It seems my Linkedin feed this week has mostly been folks raving about VentureESG's FRAME conference - and I wholeheartedly agree with all of them! Super day with a great group of VCs, LPs, and experts coming together to talk about the cutting edge of ESG in venture capital ✨
Huge congrats to Hannah, Johannes, Danika, and the team for curating such a wonderful group of people and topics - and making the space to have conversations on big questions including AI, funding climate innovation, and the role for more inclusive approaches to innovation 👏
It was great to play a small part in the day by co-hosting a breakout on Impact with Cecile Blilious and Dr. Bryan Scheler - and with fantastic contributions from some real experts on impact including Dama Sathianathan, Peter Hirsch, Martin Hullin, Joshua Haynes and many others. My takeaways from that discussion included:
🌍 Impact and ESG are different but can complement each other – to Cecile’s framing of ‘holistic impact’ that aligns these different ways of thinking and approaching change. [ESG being 'how' a company does things, and impact being 'what' a company does to deliver impact through products and services]
🎯 The difference you can make as an impact investor (‘additionality’) can be a mix of (i) helping make things happen that wouldn’t happen otherwise through funding things [earlier or at all] that others may not, and (ii) how your actions lead to better outcomes post-investment through the guidance, support, and connections you provide – including emphasising how and where doing impact well can drive commercial value.
📈 Over the last 5-10 years, as impact has become more mainstream and more funds invest in impact companies, the emphasis is increasingly on the second route. Impact investors in venture need to show the value they can add, over and above capital, for building high quality businesses that keep impact at their heart.
🗺 This same trend, as impact becomes more mainstream and more funds invest with or for impact, the navigation challenge becomes more complex – and there’s a role for platforms to play in signposting – including by helping both startups and LPs find the VCs doing impact well.
Thanks again to the VentureESG team - can't wait for next year! 🚀
#impact #vc #venture #startups Ellie Broad ImpactVC
