# Jim Villanueva

> Jim Villanueva is a Series A investor at Global Partnerships backing Agriculture and Energy. See 6 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Global Partnerships](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/global-partnerships)
- Location: Santa Barbara, United States
- Total investments: 6
- Last investment: Nov 2023
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-villanueva-9667788

Jim Villanueva is a Series A investor at Global Partnerships in Santa Barbara focused on Agriculture and Energy. Jim Villanueva - Investment Director, Managing Director, Global Partnerships Social Venture Fund @ Global Partnerships

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Series A | $2.1M–$6.3M |
| Series B | $8.5M–$10M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Agriculture | 2 | 33% |
| Energy | 1 | 17% |
| Travel | 1 | 17% |
| Tourism | 1 | 17% |
| Logistics | 1 | 17% |

13 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 2 | 33% |
| Series B | 2 | 33% |
| Seed | 1 | 17% |
| Pre-Seed | 1 | 17% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kenya | 1 | 17% |
| Uganda | 1 | 17% |
| Zambia | 1 | 17% |
| United States | 1 | 17% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Good Nature Agro | Their priority is to generate lasting income with small-scale farmers. They build local community leaders into qualified Private Extension Agents (PEAs) who oversee and train farmers throughout the growing season. They support PEAs to provide frequent trainings and personalized recommendations on how their growers can make their field healthier andmore productive. PEAs promote improved farm practices and deliver a farmer-friendly loan of seeds and additional inputs. At harvest, Good Nature is a guaranteed market for the certified legume seed that their growers produce. Choosing to produce these high-value crops over traditional cash crops - maize and cotton - more than doubles their income. | $8.5M | Series B | Nov 08, 2023 |  |
| Purple Elephant Ventures | Purple Elephant Ventures is a venture studio that aims to launch three or four start-ups per year focused on enhancing travel and tourism. Purple Elephant Ventures was founded in 2020 by Ben Peterson, Jan van De Willebois & Mikul Shah. | $1M | Pre-Seed | Oct 07, 2022 |  |
| Tugende | Tugende helps motorcycle taxi drivers own their own motorcycles in eighteen months or less instead of renting indefinitely. Ownership significantly increases income, job security and road safety. | $10M | Series B | Jun 15, 2022 |  |
| Tugende | Tugende helps motorcycle taxi drivers own their own motorcycles in eighteen months or less instead of renting indefinitely. Ownership significantly increases income, job security and road safety. | $6.3M | Series A | Oct 05, 2020 |  |
| Good Nature Agro | Their priority is to generate lasting income with small-scale farmers. They build local community leaders into qualified Private Extension Agents (PEAs) who oversee and train farmers throughout the growing season. They support PEAs to provide frequent trainings and personalized recommendations on how their growers can make their field healthier andmore productive. PEAs promote improved farm practices and deliver a farmer-friendly loan of seeds and additional inputs. At harvest, Good Nature is a guaranteed market for the certified legume seed that their growers produce. Choosing to produce these high-value crops over traditional cash crops - maize and cotton - more than doubles their income. | $2.1M | Series A | Oct 04, 2020 |  |
| Treasure8 | Treasure8 is a Regenerative Food Systems company—a social enterprise working to transform the global food waste ecosystem and apply it to solving food insecurity. Co-Founded by serial food tech entrepreneur Timothy Childs, the company is a wellspring of new food products, ingredients and patented technologies. Treasure8’s multi-faceted approach totransforming the global food waste ecosystem is focused on three tactics: 1) Development and commercialization of patented technologies to turn excess and imperfect in-field produce into natural, long-lasting, delicious food products and ingredients that retain inherent micronutrients 2) Incubation of patent-pending technologies to turn production by-products (e.g., juicing leftovers) into both viable food products and ingredients 3) Implementation of technologies to create potent agricultural inputs and energy from food wasteTreasure8 currently operates in multiple business verticals, including the development of signature food brands (for itself and others), sales and licensing of patented technology and the planned production of new ingredients for the food and nutraceutical markets. |  | Seed | Jan 01, 2014 |  |

6 of 6 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Goodwell Investments](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/goodwell-investments) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Mobility 54](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mobility-54) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Enza Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/enza-capital) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [FINCA Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/finca-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Klister Credit](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/klister-credit) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Oikocredit International](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/oikocredit-international) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Global Partnerships

VC Fund · Seattle, United States

Global Partnerships is an impact-first investor dedicated to expanding opportunity for people living in poverty. For 25 years GP has invested in sustainable solutions that help impoverished people increase their incomes and improve their lives, with core investments in livelihoods, education, health, energy, housing, and sanitation. Since inceptionGP has deployed $356.5 million in impact investments to 135 partners, bringing meaningful impact to over 14.7 million lives in 21 countries.What is Impact-First Investing?Impact-first investing means investing in a way that seeks the highest possible social impact, while seeking to preserve capital with a modest financial return for investors.Impact-first investing is distinctly different from return-first investing, which seeks the highest possible financial return (often without consideration of social or environmental consequences), and from philanthropy, which seeks the highest social impact without any preservation of capital.We believe that impact-first investing has an essential role to play in advancing sustainable solutions to poverty for millions of people worldwide.What Does Impact Mean to Global Partnerships?All of our impact-first investing is aimed at empowering poor and marginalized people to earn a living, provide the basic necessities of life for their families, and improve their lives. We seek social impact on four dimensions:Broadening Opportunity – We have a holistic understanding of poverty, so we invest across all facets of poverty: livelihoods, education, energy, health, housing, sanitation, and water.Deepening Inclusion – We invest at the edge of the market, emphasizing approaches that include people marginalized by depth of poverty, gender, and/or geography, including women and the rural poor.Serving Millions – We believe that every person matters, and want to expand opportunity for as many people as possible. We therefore focus on sustainable approaches that can, over time, scale to serve millions of people living in poverty.Improving Lives – We only invest where evidence convinces us that people living in poverty value the opportunity being delivered and are empowered by it – economically or otherwise – to improve their lives.

4 contacts available at Global Partnerships.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Jim Villanueva | Investment Director, Managing Director, Global Partnerships Social Venture Fund | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jim-villanueva |
| Bill Clapp | Co-Founder | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bill-clapp |
| Mike Galgon | Chief Executive Officer | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mike-galgon |
| Paula Clapp | Co-Founder | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/paula-clapp |

## Similar investors

### Similar industry
- [FJ Labs](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/fj-labs) — VC Fund
- [British Business Investments](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/british-business-investments) — VC Fund
- [White Star Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/white-star-capital) — VC Fund

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund

### Similar country
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [54 Collective](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/founders-factory-africa) — VC Fund
- [Musha Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/musha-ventures) — VC Fund

## Featured in investor lists
- [Agriculture (agtech) Angel Investors in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/agriculture-agtech-angel-investors-united-states)
- [All Angel Investors in Kenya](https://shizune.co/investors/angel-investors-kenya)
- [Venture Capital Investors in Kenya](https://shizune.co/investors/venture-capital-investors-kenya)
- [Travel Angel Investors in Africa](https://shizune.co/investors/travel-angel-investors-africa)
- [Travel Investors in Kenya](https://shizune.co/investors/travel-investors-kenya)
- [Travel Investors in Africa](https://shizune.co/investors/travel-investors-africa)

## FAQ

### What does Jim Villanueva invest in?

Jim Villanueva invests primarily in Agriculture, Energy and Travel startups, most often at Series A and Series B stage. Most of the 6 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Kenya. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Jim Villanueva's check size?

Jim Villanueva typically joins rounds of $2.1M–$6.3M at Series A and $8.5M–$10M at Series B. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Jim Villanueva participates in.

### When did Jim Villanueva last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Jim Villanueva closed in Nov 2023. Shizune tracks 6 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co