Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and Zalando join venture fund to combat labor abuses in supply chains

We are pleased to announce that alongside Zalando, CIFF will be investing $2.5 million in to Working Capital, an early stage venture fund that invests in innovative solutions to create ethical supply chains, increasing the Fund’s total capital to $25.2 million.

Ed Marcum, Working Capital Managing Director: “As leaders in their respective industries, both CIFF and Zalando will bring a unique perspective and further strengthen Working Capital’s partnership structure. The support of each of our partners signals an increased understanding that capital must be allocated to help develop efforts to enable companies to perform well while also protecting vulnerable workers.”

The first-of-its-kind fund, Working Capital’s partners and supporters include organisatoins such as Humanity United, Walmart Foundation, C&A Foundation. The Fund is also leveraging support from the UK’s Department of International Development in “Sidecar” grant funding for pre-investment and seed-stage interventions. Although the Fund’s partners are diverse, they have come together with a common commitment to combat the systemic risk of labor abuse in supply chains.

Dennis Hoenig-Ohnsorg, Zalando, Team Lead Corporate Responsibility: “In line with our zIMPACT program we are supporting the fund. The Program offers visibility, funding, and expertise to industry players that use digital technology to increase supply chain transparency. At Zalando, we believe tech can be a positive force in the industry and focus our engagement in areas where we can have a systemic impact.”

CIFF is joining the fund to further its commitment to solve problems, such as child labor, by enabling urgent transformational change.

Kate Hampton, CIFF CEO said: “There is an urgent need to clean up opaque global supply chains that enable forced labor and human trafficking. Worldwide, 152 million children are victims of child labor, almost half of them working in hazardous conditions. CIFF is proud to partner with the Working Capital Fund innovative solutions for making supply chains more transparent, ethical and viable.”

To read the full press release, see here.