The goal of our fund II was to measure impact. In 2021, we’ve not only gotten into the rhythm of doing so with our portfolio companies but have had the chance to go one step further and enhance impact through tailored support. We call this approach “Impact as a Service” and includes advising in impact measurement and governance, ESG and D&I.
We’re excited to share our reflections on 2021 in this impact report. Inside you’ll find: a letter from Olivier de Duve, our Managing Partner; a deep-dive into gender and diversity; individual portfolio-level impact performance; a 2022 outlook, and more.
Some 2021 highlights:
- Inventures was invited to speak at around a dozen events, including the Global Steering Group (GSG) - the world’s largest impact conference
- Our companies created 311 jobs in Europe and around the world, up 15% from 2020
- 64% of our companies had women co-founders or executives, an improvement from 45% in 2020
On our methodology: we root our impact process in industry best practices. When we first invest in a company, we run through the Impact Management Project Framework with each company to get a sense of their What, Who, How Much, Contribution and Risk. Using this analysis, we work together on their individual impact theory of change (input, output, outcome and impact) to measure year-on-year impact progress, define KPIs and set yearly targets.
Throughout the lifetime of the investment, we check-in with our companies at least 2x per year to touch-base on progress towards yearly goals and to ensure that they are getting the impact support that they need.
Overall, it's been rewarding to see how our companies have scaled impact as they grew in 2021, and we even anticipate having our own future “impact Unicorns” in the portfolio. We look forward to your comments and wish you good reading.