Thought Leadership

For the fourth consecutive year the BVCA has partnered with ESG_VC, now the portfolio arm of VentureESG, to produce the annual research into the ESG performance of venture-backed businesses.

Ahead of the Excellence in Impact Awards, Judge Alex Shadbolt, Future Planet Capital, writes about how unlocking pension fund investment into private markets presents a crucial opportunity to align institutional capital with long-term impact.

Ahead of the Excellence in Impact Awards, Judge Zoë VanderWolk, ETF Partners, writes about how Europe is leading the shift in impact investing, evolving from experimental innovation to a mature discipline with robust frameworks and transparent accountability.

Co-authored by Mei Lim, CFO, and Sonia Powar, Venture Partner at Anthemis, who put forward the argument that despite the sectors rapid growth in the US, the UK venture debt market is still currently restrained by a series of barriers to investment.

Ahead of the Excellence in Impact Awards, judge Sarah Teacher, Impact Investing Institute, shares her insights on how commitments from the Government and the private capital industry are making the UK a leader in sustainable and impact finance.

Ahead of the Excellence in Sustainability Awards, judges – Maria Carradice and Michelle Lamprecht – share their reflections on the drivers accelerating ESG adoption in the UK.

There will come a point when President Trump is not mentioned in every opinion piece you read in the media. But that moment has not yet arrived, I have to warn you. Not in this contribution at least.

We are seeing a developing industry shift from focusing solely on cost to embracing long-term value and truly recognising the win-win proposition that stands before both the Venture Capital and Pension industries. This evolution is increasingly evident in how Pension Schemes are beginning to approach their investment decisions. The move towards a Value for Money framework is a welcome development. This framework is less about comparing fees and more about understanding the quality of returns over time for savers who depend on these funds for their retirement. Such an approach is vital if we are to create a truly sustainable investment landscape. 

Sometimes in life the numbers, like the existential issues that surround them, just come at you thick and fast. And there’s been a blizzard of them in one particular direction in recent weeks.

The issue of getting more UK pensions fund investment into private capital is one the BVCA has long championed. However, it has become something of a hot topic in recent years, with both the last and the current Government increasingly seeing that it's a conundrum that, if resolved, provides solutions to two challenges keeping them up at night: the lack of UK growth and a pending retirement crisis.