La Piana Consulting, a national consulting firm for the social sector, and CerraCap Ventures, a global venture capital firm, have joined forces to accelerate social change and address complex global challenges with purposeful innovation.
This unlikely partnership has led to La Piana providing strategic guidance for select startups with strong social impact potential. One such company is Solena, a transformative biotech company using natural soil microbiomes to unlock the ‘biological capital’ of earth’s biodiversity. Led by a Latinx entrepreneur recognized as one of Forbes Mexico’s top entrepreneurs, Solena is revolutionizing sustainable agriculture. It is well-positioned to help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, including land degradation and crop failures due to climate change. The result could significantly impact world hunger. Solena is also currently part of Apple’s impact accelerator for Latinx and Black entrepreneurs. “As a CerraCap portfolio company, I am excited to be working alongside La Piana to design our impact framework and to tie our technology and work to the United Nations’ sustainable development goals,” said Irving Rivera, founder, and CEO of Solena.
La Piana Consulting is a nationally recognized consulting firm that has been a pioneer in developing and disseminating new methodologies for the social sector since 1998. Known for inventing nonprofit M&A and for its award-winning and widely adopted strategic planning books, La Piana’s clientele over twenty-four years includes 1,500 nonprofits and foundations. “With the rise of social innovation and social entrepreneurship, the universe of actors involved in social justice and social impact has grown beyond just nonprofits and foundations. Innovation is in our DNA, and we are excited to embrace this strategic partnership with CerraCap to bring new, disruptive solutions to scale,” said David La Piana, Founder and Managing Partner of La Piana.
CerraCap Ventures is an early-stage global venture capital firm investing in emerging technologies and led by first-generation immigrants from India. Now on its Fund III, CerraCap has also launched a women-led impact fund with a mission to unleash the power of technology for good. “We aspire to impact a billion lives. Our portfolio companies are already changing the world and now our partnership with La Piana will scale their impact to the next level,” said Vikas Datt, Founding Partner of CerraCap Ventures.
With this new partnership, La Piana Consulting will be offering a new vertical of social impact work alongside its core offerings of M&A, strategy consulting, and organizational development.
Since 1998, La Piana Consulting has been a social sector disruptor. Known for inventing Nonprofit M&A, La Piana created the methodology, trained consultants in its use, and promoted it nationally. Now nonprofit M&A is a common practice. Similarly, strategic planning was an ossified paper chase exercise until La Piana revolutionized it with the Real-Time methodology, an approach used widely across the sector and taught in graduate management programs from Harvard to Penn to NYU. Over twenty-four years, La Piana has strengthened the strategic capacity of 1500 nonprofits through consulting, workshops, toolkits, and more. Now, we aim to leverage that experience to activate the sector’s ability to innovate for social impact at scale.
Founded in 2015, CerraCap Ventures has become a top-performing venture firm in only 7 short years. Fund I (Vintage 2015) is in the top decile for its performance with 5 exits and 2 potential unicorns. Fund II (Vintage 2017) has already seen 2 exits, 7 up-rounds and has a high-growth portfolio. CerraCap recently announced the first close of Fund III with an investment from the New Mexico State Investment Council. In addition to its high performance in early-stage ventures, in 2020, CerraCap also launched a philanthropic initiative and women-led impact fund called “CerraCap Cares“.
SOURCE: CerraCap Ventures
