Aleksandra, Author at ETF Partners

How to close the accuracy gap & comprehensively calculate emissions

30th January 2023 3:02 pm Comments Off

Most environmentally conscious businesses understand the importance of calculating emissions and that it does more than just fight climate change. It keeps their businesses legally compliant and ready to seize opportunities. However, research shows 91% of businesses aren’t calculating their full emissions.

Our portfolio company Normative.io has just released an insightful piece which addresses the ‘accuracy gap’ stopping businesses from calculating their full emissions, its causes and consequences and how businesses can overcome this crippling challenge.

Read the full article HERE.

ESG vs Impact: what investors need to know

26th January 2023 2:56 pm Comments Off

Our Managing Partner Patrick Sheehan examines the growth of the impact and sustainable investment markets in his new article for ESG Investing.

Patrick discusses the rise of ESG/impact/sustainability/responsible investment, the confusion that these terms still generate and understanding the nuances of implementing ESG practices within startups vs. large public companies.

“Back in my world working with exciting young companies, we face increasingly large and diverse information requests under the headline of ESG. Each is valid with good individual reasons and needs, but these usually have little to no practical value for our fledgling companies. They do not encourage behaviour change but are more frequently seen as an information tax on entrepreneurs who are already trying to make a positive difference in the world.

So, we find ourselves as venture capitalists increasingly as gatekeepers, protecting our family of companies from ‘bureaucracy’ so they can focus on what really matters, whilst also trying to service the needs of our clients and investors. While those needs are real, it is often not clear what, if anything, the collected information will be used for.”

Read Patrick’s article in full HERE.

Fashion isn’t ready for the regulation coming for it

25th January 2023 11:07 am Comments Off

The fashion industry is facing a wave of regulation and increased customer expectations of transparency and sustainability. This article from The Business of Fashion mentions our portfolio company FAIRLY MADE®’s partnership with LVMH as an example of what the industry is doing to meet this challenge.

We’re proud to support the FAIRLY MADE® team in their work to transform how fashion brands can efficiently and transparently analyse their supply chain processes to better understand their impact.

Read the full article HERE.

Episode 10: In conversation with IKEA’s Former Head of Sustainability Innovation, Håkan Nordkvist

24th January 2023 2:29 pm Comments Off

In this episode of ‘Sustainability Talks’ our managing partner Rob Genieser talks to Håkan Nordkvist, former Head of Sustainability Innovation at IKEA. With 25 years experience across supply chain and sustainability, Håkan was one of the early champions of the need to build a leading sustainable corporation. He led sustainable innovation to transform IKEA and create value for its customers by identifying positive sustainably driven business solutions.
Håkan discusses his experiences and insight as the leading visionary in transforming global retail through innovation and how retailers can embed sustainability throughout their business around the world. Listen to the episode in full below or on your favourite podcast platform HERE

About Håkan

Håkan Nordkvist is the Former Head of Sustainability Innovation for the IKEA Group. An exceptionally talented leader with a human-centric vision, he is known for his innovative solutions and has played an integral role in developing many of IKEA’s sustainability services. Talented and courageous, Håkan is gifted at setting bold futuristic goals and ambitions and then successfully implementing those goals through innovative initiatives, road maps and creative businesses and solutions for a better future.
Holding an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Lulea Tekniska, Håkan joined IKEA as a Quality Manager in 2001. Over the course of his career, he has been heavily involved in many innovative projects for IKEA. Leading the sustainability and innovation team for 11 years, Håkan combined cutting-edge innovation with sustainability to build new businesses for IKEA. His team was responsible for building IKEA’s clean energy service which now operates in 13 countries around the globe. Today it is one of the largest clean energy businesses.
Another project Håkan directed was food innovation. He introduced plant-based protein and new dishes to the IKEA restaurant and utilised urban/vertical farming to locally produce lettuce and herbs, in addition to creating efficient food waste initiatives. Håkan played a fundamental role in implementing IKEA’s circular business agenda. This involved developing new innovative business models like Furniture as A Service, IKEA Second Hand and IKEA Take Back and Repair. This was followed by a local production set-up with 3D printing, collaborative robotics, and generative design.
Outside IKEA, Håkan is one of the founders and chairman of Launch Nordic, a creative platform which was created with Nike, NASA, USAID and Novozymes. Moreover, Håkan served on the board of BoKlok a company which specialises in building affordable sustainable housing. As a speaker, Håkan is highly articulate on the topics of innovation, sustainability, intrepreneurship, circularity and leadership.

Follow Håkan Nordkvist on LinkedIn
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Room for Optimism as we Enter 2023, Despite the Most Seismic Macroeconomic Challenge of the Modern Era

20th January 2023 2:51 pm Comments Off

Our managing partners Patrick Sheehan and Rob Genieser have co-authored a new article exploring what’s in store for the world of sustainability investing in 2023 and laying out their predictions for the year ahead.

Despite the most seismic macroeconomic challenge of the modern era, as we enter 2023 there is room for optimism and opportunity. As Patrick and Rob explain:

“Young businesses have an advantage over established companies in these periods of uncertainty because they are able to adapt and respond to change much more rapidly if, and only if, they are managed astutely by great entrepreneurs and backed by investors who have been here before. Seasoned investors know this.

Indeed, many of them have run multiple funds through recessions and come out ahead, partly because the entrepreneurs they invest in have been able to get their hands on resources more cost-effectively than in boom times. That is why we can expect them to keep on investing through a recession; history says it is the best time to thoughtfully do so.”

Read the article in full over on our Medium blog HERE.

11 agritech startups to watch 2022

18th January 2023 2:46 pm Comments Off

2022 was a record breaking year for agritech investment in Europe: investors poured $1.4bn into the sector, up from $1.1bn in 2021, according to Dealroom data. It is estimated that the global food system will need to provide for an estimated 9.7bn people by 2050, and with the continued push for net zero this will need to be achieved sustainably.

The need for innovation in the agriculture sector is clear so Sifted have asked four leading VCs which startups are on their radar.

Our partner Tomer Strikovsky spoke to Sifted to share his top agritech startups to watch in 2023!

Read Tomer’s predictions HERE.

Eagle Genomics’ Scale-Up Funding from OMRON Ventures to Drive Sustainability Innovation in Microbiome R&D

17th January 2023 2:43 pm Comments Off

The good news keeps coming!

We’re thrilled to share that Eagle Genomics has secured additional scale-up investment from Omron Ventures Co., Ltd. to support the ongoing development of their e[datascientist] platform as well as continued global expansion and increased client impact.

Eagle Genomics is a pioneering TechBio platform business applying network science1 to biology. Their e[datascientist]™ uses multilayer hypergraphs to structure and interrogate data, applying AI to network science to derive data-driven insight journeys into complex problems at scale.

Anthony Finbow, CEO, Eagle Genomics, said: “We are the pre-eminent platform business using next-generation graph technology and network science to drive the Bioeconomy. We support our enterprise customers to achieve more sustainable and impact-orientated innovation outcomes by harnessing the knowledge of the microbiome. This is especially important in areas of unmet clinical need, such as metabolic health and cardiovascular health, where the microbiome’s effect is becoming increasingly more prevalent and critical.”

Congratulations to the team at Eagle Genomics and it’s fantastic to have Omron Ventures Co., Ltd. onboard supporting them in this next stage of growth.

Shippeo secured additional investment from our good friends at PKN ORLEN S.A.!

16th January 2023 3:50 pm Comments Off

Excellent news from our portfolio company Shippeo, the leading platform for the real-time supply chain visibility, who have secured additional investment from our good friends at PKN ORLEN S.A.!

Shippeo provides predictive and real-time visibility into goods delivery. The AI-based platform aggregates data from hundreds of sources in real-time to calculate the estimated time of delivery arrival with 98% accuracy. By allowing customers to control their supply chains, Shippeo will enable the industrials sector to manage their carbon footprint and boost revenue.

The company plans to allocate the capital raised in the current round of financing to further development of the platform and expansion to the markets of North America and Asia.

We at ETF Partners are excited to welcome PKN ORLEN S.A. aboard and join us along with Shippeo’s existing investors Battery Ventures, Partech, Otium Capital, NGP Capital, Bpifrance Digital Venture, LFX Venture Partners, Yamaha Motor Ventures for this next stage of their voyage.

TMM and Zeelo included in Startups Magazine’s fifteenth annual ‘Startups 100 Index’

11th January 2023 3:40 pm Comments Off

We are thrilled to see that two of our portfolio companies, The Modern Milkman and Zeelo, are included in Startups Magazine’s fifteenth annual ‘Startups 100 Index’, the UK’s longest-running directory of the top 100 most disruptive new businesses.

Congrats to Simon Mellin, Sam Ryan and both teams for this well deserved recognition!

Check out the full list HERE.

What’s in store for climate tech in 2023?

9th January 2023 11:29 am Comments Off

Our managing partners Patrick Sheehan and Rob Genieser recently spoke to Sifted to share their thoughts and predictions on what’s in store for climate tech in 2023. Coming out of a record year for European climate tech in 2022, where the sector brought in more funding than any year before, Patrick and Rob discuss how to maintain and build upon this record growth even further in 2023.

“A new trend we see emerging and one which will be one of the biggest in 2023, is the need for software to provide measurement and data around sustainability; a demand for genuine data science companies to provide real meaning in the market. Take FAIRLY MADE® , they offer supply chain visibility and impact measurement for the fashion industry. Data which enables better decisions and with better decisions comes a more efficient, less carbon intense society. This information is there. It is at our fingertips and so we need to go out there and use it. Previously we have not really done this, and when we have tried, the data has not been trusted, but when we move to third party providers, we achieve accuracy, transparency and consistency and these things combined enable trust, which is critical.

Let us not forget that no matter the state of the economy, the world around us continues to change.

The climate emergency is real, it is not going away, and better models are needed to not only predict things like floods and forest fires but deal with the billions of people who will be displaced because of them. Industries that are focusing on the next five to ten years and changing the way we live, and work will have some degree of protection, and these are exactly the types of industries we expect to prosper in a recession.”

— Patrick Sheehan and Rob Genieser, Managing Partners at ETF Partners.

Urbantz recognised in the Gartner Market Guide for Last-Mile Delivery Solutions Technology

6th January 2023 11:19 am Comments Off

Congratulations to our portfolio company Urbantz for kicking off the new year in style! The company was recently recognised in the Gartner Market Guide for Last-Mile Delivery Solutions Technology.

In case you didn’t know, Urbantz is a leading last-mile delivery management platform. Its cloud-based SaaS solution is used in more than 15 countries by retailers such as Carrefour and leading logistics providers to digitalise last-mile deliveries. Their proprietary solution is designed to improve the operational efficiency and reliability of services and reduce the environmental impact of this increasingly essential part of the supply chain in our cities.

Well done to the entire Urbantz team and thank you to Gartner for this prestigious recognition!

More details HERE.

2022 success makes us optimistic and realistic for 2023

5th January 2023 10:34 am Comments Off

In our first Medium article of the year, we review an eventful 2022! Investors were greatly challenged through the year, as European economies came under pressure, and a number of high-profile technology companies faltered.

However, we at ETF Partners did not see such a decline when it came to our individual portfolio companies. In fact, to the contrary, we saw a great deal of success, as these companies continued to post outstanding growth. Simply put, there is an ongoing need for their sustainability oriented, digital solutions in today’s world, and that makes us optimistic of what 2023 can bring.

In this article, we’ll be highlighting the positive impacts our portfolio companies have had, their individual successes and the wider encouraging trends that give us reason to be optimistic.

Most notably among these, 2022 saw industry-wide recognition for sustainable investing, and our team at ETF Partners was pleased to recognised for this important work, including awards from Real Deals Media (Venture Capitalist of the year in the #ESG category), The British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) (Excellence in #ESG category) and Deloitte/ICAEW (highly commended within the Finance of the Future category).

Read more on our latest Medium article HERE.

How to close the accuracy gap & comprehensively calculate emissions

ESG vs Impact: what investors need to know

Author Archives: Aleksandra