SPRING

A decade ago, Keith Ippel noticed major gaps in Canada’s venture-capital landscape. Despite start-ups having access to practical tools, mentorship programs and networking opportunities, none of these resources truly prioritized positive social impact as much as they did financial returns. Without intervention, he thought, corporate Canada appeared destined to continue treating social responsibility as an afterthought. Founded in 2014, Spring was created to empower socially minded capitalists, from founders to angel investors, through a variety of educational and acceleration programs. Early on, start-ups were its logical focal point—Ippel says that getting mature companies to account for their environmental and social impact can be more challenging. Starting with seedlings meant that Spring could invest its time (and often its capital) in people who already held social responsibility as elemental to their…