ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE
Our ESG Impact
Alongside strong investment outcomes, Pender Ventures seeks to make decisions that better our world and peoples’ lives. Fund I portfolio companies have significant impact in advancing six of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Our Fund I portfolio impact is quantified against the UN SDGs, focused across three themes:
In addition to quantitative impact, we track and support diversity initiatives, and report upon qualitative actions (such as community involvement) across our portfolio companies.
Diversity
We believe the diversity of our gender, race and background of experiences enhances our investment process and ultimately leads to better decisions. We also believe diversity is key to growing great companies. Without it, companies could develop significant blind spots in their assumptions about a market opportunity, how customers interact with products and how people work.
DIVERSE INVESTMENT TEAM
Gender-diverse investing teams are >3x more likely to invest in a female CEO and 2x more likely to invest in gender-diverse founders.¹ ²
DIVERSE FOUNDING TEAM
Gender and/or ethnically diverse founding teams are correlated with a 30% higher multiple of invested capital upon exit when compared to homogeneous teams.² ³
BETTER RETURNS
As a result of diverse teams investing in diverse founders exits for US firms with female partners are 9.7% more profitable and internal rates of return in global emerging markets are 20% higher.⁴
Research Money: It’s time to build a foundation for more equitable entrepreneurship, economic growth.
Before venture capital can have its full impact, it must fix its own equity issues.
The Impact of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on Corporate Performance
Wils Theagene - Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
(1) Diana Report: Women Entrepreneurs 2014: Bridging the Gender Gap in Venture Capital, Babson College, 2014.
(2) Kauffman Fellows Research Center presentation by Nihar Neelakanti to AllRaise Summit in Sedona, Arizona, Jan 2020.
(3) Kauffman Fellows Research Center, MaC Venture Capital: “Deconstructing the Pipeline Myth and the Case for More Diverse Managers,” Feb 2020
(4) “Moving Toward Gender Balance In Private Equity and Venture Capital,” Oliver Wyman, Rock Creek, IFC | World Bank Group, March 2019.