Footballer Chris Smalling launches VC consultancy ForGood to address global environmental challenges

Former Manchester United footballer Chris Smalling is one of the founding members of the new venture capital consultancy ForGood, which offers between £50,000 and £1 million to start-ups tackling pressing environmental challenges.

The VC firm aims to support the “scaling of ideas to build a better future”, helping to fund pre-seed to Series A funding rounds for companies both in the UK and around the world.

Smalling is joined by several high-profile faces at ForGood including vegan investor, entrepreneur and activist Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni, Rebecca Wheeler, leader of certified B-Corp food, health and wellness-focused creative agency Library; and Jonny Stanton, a start-up and communications advisor who has worked extensively with plant-based and other sustainable businesses.

“I want to look back on my life as someone who achieved lots on the pitch, but also someone who made a difference on a much greater scale,” said Smalling, who now plays for A.S. Roma. “We’re on a simple but huge mission to transform the world for the better and drive a global movement for good.

“Investing in a more sustainable future shouldn’t have any barriers, and at ForGood we believe that connecting people with a common cause has the power to bring change on a global scale. We want to play a key role in accelerating an ecosystem that actively invests and champions the next generation of responsible businesses, with the ambition to drive a movement of doing things ‘for good’.”

Founded in 2021, the firm has already built a portfolio of 11 companies while operating in ‘stealth mode’. The list includes some huge names in food, like plant-based Heura, allplants, THIS and Matthew Kenney Cuisine, as well as the natural laundry detergent Dirty Labs, and Ananas Anam which sells Piñatex, a natural fabric made from waste pineapple leaf fibre.

Cossia Castiglioni said in a statement: “ForGood is on a mission to promote intelligent, radical change, rethinking supply chains and production systems. With the aim of ending animal suffering, and by promoting a cruelty-free, healthy, vegan lifestyle, we will inspire and support a new generation of entrepreneurs and businesses.

“ForGood is committed to building a portfolio of exciting companies and ideas, who share our values and ethics. I’m honoured to be working alongside Chris, Rebecca and our Changemakers, and to be part of a team that’s focused on empathy, progress, and change.”

Smalling is known for following a plant-based diet himself, and previously invested in vegan food companies Heura in 2021 and THIS in 2020.