The venture capital (VC) industry, and VC-backed companies, have a tremendous positive social and environmental impact, accelerating breakthrough technologies, creating jobs, broadening career opportunities for women and other underrepresented groups, and changing industries for the better.

This new report from European Women in VC with Founders Forum Group and Tech Nation considers what drives the investment decisions of institutional investors and the possible reasons behind their reluctance to engage in venture capital. Here are some of the takeaways:

• Europe is leading the way in positive impact venture capital investing.
• Europe is the world’s leading region for VC and growth-positive impact investing: a third of the €53bn VC investment raised in 2023 went to startups that directly address one or more of the United Nations' sustainable development goals.
• 88% of VCs say they use an impact investing framework or tool to guide their investment decisions due to their values or their fund’s impact mission goals.
• This influence is evident across critically important sectors such as climate tech, where startups raised €18.2bn in 2023 and investment has tripled to more than €20bn in the past three years.
• 87% of VCs and limited partners (LPs) say increased diversity in venture capital leads to better investment decisions and financial returns, and 82% of VCs and 77% of LPs say the diversity of the founding team of the startups or funds they invest in is important.

Learn more here