ProVen Growth and Income VCT | ESG

Beringea LLP is the Investment Manager of ProVen Growth and Income VCT plc.

Beringea invests in the growth of early-stage businesses. Increasingly, the commercial success of these businesses is being driven by a focus upon environmental, social, and economic issues.

Employees, consumers, corporate clients, investors and regulators are demanding that companies embrace these issues – often referred to as environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria. Early-stage businesses that focus upon ESG are, therefore, able to attract and retain talent, build a loyal customer base, secure investment and remain compliant with evolving regulation.

Beringea believes that providing the entrepreneurs that it backs with the tools to become better corporate citizens will drive commercial performance, and there is a clear opportunity for ESG to become a key part of its internal operations, investment process and portfolio management.

Our primary objective remains delivering long-term returns for our shareholders, acting in accordance with each fund’s stated investment policy and within the conditions imposed upon them (for example the VCT Regulations).

This purpose of this policy is to set out how Beringea will conduct its business responsibly and in line with ESG-related principles and how we will encourage the companies we invest in to do the same.

The Beringea partners have overall accountability for the delivery of the ESG Investment Policy. Beringea has established an ESG Committee made up of the Founding Partner, the Managing Partner, the Chief Investment Officer and representatives of the investment team, HR and legal teams which meet regularly to monitor, oversee and develop the implementation of the ESG Investment Policy and share ideas on best policy and practice.

• Ensure Beringea takes a socially responsible approach to investing throughout its investment cycle and considers the potential impact of the businesses it invests in on the environment, society (including workers and communities) and the economy as a whole.

• Always be non-discriminatory (whether on grounds of gender, race or disability), and apply equality and diversity in our employment practices.

• Consider any potential portfolio company’s sector and geography for any ESG concerns and, in particular, not invest in companies which predominantly profit from the sale of weapons, pornography, gambling, pay day lending or unfair labour practices and in the event an existing portfolio company develops significant activities in such areas, to use our best endeavours to exit such investment.

• Conduct our business activities in line with the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (the “Principles”):
  • incorporate ESG issues into our investment analysis and decision making processes;
  • be active owners and incorporate ESG issues into our ownership policies and practices;
  • seek appropriate disclosure on ESG issues by the entities in which we invest;
  • promote acceptance and implementation of the Principles within the investment industry;
  • work together to enhance our effectiveness in implementing the Principles; and
  • report on our activities and progress towards implementing the Principles.

Beringea is spearheading ESG_VC, an initiative involving more than 50 leading European venture capital funds to provide early-stage companies with a measurement framework and resources to benchmark and maximise ESG performance. ESG_VC Steering Committee currently comprises the BVCA, Lakestar, Atomico, Octopus, 8Roads, and others.

As part of this initiative, Beringea has partnered with Social Value Portal, a platform for analysing ESG throughout large organisations and a member of the Beringea portfolio, to build a venture-ready ESG measurement framework (the “VC ESG Assessment Tool”).

The tool - based upon the learnings of existing frameworks developed by Social Value Portal - asks early-stage companies to consider 42 measures against ESG objectives.

Designed to provide an entry to ESG scoring, the framework can be easily implemented from Seed to Growth stage, across companies spanning B2B and B2C sectors, resulting in a tangible ESG score and a list of key areas to address to improve ESG performance.

Beringea plans to incorporate this framework into our investment process and portfolio management by: 

• making the VC ESG Assessment Tool available to all potential portfolio companies as part of the due diligence process to allow Beringea to understand how the business is performing against key ESG considerations;

• encourage all existing portfolio companies to complete the VC ESG Assessment Tool on an annual basis to help them understand and improve their ESG performance; and

• provide portfolio companies with access to an annual programme of events and training as well as off-the-shelf resources that can help them address the findings of the VC ESG Assessment Tool, from sustainability and diversity to internal policies.  

Beringea also plans to embrace the principles of ESG_VC within its own internal operations, ensuring that it is also a good corporate citizen.

Where relevant, Beringea will participate in accreditations and initiatives to tackle specific challenges faced by our organization and the wider venture capital industry. For example, Beringea achieved Level 1 in the Diversity VC Standard, a benchmark for diversity and inclusion best practice in venture capital.