We implement the Impact Management Project guidelines and the UN SDGs framework to assess, manage and report the social and environmental impact of each portfolio company.
We make decisions based on five overarching principles:
1. Lock-step – we back companies where the bottom line is dependent on the social or environmental outcome delivered. This is how business can deliver impact at scale.
2. Business centric – we co-design our impact KPIs with our founders. These are intrinsically linked to the daily operational success of the business.
3. 80:20 – we can’t measure all impact, but we can measure what matters most. We apply the Pareto principle, concluding that 20% of what we can measure, will capture 80% of the impact.
4. System change – impact can be binary in the early stages of a business, and is only apparent when the business solution becomes systemic. This requires an intentional founder and patience, as impact will not always be immediately apparent.
5. Incentives aligned – our fund structure is set up so that our incentives are aligned with the delivery of financial and impact goals.