Optimizer Invest launches Optimizer Foundation, a charitable organisation funded with SEK 5M.

Optimizer Invest, a Sweden-operated and Malta-based venture capital company announced launching and investing SEK 5M ($570k) in Optimizer Foundation, a foundation aimed to improve the living situation for children and youth

The foundation, led by Helena Riese Harstad, the wife of one Optimizer's founders Mikael Riese Harstad, aims to identify and support social organizations that present scalable solutions to social problems, and will initially focus on developing countries and emerging markets where the funds of the foundation will have the greatest impact on the situation of the foundation’s target group children and youth. Currently, the foundation reviews opportunities in India and Eastern Africa in countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

The foundation intends to support social purpose organizations through donations, or in the form of investments through equity and debt, depending on the needs of the organization in question.

Optimizer Invest was founded in 2012 by Henrik Persson Ekdahl, Mikael Riese Harstad and André Lavold and has made investments in verticals such as hardware, mobile and financial services.