Renewal Funds

Managing Partner Paul Richardson leads the investment team, which includes Partners Genevieve Pinto and Geordan Hankinson. Pinto focuses on consumer products and transactions, while Hankinson leads technology investing in energy, mobility, and water. Venture Partner Mike Cormack contributes US deal experience from his tenure as president of Archipelago Holdings and a role at the New York Stock Exchange.

Before founding Renewal Funds in 2008, Paul Richardson and Joel Solomon co-managed the venture portfolio of Renewal Partners, Carol Newell's activist family office. That relationship produced over 40 mission-based investments and exits in companies like Stonyfield Farm and Seventh Generation. Renewal Funds was launched with support from Renewal Partners to open the strategy to outside investors.

Renewal Funds manages three vehicles. Renewal2 closed in 2010 at $35 million. Renewal3 closed in 2014 at $63 million. Renewal4 closed in 2019 at $145 million. Total assets under management across the three funds are $240 million, as disclosed on the firm's website.

The firm makes minority preferred equity investments and regularly takes board seats — it currently holds directorships at Hodo Foods, Lotek, Prana, Uncle Matt's Organic, Fresh Prep, Station A, Electrum, SHARE, and Cascadia Windows. The strategy does not require leading every round, but the team is structured to source and diligence independently rather than passively co-investing.

The firm invests across five sustainability themes: energy transition, mobility, food systems, zero waste, and natural resources. Sectors without a clear sustainability or climate thesis — such as adtech, enterprise SaaS unrelated to resource productivity, or traditional fintech — fall outside the mandate. The firm does not announce a formal exclusion list beyond its thematic focus.

The team helped pioneer the Global Impact Investment Ratings System (GIIRS) in 2012 and currently participates in the ESG Data Convergence Initiative and the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Renewal Funds has been B Corp certified for eight consecutive years and is a member of the Impact Capital Managers Network, which imposes standardized impact-reporting requirements on member GPs.

The firm itself does not operate a charitable foundation, but its founders' prior work included guiding the spend-down of the Endswell Foundation's $20 million endowment, which left Tides Canada Foundation and Hollyhock as legacy charities. Co-Founder Joel Solomon serves as Chair of Hollyhock and as a Senior Advisor to RSF Social Finance, roles that are separate from the fund management entity.