Project Liberty Institute, ReframeVenture & ImpactVC release two new milestones of their new global VC-track
Project Liberty Institute (PLI), together with its strategic partners ReframeVenture, the largest community of over 150 LPs and 500 VCs dedicated to responsible investment, and ImpactVC, the leading global network of impact-focused venture capital firms with more than 700 members, is proud to release two major milestones of the new joint VC-track on responsible and impactful investment in AI. The initiative, launched earlier this year at SuperVenture 2025 in Berlin, comes at a moment when investors across the world are trying to make sense of an AI landscape that is shifting faster than any previous technological wave.
This work complements the LP-facing initiative on responsible investment in data and AI that PLI leads in partnership with ReframeVenture and Omidyar Network, as well as the new initiative with PLI and United Nations B-Tech on updating human rights investor guidance for public and private markets with a focus on data agency in the AI economy. Together, these efforts sit within Project Liberty’s broader mission to catalyze a better AI economy rooted in data agency, ensuring that citizens and organisations can exercise real voice, choice, and stake in the digital age.
There is a sense of urgency running through this work. As AI systems move from research labs into every corner of the economy, investors are being asked to make decisions in an environment where technical complexity and societal expectations are rising in parallel. By equipping investors with the tools and evidence needed to navigate this uncertainty, the initiative aims to support a shift toward an innovation ecosystem that augments human agency rather than eroding it.
“Across global markets, we hear the same message from LPs and VCs: AI is moving faster than existing diligence and governance practices. ReframeVenture, ImpactVC and PLI built this toolkit and survey because investors urgently need guidance for how to navigate both risks and opportunities. They want practical ways to identify where value is created, where risk accumulates, and where companies may lose agency over their models and data. This is about giving investors the tools to shape more consciously a better AI economy,” said Paul Fehlinger, Director of Policy, Governance Innovation & Impact, who leads PLI’s work with asset owners, investors and entrepreneurs and wrote about the dual lens of impact and due diligence for AI investing in a recent Op-Ed in ImpactAlpha.
A First-Version Due-Diligence Toolkit for VCs
The AI application and infrastructure stack is evolving at exceptional speed, and this framework reflects a pioneering due-diligence tool developed with international input from GPs, LPs, operators, and domain experts. It is intentionally agile and iterative, designed to evolve as technologies mature, new risks emerge, and our shared understanding of AI’s impact deepens.
The toolkit provides VCs with a set of nuanced, sector- and stage-sensitive questions that can be directly integrated into their existing diligence flows. The tool helps investors probe what is material:
- Where the company is strong
- Where blind spots may exist
- Where hidden technical, governance, or model-dependency debt may accumulate
- How data, supplier choices, or architectural decisions affect operational resilience, user trust, compliance, and long-term agency
The focus on agency, trust, and model or supplier lock-in aligns with a growing shift among LPs, who increasingly expect VCs to ensure that companies maintain meaningful control over their data, models, and downstream decision-making environments, a prerequisite for scalable, interoperable, and rights-preserving AI.
The toolkit builds on convenings hosted across three contients jointly by ReframeVenture, ImpactVC, and PLI over the past six months at SuperVenture, FRAME, ImpactFlock, PLI’s partner university Stanford University, Responsible Investment Forum Asia, dedicated engagement sessions in Japan, and Norrsken Impact Week, as well as focused working-group consultations within PLI’s partner organizations. These discussions, often unfolding in packed rooms and side sessions, helped surface the practical challenges investors face and shaped a first tool version built to meet them where they are today.
A pioneering global VC Survey on Responsible and Impactful AI Investment
The second milestone of the joint efforts is the launch of the first-of-its-kind global survey of VCs focused on responsible and impactful AI investment, distributed across the ReframeVenture and ImpactVC communities.
The survey gathers the first comprehensive dataset on how VCs perceive the risks, opportunities, and responsibilities associated with AI development and deployment. It examines:
- Current VC capabilities in responsible AI due diligence
- How firms assess model dependencies, data provenance, trust, and governance
- Regulatory understanding across jurisdictions
- Where investors see the most pressing barriers, from technical gaps to governance challenges
- How LP expectations are evolving across the US, Europe, and Asia
By mapping these insights, the survey helps identify where investors need further guidance, and where new norms or infrastructure could meaningfully strengthen data agency and the ability of users – individuals, businesses, and ecosystems – to exercise voice, choice, and stake in AI-driven environments. Aggregated results will be included in a white paper in early 2026.