Portfolio
Impact Multiplier
We meet the demands of complex challenges with creativity, a high tolerance for risk, a willingness to be catalytic with capital, and an emphasis on developing the next generation.
Our endowment is 100% mission-aligned, from the program work we perform alongside amazing partners to direct investments, alternatives, and public equities. We work to find and fund solutions that help more people thrive.
projects and companies we are proud to be a part of
Hot Chicken Takeover
Hot Chicken Takeover (HCT) was a Nashville-style hot chicken restaurant founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 2014 by Joe DeLoss and was one of the country's most compelling examples of "fair-chance" employment. We were early investors in HCT, and we exited our position before the founder departed and sold the business. The company has since closed, but the model it demonstrated remains one we're proud to have backed.
Cliffwater
Cliffwater is one of the most respected authorities in private credit. Founded in 2004 and 100% employee-owned, the firm advises many of the country's largest pensions, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds on alternative investments, and manages its own suite of private-debt funds. We invest through Cliffwater's flagship vehicle, the Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund (CCLFX), a core private-credit allocation within our portfolio.
Catchafire
Catchafire is a capacity-building platform that helps foundations and corporations go beyond the grant by delivering nonprofits the coaching, technical assistance, and skilled volunteers they need to grow stronger and work smarter. We are investors in Catchafire, and we remain invested today.
Lenderfit
Lenderfit is cloud-based loan origination and servicing software built for CDFIs and mission-driven lenders, an intuitive, mobile-friendly platform that lets small lenders do far more with the teams they have. We founded Lenderfit to scale a hard-won lesson from our own lending, and after helping incubate and launch it, we have since sold our ownership. The company continues today, serving mission-driven lenders across 29 states.
Haven Connect
Haven Connect builds software for affordable housing. It gives property managers tools to manage applications and waitlists, and it streamlines the application process for the people trying to find a home. Haven Connect came to us through our Reconstruct Challenge, where it won a Phase 1 grant, and we followed with a Phase 2 investment.
AV Blockchain
North Sky Capital
North Sky Capital is one of the longest-tenured impact investing firms in the market. Founded in 2000, it seeks to create positive social and environmental impact while generating strong financial returns by investing in companies, private equity funds, and infrastructure projects that make the world a better place. We are an investor in North Sky's Clean Growth strategy, part of the impact-oriented core of our real assets allocation.
Global Venture Network
Global Venture Network (GVN) is a private membership network for the leaders of the world's accelerators, venture studios, and innovation hubs. Known for most of our involvement as the Global Accelerator Network (GAN), which is now its flagship network, it connects hundreds of ecosystem builders across dozens of countries with peer forums, shared resources, and access to capital. We were an investor in the network, Bryce Butler served on its board, and Bryce spoke at one of its summits in 2017. We exited our position in 2025.
Greenbacker
Greenbacker is a multi-strategy sustainable investment manager and independent power producer that connects individuals and institutions with opportunities to build the infrastructure of the energy transition. It both manages energy-transition investment strategies and directly owns and operates hundreds of clean energy assets. We are an investor in Greenbacker's sustainable infrastructure.
SoLo Funds
SoLo Funds is a community finance platform where members step up for one another by lending and borrowing on their own terms, without the mandatory fees, rollover traps, and compound interest that define so much of small-dollar credit. Founded in 2018 by Travis Holoway and Rodney Williams, SoLo set out to build something more human: a place where a nurse in Ohio can lend $100 to help a gig worker in Texas cover a car repair, and both are better for it.
Collab Capital
Collab Capital invests financial, human, and social capital to grow businesses and build lasting economic equity through increased ownership in the innovation economy. Founded by entrepreneurs Jewel Burks Solomon and Barry Givens who built the firm they wished they'd had, Collab is "built by founders, for founders." We are a limited partner in Collab Capital.
Blueprint Local
Access Ventures was a founding member of the collaboration that launched Blueprint Local which is a platform built to help entrepreneurs and communities access capital in the places they call home. What began as a neighborhood experiment on our own street in Louisville grew into one of the country's leading place-based investment platforms.
Keystone
Keystone National Group is a yield-driven private markets investment firm focused on private credit and real estate. We are a limited partner in the Keystone Real Estate Lending Fund, a real estate debt strategy that forms part of the income-generating core of our portfolio.
mRelief
mRelief helps people access the food assistance they are eligible for through a simple, dignified experience. Instead of confusing forms and long lines, mRelief lets families check eligibility and apply for SNAP in minutes, by text or online. mRelief came to us through our Reconstruct Challenge, winning both a Phase 1 and a Phase 2 grant, together totaling $650,000 of support.
Caprock
Caprock is an outside managers Access Ventures partners with to steward capital. A privately owned multi-family office serving families and institutions with complex wealth, Caprock builds portfolios across public and private markets while treating impact not as a separate carve-out but as an integrated discipline, the same conviction that has guided our own "one-pocket" approach from the beginning.
Village Capital
Village Capital is a global venture capital firm that has pioneered peer-selected investment and entrepreneur support models to back founders solving real-world challenges in sectors such as financial inclusion, sustainability, and the future of work.
Saturn Five
Saturn Five is a long-term-hold investment firm that buys and operates some of the best small businesses in America. Founded in 2017, it's building a diversified family of cash-flow-generating companies known for their excellence and committed to the long-term flourishing of their employees and communities. We are an investor in two of Saturn Five's funds.
Ethic
Ethic is one of the clearest expressions of our one-pocket conviction because we hold it from both sides. We invested directly in Ethic early, helping the team build out their platform and bring it to market, and we also use that same platform to align our own public equities with the values that drive our mission.