We've rebranded!

This summer marks ten years since we made our first investment. In that time, we’ve come a long way. From the first tech for good accelerator to one of Europe’s leading impact-focussed VCs. Our brand has worked hard over those years; growing, adapting and breaking industry norms.

Our last brand update was five years ago and in that time the ecosystems we exist in have transformed dramatically. The European venture scene has exploded, impact investing has become the hot ticket in town, and social and environmental issues are fast rising to the top of business agendas globally. There has never been a better time for tech for good. 

The next decade holds much promise. With that in mind, we decided it was time to give BGV a new look and feel. One that does our reputation justice, embodies our ambitions, and helps us continue to lead the charge on tech for good. 

‍In search of the truth

Our brand work began in 2021 with initial research to understand what BGV represents to our team, portfolio, investors, and the industry at large. We dug deep and asked for brutal honesty. 

We approached this analysis through four main methods:

• Surveys - to understand stakeholder’s cognitive, emotional and language associations with BGV.
• Interviews - to understand when and why our brand failed to communicate our value.
• Market mapping - to identify our ecosystems and clarify our positioning.
• SWOT analysis - to analyse our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

The survey said…

1. We’re real. The trait that came out top in both our internal and external surveys was ‘authenticity’. 
2. We’re living our principles. We received an average score of 8/10 on people’s perceptions of our alignment with our principles. 
3. When asked who people compare us to, organisations largely fell into four buckets: VCs, programmes, tech for good, impact investors.

When asked about first impressions of BGV, answers fell into three clear themes: we’re unique, we’re pioneers, we’re approachable. We heard things like:

“Literally the only place with advanced, sophisticated thinking about building impact into VC.”

We also asked - ‘When you think of BGV, how do you feel?’ Three clear themes emerged: hope, pride, and support. We heard things like:

“So proud at BGV’s dedication to tech for good and how far you have pushed the investment landscape in this direction.”

Making the implicit explicit 

Shaping our brand strategy is where we began to work with the seriously brilliant Ana and Joana at Uncommon Goods. Taking the insights and analysis from the research phase we began to articulate and organise the BGV brand. Post it notes, archetype cards, and Miro were all essential. 

What became clear was that internally the BGV team was highly aligned on purpose, mission, vision and values. But some of this was getting lost in translation to the outside world. Another challenge we identified was that we have so much information to communicate. From all the data we generate for our impact reports, to our strongly held beliefs. A nice problem to have, but one that needed solving all the same.

Our new manifesto was one of the ways we decided to solve these challenges. Our manifesto is designed to communicate all the key concepts that are core to BGV. But it’s easy for people to make similar claims, so our expandable content gives context and depth of information on these statements, without overwhelming audiences at first glance. 

If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s on our home page. 

Accessibility was also identified as a vital part of the BGV brand. With this in mind we also sought input from equity, diversity and inclusion specialist Ettie Bailey-King to ensure our approach kept this front and centre. 

Playing with scale 

Once we’d done all the groundwork of laying solid brand foundations with our strategy work, we then got to play with the fun things. We explored four visual identity routes before honing in on one and running with it. 

BGV is often the first investor into our portfolio companies and our programme and follow-on investment support is designed to launch and grow tech for good ventures. This early-stage role we play in our companies’ lives led us to lean into a concept that embodied scale. 

Alongside scale, our visual language was designed to be bold in its use of graphics and colour. A wide ranging colour palette was chosen to embody the vibrancy and diversity of BGV’s community. 

Custom typography was developed for the logo. The ‘BGV arrow’ is extracted from the G of the logo to become a core part of the identity, able to adapt from representing bullet points to becoming a super-graphic background. 

A new shop window

Our brand guidelines culminated in an extensive 70 page deck, leaving no stone unturned. 

The final stage of the project was of course designing and developing a new website to fully encompass our new direction. Simultaneously we also created our 2021 Impact & Learning Report, just launched. These were both brilliant ways of testing out our new brand. 

Thanks to the team at Moxie for all your hard work on the website; Ana at Uncommon Goods for the branding magic and our new Impact Report; and Ben Peter Catchpole for great photography.

Thank you

And with that, we’re a shiny new BGV.

Thank you to all the people who have given their time and honesty so generously over the past six months. Your input has been invaluable in shaping our new brand. Ultimately, our brand is for all of you, so we hope you like it! If not, let us know why. Brands are never static and we’re excited to grow and evolve in our new skin for many more years to come.