Tech for Good in 2021 and beyond

What a year! As we bid goodbye to 2020, the root causes and uneven impacts of COVID-19, the climate crisis and increased inequality clearly demonstrate the urgency with which we need to ensure that we maintain a sustainable planet, create better societies and ensure healthy lives.

We believe technology has a huge role to play in addressing these pressing challenges. That’s not to say that technology will solve everything, but done right and responsibly, tech for good has huge potential to protect people and the planet. And as early-stage investors in this space, we’re excited to back the next generation of entrepreneurs swapping big problems for big solutions. We believe diverse teams can build accessible and inclusive tech for good products and services at scale.

We’re here to invest in these ideas early on and help teams along their startup journey to growth. When we say early, we mean early. But ultimately we invest in tech for good businesses that we believe can radically improve the lives of millions and/or protect the planet and grow to have an enterprise value of over £100M.  Here are few areas we are particularly interested in funding:

Tech for a sustainable planet

There’s no denying that ClimateTech investment is on the rise. According to Atomico’s 2020 State of European Tech Report a growing number of European entrepreneurs and investors are responding to the climate crisis, with companies addressing SDG13 (Climate Action) attracting over $11B in investment since 2016. Early-stage investment into ClimateTech generally is growing rapidly. According to PwC 2013 saw about $418M funding for climate tech companies vs. $16.1B in 2019, which is an increase in venture funding of more than 3,750%.We’re interested in innovative technologies that:

• help to tackle increasing food insecurities,
• contribute to a sustainable circular economy,
• boost biodiversity, conservation and renewable energy, and
• enable smarter, affordable consumption reducing carbon emissions.

Tech for a better society

The livelihood of half the global workforce has been adversely affected as a result of COVID-19. More than 1.6 billion students are out of school and millions of people are pushed into extreme poverty.  We’re interested in innovative technologies that:

• decisively tackle poverty and inequality for vulnerable and under-represented communities,
• provide quality education for children and life-long learning for everyone, and
• actively champion low-income and insecure workers and ensure a fairer future of work.

Tech for healthier lives

The pandemic has definitely accelerated the adoption of health tech products and services, and we’ve seen a massive uptick in people accessing health care this way. Yet, our health systems are precarious, and affordable and accessible health care not available to all. We’re interested in innovative technologies that:

• strengthen precarious health systems and safety nets,
• make healthcare more accessible addressing rising health inequities,
• help people adopt healthier lifestyles and prevent people from falling in poor health, and
• boost mental resilience and wellbeing.

This list is not exhaustive. But there is certainly no better time to build back better for an equitable and sustainable world. Europe has seen over $20B investment into purpose-driven tech companies over the last years, and we’re only expecting more capital going to tech for good ventures. We’re excited to back this generation of founders early on and help them on their journey to build meaningful and scalable tech for good ventures. If that’s you, make sure to check out our application page and apply.