ESG
ESG factors are central to the investment decisions we make and our active participation in our investee companies. We use positive and negative screening as well as some thematic investment criteria such as diversity across the venture capital table. We have also committed to some impact investing criteria. We are looking for companies that align with our focus on three areas:
We assess our portfolio companies’ alignment with six of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals:
Diversity
We believe the diversity of our gender, race and background experiences gives us an edge in what and how we evaluate potential and that diversity leads to better decisions. We also believe diversity is key to growing great companies. Without it, leaders will find themselves with massive blind spots in ideas and assumptions about the market, how people behave and how they interact with your products.
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 INVESTMENT 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
Articles by Maria Pacella, CFA
(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.