The playbook of social venture capital funds is constantly being rewritten to attract larger amounts of capital and generate attractive returns. One of the more recent themes is a trend toward investing into enterprises which focus on implementing technologies to create social value. The reasons is that digital products and services are scalable and promise higher margins. The underlying trend is that digitalization enabled the development of new business models, which are becoming increasingly relevant and important in the context of social enterprises. There are now business models, which are only feasible because of the availability of digital tools. Ultimately, it becomes necessary to understand the implications of this trend. Our analysis is based on 397 investments from 13 different funds. This article discusses the split in non-tech and tech investments we have observed in the portfolios of social venture capital funds. It also analyzes the specific fields and factors influencing the activities, such as a potential time lag or the potential to create impact. This article concludes with a discussion of the limits of digital business models.
