About Cross-Border Impact

• Founded: 2016

• Headquarters: Toronto, Canada

• Strategy: Early-stage venture capital, women's and children's health, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

• Thesis: Backing ventures that improve maternal and child health outcomes in underserved markets by addressing systemic gaps in care delivery, diagnostics, and access

• Track record: Fund I closed at $61m in 2019

• Leadership: Co-founded by Laura Macdonald and Kate Goodall

Cross-Border Impact held a first close of $58m for Fund II, which targets $125m at final close. The fund focuses on women's and children's health ventures in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Anchor LPs include Ceniarth, Equality Fund, KfW, Skoll Foundation, and Wire Group. The first close represents 46% of the target, slightly below the $61m final close of Fund I.

The LP lineup signals continued institutional support for impact-focused health strategies in frontier markets, particularly from development finance institutions and family offices with thematic mandates. Fund II's $125m target represents a modest step-up from Fund I's $61m, which is unusually conservative for a sophomore fund with a fully deployed predecessor — most managers raising a second fund after 2020 targeted at least double their prior vintage. The question is whether Cross-Border is prioritizing deployment discipline over scale, or whether the modest target reflects the realities of raising for a strategy that combines frontier-market execution risk with long exit timelines in healthcare.

The presence of KfW and Ceniarth — both active in blended-finance structures — suggests Fund II may be positioned to absorb first-loss capital or concessionary terms that broaden the investable opportunity set. If Fund II deploys at the same pace as Fund I (which made 15 investments over roughly four years), the fund-size-to-check-size ratio would support initial checks in the $3m–$5m range, squarely in the Series A gap for African and South Asian healthtech. Watch whether Fund II shifts average check size upward to defend ownership in follow-on rounds, or whether the strategy remains disciplined around early-stage entry points where comparable generalist funds struggle with sector expertise.

Source: Venture Capital Journal