Please note that this is our June 2023 newsletter. Our latest newsletter will be released in early October.
Hello from the VentureESG Team!
If you’re new here, welcome to our quarterly newsletter, where we share updates and resources from within our community. With almost two quarters of the year behind us, summer is in full swing and we’ve got lots of news to share.
In this issue: website update, our latest research and projects, our trainings, upcoming ecosystem events, and news from our community.
Welcome to New Members
While more than 450 funds are part of the wider VentureESG community, 120 funds have now signed up as paid members. Over the last few months, we’ve onboarded the following funds which we’re delighted to welcome into the group: EightRoads, Good Karma Ventures, b2venture, Five Seasons Ventures, IQ Capital, Sand River, African Renaissance Partners, Africa Growth LLC, Nesta, Dawn Capital, Base10, Blossom Capital, SuperSeed and Activate Capital.
Exciting News! — Website Re-launch
You might have noticed that we haven’t been sending anyone to our website for a while; this is because we have been working behind the scenes to revamp the page to reflect our professionalised identity and all the new developments over the last year. Soon, you’ll be able to find all the relevant info about the community, our membership, research, and whitepapers as well as public resources and news, all in one place. Keep an eye on ventureesg.com in the coming few weeks! We will send another email once the site is live!
New Resources and Writing
Earlier this year, we launched our Portfolio Support Tool and the “E” Term Sheet Clause. We’ve also recently released three new add-ons to the VentureESG ‘Universe of Issues’ covering biotech and life sciences, human rights, and very topically: AI ethics. Short write-ups on Medium introduce the three specific extensions and a more detailed whitepaper provides additional context for our human rights work.
Kindred’s Liz Broderick shares her motivations for creating the Portfolio Support Tool. If you want to get involved with the working group which Liz is leading to continually update the tool, please get in touch!
Our steering committee member Shaun Chaudhuri of San Francisco-based Westly Group shares his thoughts on the creation of the clause and the overall tool and Melina Sánchez Montañés of AENU provides early learnings from implementing such a clause at a fund-level.
Research fellow Dr. Rob Quinlan talks us through his research for the framework extension, the development of the concrete tool, and use cases for it going forward. We are continuing our work in this space, supported by Pictet Alternative Advisors, so please email us if you are interested in getting involved further.
Authored by our research fellow Joanne Azem, this post introduces the context of human rights in VC, the background for her research, and the development of the framework. We launched the paper at our partner, White & Case’s, office in March and will continue the important conversation going forward. Note that the PRI has also recently released a guide on human rights in due diligence that is worth looking at!
Dr. Ravit Dotan led a fantastic project on integrating AI Ethics into VC decision-making. We co-launched her paper, toolkit, and flowchart in December 2022 and you can access all resources here. A 'generative AI workshop' will follow soon!
Upcoming Projects: LP, web3, Emerging Markets
Our longstanding Asset Owner / LP research project funded by Luminate has finally passed the review stage. The whitepaper is being formatted as we speak and will be released soon with a public virtual launch. We’re holding more LP convenings over the next year, so please get in touch to learn more.
Our Crypto/ Web3 ESG project, led by Cessiah Lopez and funded by the Minderoo Center at the University of Cambridge, is going into its final phase. We are devising a first set of ESG questions specific to the space which we will test over the coming weeks with VC investors. The tool and whitepaper will be released over the course of the summer months. An in-person launch in the UK is in the planning phase for Q3.
The Emerging Markets ESG project, led by our research fellow Melissa Patel and funded by British International Investment, has picked up speed with the first conversations with both LPs and VCs behind us; we are still looking for VCs and LPs active in emerging markets to talk to, so please get in touch. More work in this context will involve a forthcoming project with the German development organisation, GIZ.
We are also working on a unified version of the ‘Universe of ESG Issues’, which will combine the standard universe with all the extensions — on AI ethics, human rights, biotech, and so on — in a single document. This will be released in Q3.
We are always looking for more insights from our community members! Keen to share some of your best practices with the community? Get in touch and we can talk about how you could contribute to our Community Blog.
Leading in ESG: Training for VCs and LPs
Last year we developed and piloted the first ESG training for Venture Capital together with KfW Capital and the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt. This year we are rolling the training out widely across the globe and are testing different formats.
We completed an additional three cohorts in Q1, bringing the total of participating funds to almost 20. In addition to our first training in collaboration with the BBB in London and a second German cohort, we also completed a pilot in San Francisco with Lightspeed, Sapphire, Westly Group, NGP, and Salesforce Ventures. Upcoming cohorts in London (late June) and Germany (October/November) will take us to an overall of at least six cohorts and almost 30 participating funds before the end of the year. We have also started to train LPs, including several teams at the BBB, BPC and KfW Capital.
So far, the feedback from participants has been fantastic:
“Participating in the first Leading in ESG training cohort was enormously valuable in deepening our understanding of the importance of ESG considerations in seed investing. The training provided us with practical tools and resources to improve the way we integrate ESG analyses into our investment process. With backgrounds in both academia and the investment profession, their approach feels holistic and flexible.”
Moritz Nathusius, GC, Cherry Ventures
“Initiatives like VentureESG are enormously important for the development of the market and have already brought the ecosystem a great deal forward. For us, especially the partnership and joint creation of the “Leading in ESG” training has a great added value and we are happy to now be able to offer our funds a tailor made training for ESG in VC.”
Theresa Bardubitzki, Head of Sustainability, KfW Capital
We are also working on a more accessible offering for first-time managers later this year. If you are interested in that, please fill out this form.
If you generally want to learn more about the programme or are interested in taking part, visit leadinginesg.com or submit your interest here!
Upcoming VentureESG & Ecosystem Events
'Abortion Is Your Business': A virtual briefing with Synastry Capital | Online | June 22:
Synastry Capital is hosting a private virtual briefing on June 22 at 12pm EST on the urgent state of reproductive rights in the US and the impact on the economy, innovation, and democracy. The primary audience is private investors across the US. Pre-registration is required: please register here.
VentureESG x White & Case Summer Party @ The Standard | June 29 [Members only]
'Finding What Works: Pathways to Improve Diversity in VC' Launch | London | July 5:
The British Business Bank is hosting a launch event for their latest research: 'Finding What Works: Pathways to Improve Diversity in VC Investment'. The event will be held on July 5 at King's Place, London. Please register here.
Virtual AMA with Cecile Bilious (Pitango) | July 19 [Members only]
The Unspoken Side of VC Governance with World Economic Forum | Sept 6 | London
Deep Dive: ESG for Minority Investors | Sept 7 | Virtual [Members only]
PRI Forum Discussion on Generative AI:
In light of the rapid evolution of generative AI in recent months and its widespread adoption by technology companies and the broader public, PRI staff invite signatories to engage in their discussion on generative AI. Through productive discussion and information-sharing in this online forum, this collaboration will help build collective awareness of the risks and opportunities associated with generative AI among investors.
Join Our Function-Specific Groups!
We are running regular (members-only) meetings for Heads of ESG in VCs, IR teams, and also around portfolio support. Please let us know whether you would like to join any of these groups.
Past Events
A reminder of our recent sessions:
Breakfast at Frog Capital | London | 13th June
VentureESG Membership Information Session | 8th June
SuperVenture | Berlin | June 5 and 6
Sahar LP townhall | London | June 1
Breakfast at Active Partners | May 11
Insights | SVB, good governance, and sustainability — with Mathew Sekol | May 2
AMA with Mathew Joseph (members-only) | April 21
If you would like to partner with us on an event or would like to request a topic for the remainder of the 2023 schedule, please get in touch here.
VentureESG in the News
Sifted - May 2023 | ESG term sheet clauses (our co-director Hannah was quoted and so were many of our member funds)
Manager Magazin - May 2023 | Die Schattenseiten der Start-Up Szene (in German, on sexism in the German startup scene) (our co-director Johannes was quoted)
Pitchbook - April 2023 | 23 VC firms commit to net-zero portfolio by 2050 (Johannes was quoted)
Impact Alpha - April 2023 | Managing human rights risks rises up the agenda of VC investors (Johannes and Joanne are the authors)
Semafor - March 2023 | Nonprofits push startup diversity aims during Silicon Valley Bank crisis (Johannes was quoted)
Fortune - March 2023 | White founders receive some $35 million more across the funding cycle than Black and brown founders (more on our work with the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Centre here)
ImpactAlpha - Feb 2023 | We wrote on 'How Europe is recalibrating tech one ESG step at a time.' (Hannah and Johannes are the authors)
Sifted - Feb 2023 | Johannes wrote a heartfelt Op-Ed on the role of men in the diversity conversation: 'VC diversity needs to change — and white men need to take responsibility.’
News From The Community
Diversity VC has launched their next research initiative, The Equity Record — powered by HSBC Innovation Banking. Please take 5 minutes to contribute to their DEI in VC dataset: link here.
Balderton have just published their 'Startup Guide to ESG', a fantastic 101 of ESG for (early stage) companies. Find it here.
Quite a few funds in our group have published ESG and impact reports recently - congratulations! AENU have published their first AENU Impact Report, for instance, and the Westly Group's ESG Report is already in its second edition.
Amnesty International continue their scrutiny of the tech and VC ecosystem with a new report on LP practices; they focused especially on US university endowments integration of ESG and produced a ranking topped by the University of California, Harvard and Yale. Find their report here.
Northzone is continuing to publish very valuable insights and learnings from their ESG journey on their Notion page; visit the recent Chapter 3 on measuring the climate footprint of both VCs and early-stage companies.
Piva Capital in partnership with Nasdaq ESG Advisory have released a joint paper on ESG and impact integration for venture-backed companies: What Should Climate Tech Startups Consider?
Tesi has created an Excel-based SG matrix to help venture capital and private equity investors develop the sustainability of startups and growth companies.
The PRI has published a paper on the effectiveness of divestment strategies. It contains thoughtful reflections on popular divestment methods and concludes with practical implications for responsible investing.
Connect With Us
Everyone in our community can join our free Slack and for members, remember to join our WhatsApp group (and the members-only Slack): the links are in your onboarding email. For anyone who is interested in learning more about VentureESG and wants to join the community, register your interest here. For any questions, you can always reach us at hello@ventureesg.com!
One Last Thing...
We are sad to announce that Jas, our fantastic Programme Director who has been holding things together for more than a year now, will leave us at the end of June to focus on her startup Kālā. We have taken this as an opportunity to restructure VentureESG a little bit — more on that in the next newsletter. For now: thank you so very much, Jas, for all your support in building this organisation and community!
The VentureESG team
Hannah, Johannes, Denise, Veronika, Ginny, and the whole team
