Aurum Impact

There are many reasons to be excited about impact investing. We asked our investment intern Zoé to share her motivations and interests on the topic! 💡   ➡ What motivated you to start impact investing?   Coming from an engineering background, I was often surrounded by people with inventive and problem-solving ideas who needed support to bring them to life. During my first internship in R&D consulting, I realized that there were many ways to help these new founders achieve their objectives, and I really enjoyed being in contact with them, hearing about their motivation, and using the skills I learned to the benefit of their ideas. With impact investing, I love supporting new projects that have the potential for really positive changes while being part of a lively ecosystem that enhances the impact we create.   ➡ What topics are you most excited about in terms of startups?   I am very excited to see startups develop innovative technologies to replace traditional energy production solutions. Technologies such as fusion, relying on novel and science-based approaches, have the potential to provide abundant and sustainable energy but still need more research and support to be realized. I am also very interested in startups working on biodiversity. Biodiversity is a complex topic, and as it is very challenging to predict the behavior of nature in response to any human activity, it is important to consider new approaches to restoring our ecosystems.   ➡ What exciting trends do you see in impact VC more generally?   It is interesting to see diversification in the scope of impact VC, especially in terms of focus areas. There are currently more and more funds seeking to have a positive impact not only on the environment but on our society more broadly. We see funds supporting topics such as climatetech, cleantech, and naturetech alongside more emerging topics such as education, inclusion, and affordable housing that have a direct impact on people.   Thank you for sharing, Zoé. It's a pleasure to have you on the team! 🌱   #ImpactVC #ClimateTech #Biodiversity #SocialImpact

After introducing you to some of our favorite podcasts on impact investing a few weeks ago, we would like to share relevant newsletters that advance the impact VC ecosystem 📰   ✊ Impact Supporters: August Solliv shares his knowledge on Impact VCs through deep dives, research, and discussions in his weekly issues. Reviewing the current burning matters as well as some methodology insights, Impact Supporters is quite exhaustive in the topics covered. ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ejeG_xeM   🌍 ClimateHack Weekly: Arman Anatürk provides us with the most up-to date news from the impact VC community. If you only have a few minutes ahead of you, ClimateHack Weekly summarizes all you need to know regarding current funding rounds and activity from new funds. ➡️ https://lnkd.in/egDm6VpV   🌱 CTVC: This newsletter by Sightline Climate (CTVC) is another great source of information on current funding rounds and market trends. Written for their community of investors, founders, and market leaders, they provide a broader perception of the market dynamics and evolution, and the major actors to follow. ➡️ https://www.ctvc.co/   💡Another great way we like to stay updated is to directly subscribe to the newsletters of impact VC funds, learning more about their portfolio updates and current focus areas. We recommend Revent's quarterly newsletter to never miss the news from their portfolio companies and community. ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dPBXuxUM   Any additions that we should know about? Feel free to share your favorite newsletters on impact investing in the comments below! 👇   #ImpactInvesting #ImpactVC #Newsletters

In a historic win for ecosystems, the #NatureRestorationLaw has been adopted by the European Union this week! It's the first continent-wide, comprehensive law of its kind aiming to restore Europe's ecosystems - 81% of which are currently in poor condition. The Nature Restoration Law sets targets to: 🌿 Restore at least 20% of the EU's land and sea areas by 2030, and ultimately all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050 🐝 Reverse pollinator decline by 2030, and achieve increasing trends for pollinator populations 🐟 Restore 25,000 km of rivers to a free-flowing state by 2030 🌻 Improve and re-establish biodiverse habitats on a large scale, spanning wetlands, forests, grasslands, and more While this is a remarkable win for ecosystems and all who depend on them (read: all of us), there's still more to do. Globally, 75% of land and 66% of marine environments have been altered by human activity, and one out of eight million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. In that vein: If you're a founder working on protecting or restoring ecosystems, please don't hesitate to reach out. We'd love to talk! #Ecosystems #Nature #Biodiversity #ImpactInvesting

Curious what motivates us about impact investing? Meet Marie from our team as she shares her motivations and insights on impact and early-stage VC! 💡   ➡ Why did you start impact investing? It’s never been more obvious to me that we need to redirect significant amounts of capital to address increasingly urgent global challenges: climate change, preserving natural ecosystems, and stabilizing societies. I’m an economist, and the main free market principle I learned at university was centered around Milton Friedman's doctrine of maximizing shareholder value at all costs. This relentless myopic pursuit of short-term profits and hypergrowth has pushed our systems, people, and planet to their limits. We have literally set our world on fire. I started impact investing because I believe in a shift towards a new paradigm in private markets, a future where companies are measured not just by their financial outcomes but by their contributions to a more responsible, sustainable, and empathetic world. People tell me that impact investing means sacrificing returns—this is a misconception, and I want to prove otherwise. For example, we have enormous markets that need to be decarbonized, and the financial opportunity is there for the taking.   ➡ What role do you think family offices can and should have in impact investing? When I joined Aurum Impact, I was introduced to a new concept: "patient capital." Despite my 6 years in venture capital, I had never encountered this term before. In VC, funds typically have a 10-year lifecycle to return investments to their backers. This model is well-suited to software businesses, where it's possible to experiment, rebuild, pivot, and test repeatedly. However, hardware solutions, especially in deeptech, often require more initial investment and often a longer period to demonstrate both technical and commercial success. For instance, in climatetech, hardware solutions can significantly reduce carbon emissions on a much larger scale than software. Family offices are particularly well-placed to drive impact investing due to their ability to take a long-term view that extends beyond the typical 10-year VC fund cycle. Without the pressure to return capital within a fixed timeframe, they can afford to provide the patient capital needed for companies that demand more time to mature. That being said, VC plays an important role in funding climate hardware as well, and there are big opportunities waiting for those who participate.   ➡ Are there any topics you are particularly excited about? Currently, I am particularly focused on the decarbonization of concrete production, the development of green chemicals, and the electrification of industrial heating processes. Additionally, as Aurum Impact is part of the GOLDBECK universe, we are keenly interested in any companies at the intersection of construction and climate! Thank you for sharing, Marie. It's a pleasure to have you on the team! 🌱 #ImpactVC #ClimateTech

Marie from our team will be at HackSummit this week! She’s eager to connect with purpose-driven founders and fellow impact investors, so reach out to her if you’re around. 🌍

The countdown has begun—only 6 days left until Hinterland of Things Our colleague Mats Multhaupt will be on site and is looking forward to connect with visionary founders! #Hinterland24 #ImpactInvesting

🚀 Great news! The new European Women in VC Report is out!   Here are some highlights that caught our attention:   ➡️ 9 in 10 of the VCs and LPs surveyed say that increased diversity in venture capital leads to better investment decisions and financial returns.   ➡️ Of the €53b raised by European tech startups in 2023, 1/3 was raised by positive impact startups that directly address one or more of the UN SDGs.   ➡️ More than 50% of the VCs surveyed said that improving the ESG performance of their portfolio companies is a top priority in the next 12 months.   It's inspiring to see the VC ecosystem stepping up and taking on an active role in driving sustainability and societal change. Thank you to European Women in VC for compiling these insights and for actively working to increase the number of women in VC management roles.   Of course, there's still a lot to do, especially in promoting diversity, and we would love to find more ways to contribute. What other diversity initiatives do you know about that we could get involved in and support? 🤝💬   🔗 Link to the report in the comments! #EuropeanWomeninVC #WomeninVC #Diversity #ImpactVC

Kelley Luyken will be at Katapult Future Fest this week! She is eager to meet fellow impact investors, change-makers, and purpose-driven founders, so reach out to her if you're around. 🌍 #KFF24 #KatapultFutureFest #ImpactInvesting

🔍📊 Countering political disinformation: How can we preserve trust in the political system? 📊🔍 The Problem: We're facing a crisis where political disinformation is weaponized to sway elections, erode trust, and destabilize societies. AI-generated disinformation was identified as the second largest risk of 2024 by the World Economic Forum, while a staggering 87% of people express concerns about the integrity of upcoming elections due to disinformation. While diving deep into this space, we found key hurdles to combating this issue: 🚀 Speed of spread: Disinformation spreads rapidly, demanding equally swift detection tools.   📊 Data challenges: AI-driven detection relies on datasets, which currently suffer from quantity and quality issues (e.g. perpetuating confirmation biases).    🕵♀️ Labor-intensive: Identifying disinformation requires nuanced contextual understanding that algorithms lack. Despite advances, detecting disinformation still heavily relies on human oversight.   💪 Power of platforms: Platforms are not incentivized to combat disinformation and benefit from engaging but potentially false content.   🚫 Potential for abuse: There is a risk that efforts to combat disinformation are exploited to silence dissenting opinions and undermine legitimate journalism.   Solution Space: At Aurum Impact we believe that effectively combating political disinformation demands a multi-stakeholder approach: 🏛  Government-level: Implement a comprehensive approach to combating disinformation, including enacting stricter regulations targeting creators and disseminators such as social media platforms, conducting awareness campaigns to educate on disinformation, and establishing intelligence teams to counter institution-level disinformation campaigns. 📢  Platform-level: Develop technology to combat disinformation by employing social (e.g. bot detection) and content-based (e.g., DeepFake detection) approaches to detect false information before dissemination, while also taking action to halt the spread of disinformation through the removal or flagging of false or misleading content. 👩💼  User-level: Promote awareness and empower society to combat disinformation by providing educational offerings and fact-checking tools to enable users to verify information themselves.   While we are seeing start-ups working on technology-mediated solutions to check information (see Cyabra) at the platform-level, they are mostly tackling non-political disinformation such as brand protection. Political fact-checking services at the user level are predominantly offered by journalistic initiatives and news agencies. Our ask to you: What strategies/levers do you believe are most impactful in the fight against political disinformation? Do you know of any innovative startups tackling political disinformation at the platform or user-level? We would love to connect on this important challenge.   Feel free to reach out via the comments or per DM to Mats Multhaupt 💡

🦋 Curious about tackling biodiversity issues from a VC perspective? While shaping our investment thesis around natural ecosystems and biodiversity, we've been relying on helpful resources crafted by two of our portfolio funds: 🌱 Biodiversity 101 by 2150 offers an insightful journey into the current state of biodiversity, drivers of biodiversity loss, and diverse solutions to reverse worrying trends. We especially like their discussion on how biodiversity underpins several ecosystem services that are vital for human and planetary health. Many aha-moments in there! 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eHitFM8N 📊 Planet A Ventures' Biodiversity Whitepaper dives deep on quantifying biodiversity impact, sharing their tailored biodiversity assessment approach along with its merits and limitations. Starting with an overview of existing biodiversity measurement frameworks really helped us get a feel for what's already out there and how Planet A is building on that. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eKK899En What are your favorite resources on biodiversity from an investment perspective? Please drop us a comment! 👇 #Biodiversity #Ecosystems #ImpactInvesting