Virtue social impact app closes pre-seed round

Virtue, the social impact app that can be added to Shopify sites to allow retailers to partner with causes, has closed a pre-seed round led by SFC Capital to accelerate and has also joined the Techstars accelerator.

The Virtue App launched as an easy-to-integrate widget on Shopify in 2021 and has been used by more than 600 stores in the UK to enable shoppers to make a meaningful social and environmental impact from product sales by teaming up with good causes.

Brands and retailers can support initiatives such as plastic and carbon off-setting, as well as helping disadvantaged communities. Currently, stores giving through Virtue have made sales of more than 1.9 million pounds from 35,000 orders with social impact.

Mariya Kupriyenko, chief executive of Virtue, said in a statement: “Brand values are more important than ever to consumers, and studies show that investment in social impact partnerships has a positive ROI. It's a win, win, win, for causes, retailers, and consumers. We are stoked to be backed by two incredibly reputable and active investors in realising Virtue’s vision.”

Virtue added that the investment would allow to company to expand into the global market and “eventually branch out to other leading ecommerce platforms”. It will also focus on growing its curated community of causes, ecosystem of ESG partners and building new shopper engagement features on the app.

Commenting on the investment, a spokesperson for SFC Capital added: “We were delighted to have led Virtue’s latest funding round. With the rapid growth in socially conscious consumers, it is imperative that retailers are able to continue to retain and attract these individuals by doing their bit to solve some of the biggest issues facing the planet and societies.

“Virtue’s easy-to-integrate technology allows them to do this in a simple and effective manner. The team behind the company is extremely passionate and we are excited to see what the future holds for the company.”