Fuse Venture Partners has become a signatory to the internationally recognised Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). During this difficult time, when the importance of thinking about the greater good of all stakeholders in society is front and centre of everyone’s attention, we are proud to make this commitment to our investors and the companies we support.
A blueprint for ESG
The Principles for Responsible Investment are a voluntary set of standards, developed for and by investors, to help them integrate ESG into their activities, from setting their investment strategy through to deal execution and portfolio company or asset management.
You can find the six principles here. PRI has 3000 signatories worldwide and the principles have been widely adopted in the venture capital and private equity community. Now that Fuse Venture Partners seeks to invest alongside advising scale-up technology companies, the time is right for us to join the effort.
Fund managers are used to abiding by their fiduciary duties. Put simply, that means managing their investors’ money properly. Environmental and social governance (ESG) demands a wider perspective, tasking the manager with considering the impact on climate and pollution, the local community or the employees of a company when making decisions.
Transparency is key
PRI requires that we report on our activities and Fuse Venture Partners will be assessed to ensure that we put “our money where our mouth is”.
PRI claims to run the world’s largest depository of information on responsible investment. This guidance will be essential for managers running tight, multi-tasking teams, like us here at Fuse. We have been given a year to get going with mandatory reporting starting in 2022.
While it’s an unsettling period for all of us, we’re optimists here at Fuse and believe the future remains bright for internet-enabled services. Signing up to PRI is a positive, forward-looking move in a time of uncertainty. The coronavirus crisis has made us focus on what really matters. There couldn’t be a better time to put ESG at the heart of our investment process.