BGV’s 2019 Learning and Impact Report

We’re excited to share our Learning and Impact Report reflecting on BGV’s achievements and portfolio performance in 2019. We realise these are extraordinary times with the COVID-19 pandemic causing upheaval in our everyday lives, but that’s all the more reason to ensure that investments in tech are driving positive change for people and planet. As BGV grows, we’re aware we need more transparency and accountability, and we’re pleased to share results showing our investments and support for our ambitious tech for good ventures delivering transformational positive change is going from strength to strength.

Our 2019 highlights in a nutshell

Despite 2019 (and 2020) being an uncertain time for business in the UK, our portfolio achieved significant financial growth and scale of impact. Combined, our portfolio companies saw a 54% increase in revenues to £29.5m, and doubled their number of users to 12m. We’re helping ventures plug the early-stage equity gap. We made our highest number of follow-on investments in 2019 and supported our ventures in raising finance from both impact-focused and traditional firms. BGV ventures raised a further £16 million in 2019, bringing the total amount of additional investment raised by our portfolio to over £80m. Results from BGV’s first internal diversity and inclusion survey. We’re proud to publish the results from our diversity and inclusion survey, benchmarked against the UK VC industry as a whole. In our team 68.8% of employees identify as female (more than double the London VC industry average) and 31.3% of our team are from ethnic minority backgrounds. BGV companies also exceed the UK tech sector average with regards to gender diversity. 46.5% of portfolio company employees identify as female, compared to the industry average of 19%. Using the Impact Management Project Matrix. This year we aligned our impact methodology and portfolio reporting with the Impact Management Project (IMP), placing us in C6 of the Impact Management Matrix. 49% of our portfolio actively assess potential unintended consequences arising from their products, and 75% of those have developed ways to mitigate them. Over the next few weeks, we’ll share more lessons learned and insights about tech for good in the impact investing landscape, diversity and inclusion at BGV, operationalising purpose and more. In the meantime, for more insights, head over to our Learning and Impact Report page, and download the full report and let us know what you think.