# Next Wave Impact

> Next Wave Impact is a VC fund in Denver backing Software and Education. See 22 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Denver, United States
- Total investments: 22
- Last investment: Apr 2021
- Lead investor: 5%
- Fund size: $1M
- Last fund: Dec 2015
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/next-wave-ventures
- X (Twitter): http://www.twitter.com/nextwavenetwork
- Website: http://www.nextwaveimpact.com
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nextwavenetwork

Next Wave Impact is a VC fund in Denver focused on Software and Education. We are working to increase diversity, inclusion, and impact in early-stage investing and our entrepreneurial ecosystem through our innovative learning-by-doing progressive fund model. Our global fund has 99 women investors, 25 of them women of color, which is led by an experienced investment committee of ten women. We are building a portfolio ofinvestments in early-stage impact companies, diversified across industry and geography, over a four year investment period. We will make 6-8 investments in each of the first two years and then do some selected follow-on investments in those companies in years three and four. We are excited about this model, building on two pilots in the United States and Europe (the Rising Tide Pilots) with nearly 200 women, which made 18 investments. Together, we are creating the next wave of educated and trained angel investors focused on both social impact and financial returns, which are investing in underrepresented entrepreneurs.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Next Wave Impact. Shizune tracks 4 team members at Next Wave Impact. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/next-wave-ventures?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $100k–$2.2M |
| Series A | $5M–$12M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 4 | 18% |
| Education | 3 | 14% |
| Health Care | 3 | 14% |
| Marketplace | 3 | 14% |
| Supply Chain Management | 3 | 14% |

40 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Funding Round | 8 | 36% |
| Seed | 7 | 32% |
| Series A | 2 | 9% |
| Series B | 2 | 9% |
| Convertible Note | 1 | 5% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Alicia Robb | Founder and CEO | 2 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alicia-robb |
| Kristina Montague | Investment Committee | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kristina-montague |
| Sara Brand | Founding Investor | 7 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sara-brand |
| Valentina Vitols | Limited Partner | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/valentina-vitols |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Localized | Localized is a talent tech company focusing on early-stage recruitment in growth markets. Companies subscribe to access virtual career fairs and year-round recruitment and universities and talent hubs join to provide students and alumni with access to industry experts and employers. We work with universities in the Middle East, North Africa, India,China and the United States. With 85% of the world's population in emerging markets, our partners know that the future of early-stage talent recruitment is global and online. | $2.2M | Seed | Apr 02, 2021 |  |
| Stony Creek Colors | Stony Creek Colors is engaged in the production of bio-based dyes together with farmers, mills, and brands, in partnership with small farmers in the Southeast U.S. Stony Creek Colors was founded by Sarah Bellos in 2012 and is based in Tennessee, United States. | $9M | Series B | Mar 01, 2021 |  |
| BlocPower | BlocPower is an energy technology startup that develops healthier, greener, and smarter buildings.It leverages advanced technologies, innovative electrification equipment, and structured finance to provide green heating and cooling to urban buildings. The company also connects government agencies, utilities, building owners, and smart equipmentproviders to identify unhealthy, energy-wasting buildings to retrofit. Its proprietary machine learning platform then determines which retrofits will produce the most energy savings at scale and uses the cloud and IoT to gather data and remotely monitor energy consumption. Since its founding, BlocPower has completed energy projects in nearly 1,000 buildings and delivered results ahead of schedule and under budget. It utilizes its proprietary software for analysis, leasing, project management, and monitoring of urban clean energy projects, and its customers are saving 20–40% on their energy bills each year. The company is backed by top investors, including Kapor Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact, AccelR8, the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, Elemental Excelerator, CityRock Venture Partners, the Schmidt Family Foundation, and Salesforce Ventures.Donnel Baird and Morris Cox co-founded the company in Brooklyn, New York in 2014. | $11.8M | Series A | Oct 06, 2020 |  |
| Solstice | Solstice provides turnkey customer solutions for shared solar. It also offers subscriber aggregation and management services to solar developers, utilities, and other providers of shared solar energy. Employing community organizing techniques and the nation's first online marketplace and customer management platform for shared solar, Solsticeleverages network effects to aggregate consumer demand and put more solar in the ground.Solstice's goal is to use community solar to help these groups meet one another and to unlock the possibility of solar power for these households. Solstice was founded on the belief that every American household can be powered by affordable renewable energy. By deploying community solar, Solstice works for greater energy equity and a future in which clean energy works for every American household, regardless of income level, credit score, or any other factor. It has received the MassChallenge Silver Award, Kia Revisionaries Award, and Gold Stevie Award.The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. | $3.1M | Convertible Note | Jul 01, 2020 |  |
| Nepris | Nepris is a cloud-based platform that connects industry professionals with K-16 classrooms, adult job seekers and out of school youth to bring real world relevance and career exposure to all learners. Nepris matches the skills of working professionals to learning objectives and virtually connects them with students to bring abstract lessons tolife, offer project mentoring and evaluation, virtual tours, mock interviews and virtual work place experiences. Nepris makes it easy for educators to leverage industry connections to bring real world knowledge and skills to students, while providing a reliable platform for companies and regional intermediaries (like workforce boards, chamber, STEM hubs) to easily and effectively engage current workforce with the future workforce. | $5M | Series A | Mar 11, 2020 |  |
| Motivo | Motivo is the largest platform for therapist telesupervision. We connect pre-licensed therapists with clinical supervisors through secure video conference. All pre-licensed therapists have mandatory supervision hours they need to complete for licensure, and a crucial part of that process is having the right supervisor. Often, therapists only haveaccess to a very limited pool of supervisors to choose from, many of whom are not always the right fit. With the rise of telehealth, most states now allow clinical supervision hours to be obtained online through live video-conference. That's why Rachel McCrickard, a licensed marriage & family therapist (LMFT) founded Motivo, the first online platform connecting mental health therapists to clinical supervisors. | $2.2M | Seed | Dec 03, 2019 |  |
| Localized | Localized is a talent tech company focusing on early-stage recruitment in growth markets. Companies subscribe to access virtual career fairs and year-round recruitment and universities and talent hubs join to provide students and alumni with access to industry experts and employers. We work with universities in the Middle East, North Africa, India,China and the United States. With 85% of the world's population in emerging markets, our partners know that the future of early-stage talent recruitment is global and online. | $1.2M | Seed | Sep 10, 2019 |  |
| Joylux | Joylux is a health and wellness company that specializes in women's health and wellness. The company is committed to finding scientific solutions that are noninvasive, effective, and affordable to help improve all aspects of a woman’s intimate life. The company was founded in 2013 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington. | $3.7M |  | Sep 06, 2019 |  |
| ConnXus | ConnXus supplier management solutions simplify the complexities of global supply chains and allow buyers to achieve their goals of responsible and sustainable sourcing. ConnXus is a NMSDC, CPUC, CAMSC and State of Ohio-certified minority-owned business enterprise based in Mason, Ohio with local, regional and international capabilities. |  |  | Jul 01, 2019 |  |
| Needslist | NeedsList is a global marketplace connecting individual and corporate donors with NGOs to create efficiency and transparency in their humanitarian aid system. NeedsList partners with local aid organizations to identify urgent needs and uses local suppliers who can deliver needs quickly and sustainably. Supporters can donate cash, purchaseproducts, or volunteer directly on platform. NeedsList provides clear impact metrics in real-time allowing partner organizations to track activity and outcomes. They earn revenue through commissions from affiliate suppliers and from enterprise users of the platform. | $1M |  | Jun 17, 2019 |  |

10 of 22 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/amfam-institute-impact-fund) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Bisk Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bisk-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Stride](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/k12) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Lewis & Clark AgriFood](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lewis-clark-agrifood) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Michael & Susan Dell Foundation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/michael-susan-dell-foundation) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Omidyar Network](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/omidyar-network) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Next Wave Impact invest in?

Next Wave Impact invests primarily in Software, Education and Health Care startups, most often at Funding Round and Seed stage. Most of the 22 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Next Wave Impact's check size?

Next Wave Impact typically joins rounds of $100k–$2.2M at Seed and $5M–$12M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Next Wave Impact participates in.

### How do I contact Next Wave Impact?

Public channels for Next Wave Impact include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Next Wave Impact?

The team at Next Wave Impact includes Alicia Robb (Founder and CEO), Kristina Montague (Investment Committee) and Sara Brand (Founding Investor). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### 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.

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