Apollo Joins Impact Investing Rush With Goal to be Market Leader

September 15, 2020

(Bloomberg) Apollo Global Management Inc. is venturing into the world of impact investing, a corner of finance where most of its private equity peers already have substantial operations.

Venture capital firms to include “diversity riders” in term sheets

August 26, 2020

(Axios) Ten venture capital firms on Wednesday will announce that they’re now including “diversity riders” in term sheets submitted to startups, requiring that best efforts are made to bring underrepresented investors into the deals.

Private Equity Makes ESG Promises. But Their Impact Is Often Superficial.

June 29, 2020

(Institutional Investor) Alongside Bono, Richard Branson, and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, private equity firm TPG launched the Rise Impact fund in 2016. The offering committed “to deliver positive and sustainable impact” while creating a “top-performing fund.”

NVCA Launches Nonprofit Venture Forward to Shape the Future of Venture Capital

June 16, 2020

(PR Newswire) The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) today launched Venture Forward, a 501(c)(3) non-profit to shape the future of venture capital and meet the growing needs of the venture capital (VC) industry that extend beyond public policy. Venture Forward will drive the human capital, culture, values, and narrative of venture capital, to promote a strong…

Dynamic Materiality In The Time Of COVID-19

April 19, 2020

(Forbes) Three months ago, in what seems like another age, I wrote about the concept of dynamic materiality. It was developed by Thomas Kuh, Andre Shepley, Greg Bala, and Michael Flowers of Truvalue Labs (TVL), a San Francisco-based technology company (to whom I’m an advisor) which uses AI and big data to develop signals on…

Over Two Years After #MeToo Harassment Allegations, Justin Caldbeck Is Investing In Startups Again

February 11, 2020

(Forbes) Justin Caldbeck, the venture capitalist who resigned from his firm after six women accused him of unwanted sexual advances in the course of talking to him about their tech companies or other business deals, is investing in startups again. According to messages reviewed by Forbes, Caldbeck claims to have made small, angel investments in…

Inside Deval Patrick’s time at Bain Capital

December 12, 2019

(Politico) A number of companies in Patrick’s “impact investing” portfolio have been hit by lawsuits.

Behind the Effort to Make Startup Boards More Inclusive

November 26, 2019

(Built In) It comes down to big-picture thinking and actionable next steps. Diversity, equity and inclusion is a problem that the tech industry seems to talk a lot about, but hasn’t yet figured out how to fix. In an effort to bridge that gap, a group of powerful stakeholders in the Chicago tech ecosystem are…

Abraaj scandal a ‘wake-up call’ for advisory industry

June 25, 2019

(Financial Times) When private equity firm Abraaj faced allegations of mismanaging its $1bn healthcare fund last year, executives recognised that a neutral external company with a trusted reputation would be needed to investigate.

UN responsible investing body set to delist 50 groups next year

June 16, 2019

(Financial Times) Almost a third of the signatories placed on a watchlist by an influential UN-backed responsible investment initiative are at risk of being booted out of the body.