Rob Genieser

📣 We’ve got a big ESG_VC event planned for Tuesday next week – featuring the latest updates to our measurement framework, news of our 2025 benchmarking with the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA), and an introduction to our new platform partners… 📣 On the afternoon of Tuesday 26 November, we’ll be gathering 200+ VCs for the latest update on the ESG_VC Measurement Framework – from what it covers to how it informs industry-leading research, and how you can now work with our accredited data collection partners. This will be our first event delivered in partnership with our cohort of platform partners: Apiday, Novata, and PortF. I’m excited to share with our members how these partners can support a big step up in your ESG initiatives. Join us for a jam-packed event that will feature: 🟢 An update from Suzi Gillespie of the BVCA on how you can take part in our 2025 research – we analysed ESG performance in c.600 VC-backed companies in 2024 and we’re looking to deliver an even more ambitious piece of research next year… 🟢 Insights from Emily Havers of Fidelity International Strategic Ventures on the updates that have been made to the framework and what it means for our members, their portfolio companies, and the broader ecosystem. 🟢 Perspectives from Emily Matthews of Oxford Science Enterprises and Nina Foote of Volution on how the ESG_VC Measurement Framework has supported their work on ESG. 🟢 Presentations from our platform partners: Edouard Audi of Apiday, Conor O'Laoire’Laoire of Novata, and Alex Lu of PortF. It’s going to be a good one so do register. Link to sign up in the comments! #ESG_VC #sustainability #venturecapital

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It was great to get the investment in Stacatruc Limited completed. The first of many to come at YFM Equity Partners from Matt Gordon-Smith, with huge support from Callum Long. It took us longer to convince Matt Gordon-Smith to come and join us than it did for him to complete his first investment with us. Stacatruc is the 4th investment in the last 5 months - with another 6 in diligence across the business. We have a big team now though so plenty of capacity across all of our offices to talk about new opportunities. We can invest between £3m and £15m of equity. Either to fund a Change of Ownership when a business has £1m+ profit (MBO's, partial cash outs, carve outs etc), or Growth Capital to go faster when a business has £1m+ Revenue or ARR.

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https://lnkd.in/ehEfb6Q8 The UK’s commitment to an 81% emissions reduction by 2035 is ambitious, and will be very challenging to meet, but it is a great target to set. A broad spectrum of technologies are required from wind, solar and storage to hydrogen, SAF and nuclear. Critical to success is all of them is a focus on innovation, skills, and learning so we can bring down costs and minimise the impact on everyday life. Investments in technologies that can reduce the cost of decarbonisation are crucial. Take aviation, for instance: long-haul flights remain critical for connecting people globally, and are also a significant source of emissions. But instead of restricting flights, we should focus on innovations within Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), such as new Power-to-Liquid (PtL) pathways like we are developing in OXCCU TECH LTD. These fuels can directly replace traditional jet fuels in existing aircraft. As these fuels scale, costs will decrease and aviation can decarbonise without compromising accessibility. This model extends beyond aviation to industries like shipping, heavy industry, and agriculture. With continued support toward innovation and pragmatic climate policy, sectors can balance emissions reductions with affordability. In this way, the government can “tread lightly” on people’s lives while advancing toward net zero. This approach offers a pathway to a secure and sustainable future, where technological progress addresses the emissions challenge without compromising the freedoms and opportunities central to modern life. #COP29 #NetZero #Aviation #ClimateTech

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I'm pleased to share that Lightrock has continued to support Thomas Doering and Distribusion Technologies in their $80 million Series C funding round. Distribusion is the leading global B2B ground transportation marketplace, addressing inefficiencies in this €700 billion market. The industry’s progress has been hindered by legacy technology, making multi-modal travel planning and booking difficult and time-consuming. This increases costs for consumers and negatively impacts sustainability as travellers opt for private cars and taxis over less polluting transportation options. Using a single API, Distribusion connects transport carriers like National Express LLC, Amtrak, and Deutsche Bahn with retailers such as Expedia Group, Google Maps, and Alipay. This allows consumers to seamlessly compare and purchase tickets on trusted platforms. There's a high likelihood that Distribusion has facilitated your travel without you knowing it. We led the company's Series B in 2022, and since then Distribusion has grown tenfold, creating the largest global B2B network of ground transport operators. This growth, combined with achieving profitability, has encouraged us to reinvest and continue with this company on this exciting journey. We look forward to continuing our work with this team. Learn more about #Distribusion via the link in the comments. #TravelTech #FutureOfTravel

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Do take a read of Jonathan Bean's thoughts as he spoke with MD One Ventures's Kelvin Au regards the fascinating work ongoing at Materials Nexus!

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Not quite sure what to make of my appearance with Chris on stage yesterday at SuperVenture being described as the 'Morecambe and Wise of ESG'... Hopefully we weren't too slapstick, but it was great to represent ESG_VC and the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA), sharing the key findings from our latest research. It was also great to be joined on stage by Giulia and Grace to reflect on these findings and discuss how and where ESG is now being embedded throughout the venture ecosystem, particularly within portfolio companies. A few key takeaways for us all: 1️⃣ Don't let perfection be the enemy of progress... One that applied to both VCs and portfolio companies - quick and efficient solutions will be more impactful than long and detailed processes. Identify your objectives and move quickly to find a good solution, as you can always refine and improve over time. 2️⃣ Think about your 'ESG mindset'... Giulia shared an insight into Sofina's screening process for GPs, which includes an analysis of the firm's ESG mindset - how seriously are you embedding an ESG strategy and translating policies and processes into long-term progress? 3️⃣ The commercial case for ESG is strong, and growing... Grace highlighted the importance of stressing to portfolio companies - particularly those selling into large corporates - that regulation and reporting requirements are making ESG data and carbon accounting critical to winning contracts and customers. Ps: photo credit to Tony Greenham!

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#orion #Sweetwater_Royalties Orion Resource Partners, a global investment firm specialising in metals and materials, has sold an 8% minority interest in Sweetwater Royalties, a private industrial minerals royalty company, to a Canadian pension fund for $100m. The transaction implies an approximately $1.9bn enterprise value for 100% of Sweetwater Royalties, with Orion retaining a 67% majority ownership share in the asset, having sold a 25% stake to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in March 2023 for approximately $220m. https://lnkd.in/gkKMP3Tr

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It is always tremendously gratifying when one of our seed investments graduates to a strong Series A. This raise, from a strong pair of co-lead investors and Cisco as the leading strategic, will, we are confident, be totally game changing for Descycle. Globally we currently bury around $80bn of useable metals every year and current recycling methods have large Capex and generate large emissions. The green transition and the advent of AI is only going to increase this amount……..unless things change. And change is what Descycle is. Firstly it is far better for the environment whilst also being competitive on price with smelters, its modularity means that much,much, much more metal will be recycled in the future. Investors should make strong returns whilst the world becomes a better place Bravo guys.

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🔋 HUGE! ––> "isn't about mining for more uranium, this is actually about recycling a waste stream that we already have. A truly circular solution." Massive shoutout to Rabbi Yechezkel "Zeke" Moskowitz and Steve Cassingham on this incredible project! I recommend reaching out to both of these incredible thinkers for anyone who wants to know what the future of Sustainability and Deep Tech looks like. #impact #sustainability #circularity

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Owning a niche and solving key customer needs, the key to DeepTech Commercialisation? At Empirical Ventures, we often encounter groundbreaking scientific innovations facing a dual challenge: - Developing novel technology - Proving that this technology solves a pressing market problem For startups, one crucial factor that is often overlooked is speed of execution. Talent and intellectual property are all critically important, but the ability to move swiftly is what allows startups to enter new markets before incumbents. In DeepTech, focusing on a market niche perfectly aligns with the benefits of speed. Examples of niches in DeepTech: Performance Niche - These customers adopt new technologies to outperform competitors or showcase their innovation capabilities to outside stakeholders. Bottom-Line Niche - These customers face immediate pressures that impact their profitability and are motivated to engage with emerging solutions. Silveray’s recent funding round exemplifies these dynamics perfectly. Their flexible digital X-ray detectors have broad potential across industries. However, it is their traction in the aerospace sector and specifically weld inspection that got us excited. For Silveray the niche is driven by two critical factors: Regulatory Pull: Upcoming legislation mandates the digitization of existing and future X-ray film records. Cost Savings: Silveray’s solution delivers significant financial benefits, making it highly attractive to customers facing bottom-line pressures. Silveray have the only viable solution for the digitisation of industrial weld monitoring. With only moderate penetration of this market (<2%) we believe they could generate 8 figure revenues by 2030. This nicely highlights that niche's can be lucrative in the right industries. Great to welcome Dan Cathie and the team at Silveray to the EV portfolio. Looking forward to supporting them as they continue to grow. CAPITAL AT RISK, FOR PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS ONLY

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"Funding Collapse sends investment in start-ups to six year low" The Times today covering the shocking stats that VenturePath uncovered, with our partner Beauhurst. Great quotes from supporters Michael Moore CEO, BVCA and Julian David CEO, techUK. * UK VC funding at Series A is -44% from last year, and worsening * Q3 24 is down a staggering 57% from Q2, itself down from Q1 * 9 in 10 seed funded startups cannot access Series A VC funding, the next 'rung on the funding ladder' * Just 32 future scaleup companies across the whole of the UK were able to access their first VC funding round in Q3...a 6 year low * Half a billion less capital is going in to UK scaleups at Series A, than just 2 years ago! As the UK scaleup funding gap widens, we are losing ground against other countries, at both startup stage (a position the UK worked hard to achieve, since 2011), and for scaleup support. OECD data: 13th in the world for scaleup support, and that's before Series A funding access dried up. I get that its confusing. Another report (BBB, Nations & Regions) released this week spoke of positive trends in private investment, stating "The data for Q2 2024 shows that investment value has continued to grow". Great, I love to see optimistic data. But under analysis that bundles venture with private equity (later stage), where a few megadeals skew the numbers. Otherwise the exact opposite is true. Our independent research here, for the UK ScaleUp Investment Mission, is laser beam focussed on Series A. The funding round where companies move from the c.1m startups launched each year, through the 2,179 that access seed funding, into the rarefied category of being recognised as future scaleups, attracting Series A funding (£2-10m). The UK venture landscape is currently funding just 248 pa of these companies, and declining. We've been sharing this urgent call for support with the new Government since the day after the election. I've personally met with several Ministers, and spoke to all the relevant Government departments. I will shamelessly repeat loudly what is at stake. UK scaleup funding at Series A has nearly halved in a year, and continues to decline steeply, more than halving in the last quarter. VenturePath developed The UK ScaleUp Investment Mission to convene the scaleup support ecosystem and £7bn of funders to help address this problem, to improve nationwide access to VC investment, and create more venture-backed successes. We have clear support, clear recommendations to reverse this decline in UK scaleup investment, and have made a clear ask of Government for participation in this, to ensure immediate action is taken to create the conditions for success for UK scaleups, ensuring the focus on growth isn't undermined by lack of capital, or equitable access to it. Government decision makers, we'd love your interest, to progress to action. HM Treasury: Rt Hon Rachel Reeves Spencer Livermore James Murray & CC Poppy Gustafsson (welcome to the debate).

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https://lnkd.in/efuGjSjH If you are looking for a new perspective on climate change and solution, I would like to recommend Hannah Ritchie's and Rob Steward's excellent podcasts. The first two — which you can listen — feature Kingsmill Bond (who does fantastic work on the energy transition at the Rocky Mountain Institute) and Sir David King (formerly Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government). These first two episodes have quite a different tone and level of optimism; a divergence which makes these conversations even more interesting for me. #climatechange #energytransition

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A HUGE thank you to everyone involved in publishing the latest report from ESG_VC and the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) today! The report is packed full of useful insights into how start-ups are actually performing across their work on environmental, social, and governance issues. There's also a brand new roadmap for ESG in start-ups with specific guidance on the initiatives to implement from Pre-Seed through to Series C and beyond. A particular shout out to everyone involved in the production including Suzi Gillespie and Ewa Skornas at the BVCA, David Strong and Dianne Skurray at Marriott Harrison, and Susannah Philipson and Nadeem Muzaffar at Seven Hills, who designed this beautiful report. I'm also massively grateful for all of the hard work that our VC contributors put into compiling data from 587 portfolio companies across the UK, Europe, and around the world - a few names to mention include Ashleigh, Shanice, Lauren, Laure, Michelle, Jason, Hessel, Emily, Beth, Joe, James, Eugenia, Alex, Grace, Emma, Emily, Lucy, Cordelia, Nina, Raj, and Rob. Thank you to you all! And thanks as ever to the remaining members of our steering group for their ongoing support of ESG_VC - Antonia at Seedcamp, Leslie at Astanor Ventures, Natalie at Lakestar, Andrew at Par Equity, and of course Karen McCormick for all of your support at Beringea! Check out the full report via the link in the comments! And let us know what you think about it! #ESG_VC #sustainability #venturecapital

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Welcome and interesting thoughts from Tony Blair Institute for Global Change on the urgent need for a focus on delivery of climate solutions and how "the real challenge is to accelerate the energy transition in developing countries", which L&G is actively supporting with our partnership with ImpactA Global #sustainableinfrastructure

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The British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) Accelerate conference 21 - 22 May is ground zero for the UK and Europe’s smartest investors and founders. With #VentureCapital money harder to find than Taylor Swift concert tickets, #venturedebt is having a moment! My panel on Day 2 moderated by Leon de Bono is a can’t-miss. We’ll unpack how founders can sensibly leverage debt to extend their runway and ease the path to an exit or next round. The seasoned investors joining me (Stephen Fahy & Stephanie Heller (Galantine) have deployed serious capital into some of Europe's biggest scale-ups. Whether you're a founder preparing to raise your next round or an investor, you need this VC alternative in your mental model. See you there. www.bvca.co.uk/accelerate #Fundraising #Venturedebt #venturecapital #acelerate2024 Fuse Capital BAFTA 195 Piccadilly

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There has been lots written about the impact of the budget, and some names are dominating the headlines. At the smaller end of the market where YFM Equity Partners invests we can already see Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders adapting to the new normal, and most positively where there will be opportunities to grow faster. One of the things we did not expect to see so quickly is a surge in Entrepreneurs looking to do some sort of ownership change transaction, The Business Magazine - South West & West Midlands / The Business Magazine - South East covers the 300% increase in enquiries below. These enquiries are Management Teams looking to buy the businesses they run from their owners, or owners looking to de-risk themselves with some cash out now and support from a Private Equity investor.

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With access to larger balance sheets and a longer term strategic view, CVCs are well placed to fill the cleantech 'growth funding gap' where standalone VCs struggle with capex needs and deployment timescales. While Sifted note the constantly changing CVC landscape in general, Gneiss Energy has seen increasing corporate commitments focused on cleantech and sustainability and we expect CVC's to play an increasingly important role in this space. #corporateventurecapital #growthequity #cleantech https://lnkd.in/eyWugSAC

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Scale-up business guide to getting investor-ready: THE FINANCIALS (2/7) Before approaching investors, you need to get your management accounts and everything associated with how you make money and spend money in order. This article explains the essentials of your business’ financials. #Business #investorready #financials

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We recently published our first Responsible Investment Report – an important milestone for us as a firm. The report outlines the efforts EMK and our portfolio companies have made over the past year in advancing sustainability.   You can read the full report below.   #ResponsibleInvestment

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