Funders

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of individuals or organizations that provide financial support for projects or initiatives
2. Entities engaged in the act of supplying capital to startups or research ventures in exchange for potential returns
3. Sources of monetary assistance aimed at enabling the development or continuation of various activities or causes

Etymology: "Funders" is simply the plural of "funder," formed by adding the agent suffix "-er" to the verb "fund." "Fund" entered English in the 1600s, borrowed from the Latin "fundus," meaning "bottom" or "foundation," which also gave English "foundation" and "fundament." The financial sense grew out of that idea of a base or reserve: a fund was originally a stock of money set aside as a foundation for an enterprise. "Funder" itself is a much more recent formation, and its meaning has narrowed over time. The earlier sense of "to fund" was simply to put money into a debt or a permanent reserve, sometimes as a government consolidated debt. The modern use of "funder" for investors backing startups and research projects grew with the late twentieth-century venture capital and grant-making world, so the word now carries that specific sense of exchanging capital for potential returns.

Synonyms: financers, backers, investors, sponsors, patrons