Why University Social Ventures Need Ecosystem Support — Lessons from TSIC’s impact work with LSV

The Social Investment Consultancy (TSIC) and London Social Ventures (LSV) are pleased to announce a new partnership. TSIC has been working as LSV’s impact partner since early 2025, supporting this pioneering cross-university initiative in London in developing robust frameworks for measuring and demonstrating their impact. LSV brings together universities, university-born ventures, and public and private sector partners to strengthen the university social venture ecosystem for socially motivated entrepreneurs emerging from academic institutions. With a focus on addressing complex societal challenges, particularly those intersecting with public sector needs, LSV supports ventures at every stage of their development, while working to build more connected and effective structures around them. 

Through our partnership, TSIC has supported LSV in developing their Theory of Change through desk research and collaborative sessions and is now working with LSV to strengthen their impact measurement and management capacity through the development of a comprehensive impact framework and ongoing advisory support. This work forms part of TSIC’s broader commitment to strengthening impact measurement and management capacity across the social impact sector. 

The Challenge: Why University Social Ventures Need Dedicated Support 

University-born social ventures face unique challenges that traditional business support often fails to address. Despite universities being hubs of innovation and social purpose, individual institutions frequently lack the scale and resources to provide comprehensive support to social ventures, resulting in a fragmented ecosystem where promising innovations struggle to reach their full potential. 

These ventures encounter significant market entry barriers, from securing first customers to navigating complex public sector procurement processes. Funding gaps are particularly acute at early stages, with many founders unable to compensate themselves adequately whilst building their ventures. Additionally, founders from minority backgrounds face systemic barriers that contribute to broader inequalities within the ecosystem. 

LSV’s Vision: A Transformed Landscape for Social Innovation 

LSV is reimagining how universities contribute to tackling public challenges, not just through research but through social venture creation that delivers real world impact. University-born social ventures are often left to navigate a fragmented landscape of support, funding and procurement alone. LSV is changing that by building a pan-London infrastructure that systematically connects founders, institutions and partners across sectors. Developing a shared Theory of Change with TSIC helped LSV map and clarify its unique roles in London’s social venture ecosystem in London: 

• Providing tailored support to individual ventures through structured programmes, financial assistance, mentoring, and connections to expertise and networks; and 

• Strengthening the system around them by joining up fragmented support across universities and enabling coordinated engagement with private and public sector partners. 

In doing so, LSV is laying the groundwork for a shared civic innovation infrastructure in London, one where university-born social ventures are no longer isolated experiments, but part of a broader, long-term response to complex societal challenges. 

The Pathway to Impact: From Spark to Scale 

LSV’s venture support operates through a structured pathway designed to meet founders wherever they are in their journey: 

• Spark provides initial inspiration through 2-hour workshops introducing the fundamentals of social venture creation, serving as an entry point to the LSV ecosystem. 

• Build offers a 6-week cohort-based programme helping founders develop a validated proof of concept and clear implementation plans, including up to £1,000 pilot funding and opportunities to test ideas with delivery partners. 

• Catalyst delivers 6+ months of individualised support with dedicated programme managers, helping ventures transition from market validation to first customers and established revenue streams, with access to workspace, legal advice, mentorship, and up to £30,000 in grant funding. 

Beyond individual venture support, LSV is actively building ecosystem infrastructure through partnerships with public and private sector organisations, facilitating regular community building activities, and developing collaborative frameworks between London universities to create critical mass and shared learning. 

The Theory of Change maps a clear progression from immediate activities to long-term systemic change: 

• In the short term (0-1 year), LSV focuses on building foundational capabilities – helping founders develop essential skills and confidence whilst establishing collaborations between universities and building understanding among potential partners. 

• Medium-term outcomes (1-3 years) see ventures securing pilot contracts and first customers, with staff across London universities developing stronger capabilities to support social ventures and new sustainable funding streams becoming accessible. 

• Long-term success (3-5 years) envisions university-born social ventures establishing sustainable business models that balance financial viability with social impact, supported by a cohesive ecosystem connecting ventures, support providers, and partners, with London serving as a global model for university social venture support. 

Measuring and Strengthening Impact

In the next phase of our partnership, TSIC will continue to support LSV in developing and implementing a practical impact framework aligned with their Theory of Change. This will help LSV, and its stakeholders understand what impact LSV is creating, for whom, and under what conditions, and provide insights that inform decision-making and future programming. 

This partnership represents more than just developing measurement frameworks. It is about creating the foundations for a more effective, connected, and impactful approach to supporting social innovation emerging from universities. By combining LSV’s deep understanding of the university social venture landscape with TSIC’s expertise in impact measurement, we are capturing learnings and insights that can benefit the broader social innovation ecosystem in the UK and beyond. 

We look forward to sharing more learnings from this partnership in the months ahead, and to continuing to learn together about how university-born social ventures can play a stronger role in addressing some of society’s most pressing challenges. 

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