In this episode, Adriana Stan is joined by Jon Coker, founding partner at Eka Ventures, to unpack how the team behind the £68M Fund I has backed 21 early-stage companies driving systemic change in consumer health and sustainable consumption.
They dive into the team’s shift from MMC Ventures to launching a new kind of impact fund, the lessons learned from backing 3 unicorns, and why founder learning velocity is Jon’s No. 1 metric for long-term success.
Eka Ventures is an early-stage VC fund with a clear mission: to back the founders building a more equitable, sustainable future with business models that scale both shareholder value and societal return.
Here’s what’s covered:
01:50 Jon’s journey from analyst to co-managing partner at MMC
05:15 Launching Eka Ventures: why impact needs its own home
08:30 Choosing the themes: consumer health & sustainable consumption
12:45 Building conviction around shared value
16:00 Distribution in health: why access is half the battle
19:25 Generalist vs. Specialist: where Eka fits in
23:10 Fund I analysis: what worked and what didn’t
27:45 Operating in the “real world”: why it’s harder, but worth it
30:10 Lessons from unicorns and founder growth
34:00 The problem with how VCs evaluate “team”
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✍️ Show Notes
From Generalist Tech to Thematic Impact
Before co-founding Eka, Jon spent over a decade at MMC Ventures, a generalist tech VC, where he rose from analyst to co-managing partner. However, by 2018, he recognized the need for a more focused approach.
“We wanted to change three things about the venture industry, and that meant building our fund.”
Eka Ventures was born from that ambition, co-founded with Camilla Dolan, and designed to back early-stage founders across two core themes.
Two Themes, One Core Belief
1. Consumer Health:
With aging populations and rising chronic disease, prevention becomes a necessity. But reaching people early means engaging them outside the medical system, through consumer-facing products.
2. Sustainable Consumption:
Backing startups that rewire logistics, reduce waste, and remove carbon from everyday systems. Think circularity, not just efficiency.
“These are problems where better business models can change lives and systems.”
The Power of Shared Value
Eka doesn’t look for trade-offs. They look for mutually reinforcing wins:
Better outcomes → better economics
More accessibility → more revenue
Less waste → more margin
“It’s not just about doing good. It’s about businesses that win because they do good.”
Specialist? Yes. Rigid? No.
While theme-driven, Eka isn’t a deep vertical fund. They specialize in systems, not subcategories.
“We care about how the product touches lives. That makes it more complicated as an investor. But we think it’s the right kind of complicated.”
They typically lead or co-lead early rounds, writing £1–1.5M cheques into £2–3M rounds—often as the first institutional backer.
Why Founder Growth is Everything
After 15+ years in VC and three unicorns backed, Jon is clear:
“The single biggest driver of success is founder learning speed. It’s everything.”
He recalls founders who scaled themselves faster than their businesses—and how rare and valuable that trait is.
Rethinking “Team” Evaluation
Every VC says “people” are the most important factor. But few know how to assess that rigorously.
“Ask a VC how they evaluate people—it breaks down quickly. That needs to change.”
For Jon, identifying founder capacity early is both art and process, refined over hundreds of reps.
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