Social impact investing - creating a better future

Measuring the social impact we have on the world was front of mind in our recent networking lunch, kindly sponsored by Accuracy. The theme was social impact investing and in the spirit of the discussion, the selected venue was Instock - a cosy restaurant in Amsterdam which serves delicious dishes from products that would otherwise go to waste. Ingredients are collected daily from local supermarkets by an electrical food rescue car and the day’s menu is driven by what they collect.

Social impact Investing is seen as the new sustainable investing and is fast becoming a hot theme. In an inspiring presentation, guest speaker Warner Philips of Social Impact Ventures explained that social impact investment funds like his, support companies that are delivering scalable solutions for societal problems. A well-known example is Tony's Chocolonely. This Dutch company is passionate about chocolate but even more passionate about people. Their mission is therefore to create slave free chocolate with reliable and trustworthy cocoa farmers who can guarantee that everyone involved in production will be given a fair wage.

Warner's fund invests exclusively in Dutch social enterprises who champion one of six causes: clean tech, bio systems, economic development, civic engineering, health and wellbeing and education. His team look at every potential investment (numbering 800 so far) through a social impact lens: what is the societal problem the company is trying to solve? Who are the beneficiaries? Can the social impact be measured? And then of course - will it create a sufficient financial return? The latter is important but the social impact even more so for if a company fails to deliver on its social impact target, Warner's team relinquish their financial return on the investment which is then donated to charities. In the companies selected for investment, Social Impact Ventures takes a minority stake and then draw on their own entrepreneurial experience and network to help the companies grow. Lunch sponsor Accuracy and Van Doorne are just a few of the companies lending support in the investment process.

Taxi Electric is one of the companies in Warner's fund. Founded in 2011 and based in Amsterdam, it is the first fully electrical taxi service in Europe and its primary mission is to make the taxi market ‘greener’ with a fully electrical fleet of Nissan Leafs and Tesla’s. In addition to making the taxi market ‘greener’, Taxi Electric aims to contribute positively to society on other levels. This is reflected in their HR policy – recruiting actively among friendly unemployed 50+ people who have had a difficult time getting back to work, enabling several dozens of long-time unemployed to work. The impact targets set and measured for this investment are firstly the number of kilometers driven by Taxi Electric, representing a) the amount of GHG avoided (+ POx & NOx) and b) the number of passengers who become aware of electric driving by experiencing the Taxi Electric service. Secondly, the team measure the number of drivers hired by the company who fall in their target group (i.e. 50+ and/or distance to the labour market).

Warner's hope is to see a world where it is normal to be social and responsible. To walk into a supermarket where organic is the norm - and non-organic is the specially priced food in the dedicated section. We've a long way to go on this but that's exactly why he has a fund! The event was a great success; interesting subject, active discussion and valuable networking over a good lunch. Exactly what ACG Holland is all about.

Pictured left to right: Warner Philips, Social Impact Ventures, Murkje Koopmans & Bas van Helden, Accuracy