Rethink Impact fund invests in female-led companies creating
transformational social and environmental change
UBS Wealth Management Americas partnered with Rethink Impact, a
venture capital fund, to contribute to raising $110+million, more
than half of which came from UBS clients, including high net worth
individuals, family offices, private foundations, and universities,
for the closing of Rethink Impact. Rethink Impact is an impact
investing venture capital fund investing in gender diverse,
tech-enabled companies working to solve the world's biggest
challenges based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Rethink Impact, invests in social impact companies with a gender
lens. The fund is particularly focused on the health, education,
environmental sustainability and economic empowerment sectors and
includes companies that merge strong businesses with a social
mission. Rethink Impact investors span the majority of the states
across the country, are balanced in terms of gender and are a mix
of individuals, foundations, universities and beyond.
Impact investing aims to generate a defined positive social or
environmental impact as well as a competitive return. It is an
attractive area for investors who wish to align their portfolios
with their values.
"We prioritize financial returns above all else for our
clients," said John Amore, Managing Director UBS Wealth Management
Americas, "Yet fundamentally, we believe in companies whose social
impact enhances their financial returns and whose financial returns
fuel their social impact. Our clients increasingly want financial
advice as well as innovative solutions to utilize their wealth and
resources to address societal issues. As the world's largest global
wealth manager, we are well positioned to guide them and felt that
Rethink Impact was a compelling solution given our clients'
investment and impact goals."
Research shows that female-led businesses outperform. On
average, firms with 30% female leadership see net revenues 15%
higher than firms with no female leaders.2 Despite this, little
capital goes to female-led firms, with only 3% of venture dollars
going to companies with a female CEO3 and fewer than 6% of people
making investment decisions at venture capital firms are
women.4
Jenny Abramson, Founder & Managing Partner of Rethink Impact
said, "My partner, Heidi Patel, and our team believe that the next
generation of extraordinary companies will find success through
their diversity coupled with relentless pursuit of mission, for the
benefit of all communities. There has never been a better time to
enter the field of impact investing. The problems that these
companies address are still so vast, but now we’re seeing more and
more seasoned entrepreneurs partnering up with top engineering
talent to tackle these issues head on, in a scalable and
sustainable way. This creates a ripe opportunity for investment for
firms that really understand the sector.”
UBS is helping to mainstream impact investing in response to
demand from clients and from the community. At the World Economic
Forum's Annual 2017 Meeting in Davos, UBS committed to direct at
least $5 billion of client assets into new SDG-related impact
investments over the next five years. Other examples of impact
investing milestones where UBS has been involved include the
Oncology Impact Fund, the UBS Optimus Foundation’s Development
Impact Bond, the Loans for Growth fund, a public-private model
providing loans to SME's and co-funded by the Swiss State
Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the G8-affiliated Social
Impact Investment Taskforce and the WEF's reports on mainstreaming
impact investing. UBS has also integrated impact investing into its
regular sustainable investing reports and Opinion Leaders white
papers.
As of 31 December 2016, UBS's sustainable investments increased
to CHF 976 billion compared with CHF 934 billion as of the end of
2015, representing 35% of the firm's total invested assets. Major
increases in relative terms were observed among the integration and
impact investments, which increased 64% and 228%, respectively,
compared with 2015.
_____________________
1 According to B Lab as of March 1, 2017.
2 Marcus Noland, Tyler Moran, Barbara Kotschwar, Is Gender
Diversity Profitable? Evidence from a Global Survey, (Washington,
D.C., : Peterson Institute for International Economics, February
2016)
3 Candida G. Brush, Patricia G. Greene, Lakshmi Balanchandra,
Women Entrepreneurs 2014: Bridging the Gender Gap in Venture
Capital (Boston, MA: Babson College, September 2014)
4 Dan Primack, Venture Capital Still Has a Big Problem With
Women (New York: Fortune Magazine, April 1, 2016)
Notes to editors
About UBS Wealth Management Americas
Wealth Management Americas is one of the leading wealth managers
in the Americas in terms of financial advisor productivity and
invested assets. Its business includes UBS’s domestic US and
Canadian wealth management businesses, as well as international
business booked in the US. It provides a fully integrated set of
wealth management solutions designed to address the needs of ultra
high net worth and high net worth clients.
About UBS
UBS provides financial advice and solutions to wealthy,
institutional and corporate clients worldwide, as well as private
clients in Switzerland. The operational structure of the Group is
comprised of our Corporate Center and five business divisions:
Wealth Management, Wealth Management Americas, Personal &
Corporate Banking, Asset Management and the Investment Bank. UBS's
strategy builds on the strengths of all of its businesses and
focuses its efforts on areas in which it excels, while seeking to
capitalize on the compelling growth prospects in the businesses and
regions in which it operates, in order to generate attractive and
sustainable returns for its shareholders. All of its businesses are
capital-efficient and benefit from a strong competitive position in
their targeted markets.
UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. It has
offices in 54 countries, with about 34% of its employees working in
the Americas, 35% in Switzerland, 18% in the rest of Europe, the
Middle East and Africa and 13% in Asia Pacific. UBS Group AG
employs approximately 60,000 people around the world. Its shares
are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE).
UBS.com/siiubs.com/mediaFollow us on Twitter:
@UBS
About Rethink Impact
Rethink Impact is a venture capital fund that invests in social
impact companies with the potential to deliver market-rate
financial returns for investors alongside transformational social
and environmental change. There are two main lenses for Rethink
Impact’s investments: gender diverse management teams and
technology enabled businesses. The fund is focused on the health,
education, sustainability, and economic empowerment sectors. The
leadership team and Investment Committee have experience operating
and investing in impact companies.
rethinkimpact.comFollow us on Twitter: @rethinkimpact
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170308006003/en/
MediaUBS Wealth Management AmericasMaya Dillon,
+1-212-713-3130/ +1917-615-7094 (mobile)maya.dillon@ubs.com
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