Aurum Impact

Welcome to Part 5 of our behind-the-scenes series at Aurum Impact: Our Managing Director Miki Yokoyama shares her insights on the unique benefits of being part of the GOLDBECK ecosystem and the key elements she prioritizes when making investment decisions. 💡 ➡ What inspired you to take on the challenge of building Aurum Impact? For years, I have been passionate about unlocking more capital to tackle environmental and social challenges. Beyond philanthropy, I’ve been driven by how viable business models and technological innovations can promote social equity and environmental health while attracting greater attention and capital inflow. When I met Jan-Hendrik Goldbeck, I found that his ambitions and ideas closely aligned with my motivations. The opportunity to build an investment platform from the ground up—creating a team, investing in companies and funds, and shaping an ecosystem—with the backing of a strong ally like GOLDBECK, made this an irresistible challenge. Having a construction leader like GOLDBECK as a close partner, alongside people like Fabian Lenz and Dr. Anne Duncker, is simply fantastic. ➡ What are the major benefits of being part of the GOLDBECK ecosystem? Many companies need strong B2B partners to test their products or business models, and GOLDBECK plays a key role in this. For example, our portfolio company Paebbl, specializing in decarbonizing cement, has the chance to test its product within GOLDBECK's production systems, unlocking opportunities to scale to a much broader market. Additionally, GOLDBECK’s innovation unit offers invaluable support for construction-related investments. On top of that, Jan-Hendrik Goldbeck and his brothers are successful entrepreneurs, which attracts like-minded founders and investors. ➡ What is most important for you to see in the startups and funds that you invest in? I love to work with mission-driven founders and fund managers, who are motivated by solving environmental and social challenges. This is the foundation of everything. Without this mindset, no amount of strategy or funding can make a venture impactful. In my opinion, focusing solely on financial returns can limit your ability to overcome the inevitable obstacles that arise. A strong mission keeps you committed and innovative—and impact and financial success will follow naturally. If you’re curious to dive deeper into how we evaluate fund investments: Join us next Tuesday for our fund webinar to learn more about our approach and connect with the team. Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/dHRAP8zY Thank you for sharing your story, Miki! It's inspiring to have you as part of the team. 🌱

Join Marie at Slush! 🌟 Today, our very own Marie will take the stage at Slush alongside Felix Hentzen and Jessica Burley to discuss hardware and software investing. Whether you're a founder, investor, or simply curious about impact innovation, this is a session you won't want to miss. 🗓️ When: Nov 20, 11:20 am – 11:45 am 📍 Where: Google booth (next to the Founder’s Stage) Find the link in comments to sign up! 👇

Three Years of SFDR: A Deep Dive into Article 9 with Europe’s Leading Impact Investors 🔍 Since its introduction in March 2021, #SFDR has reshaped the European investment landscape, aiming to drive transparency, prevent greenwashing, and channel capital toward sustainable investments. 🌍 But how has it impacted funds dedicated to impact investing? For our latest article, we spoke with three leading impact investors — Lena Thiede (Planet A Ventures), Dr. Fabian Heilemann (AENU), and Florian Erber (Ananda Impact Ventures) — to explore their experiences as Article 9 funds. They shared insights on the benefits of being classified under Article 9, the challenges of meeting its requirements, and their advice for other funds considering this route. Some key takeaways: 🌱 Impact at the core: For impact investors, classifying as an Article 9 fund is not just about regulatory compliance but about aligning with a core mission of delivering measurable social and environmental impact. 🚀 Competitive edge for impact-driven funds: Article 9 offers an opportunity for funds with robust impact strategies to distinguish themselves in a crowded market and attract institutional investors. 🔧 Need for regulatory reform: While SFDR has boosted transparency, impact investors are calling for clearer definitions and targeted regulatory adjustments. This is especially crucial for smaller impact funds and startups. Curious to dive deeper into the lessons learned over the past three years? Read the full article here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ePEEWggP Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! How has SFDR impacted your investment strategy? #ImpactInvesting #SustainableFinance #SFDR #Article9 #ImpactFunds

🔔📢 Webinar announcement: Insights from our fund investment journey   We're excited to invite you to a special webinar where we’ll dive deep into our experiences as an impact LP. This year, we reviewed 96 funds—providing us with a wealth of insights to draw from. Whether you're an LP looking to refine your impact investing strategy, an impact GP seeking to understand LP expectations, or simply curious about the evolving landscape of impact fund investments, this session is for you.   📅 Date: December 3rd, 2024 ⏰ Time: 10:00 - 11:00 a.m. CET 🔗 Register here: https://lnkd.in/dHRAP8zY   During the session, we will explore:   ➡ Key takeaways from our fund pipeline—insights on impact, ESG integration, and diversity across GPs ➡ Our top priorities as an impact LP, including how we select and evaluate investment targets ➡ Future needs and trends in the impact ecosystem, with a focus on opportunities for collaboration and growth   Join Miki Yokoyama, Marie Wennergren, Kelley Luyken and Zoé Bertrand-Lucas for actionable insights that can sharpen your investment strategies as an LP or elevate your fundraising efforts as a GP. Don't miss out—register now and mark your calendars for December 3rd! #Webinar #ImpactInvesting #FundInvestment

Great to see Prof. Dr. Martin R. Stuchtey on stage at Impact/Week in Barcelona today! 🌍 He shared fascinating insights into how he and The Landbanking Group are redefining how we value and protect our natural ecosystems. In that vein, there's some exciting news to share! 🚀 The Landbanking Group has just launched a game-changing new approach—biodiversity units. This new feature enables land stewards to create measurable, tradable assets that represent the ecological integrity of specific areas. Each biodiversity unit reflects an area’s performance in maintaining or improving its biodiversity, connectivity, and habitat intactness, giving investors a tangible, outcome-driven way to support nature conservation. 🌿 Well done Prof. Dr. Martin R. Stuchtey, Dr. Sonja Stuchtey and team! 👏 We're so proud to support you and The Landbanking Group on this impactful journey. Learn more about biodiversity units and this major step for conservation finance here: https://lnkd.in/d4X3QgTY #ImpactWeek #LandbankingGroup #Biodiversity #ConservationFinance #EcosystemRestoration #NaturalCapital

Next week, the impact community will gather in Barcelona - if you are around and are also working on how to move more capital towards impact (investing), want to talk about how to improve impact fund DDs, or if you have exciting co-investment opportunities, please get in touch! I look forward to a vibrant community of changemakers, and especially the panel on "how to DD emerging managers" with David Gowenlock, Solveig Schulze, Benoit Tesch, and myself, representing Aurum Impact, moderated by the wonderful Otto Birnbaum from Revent! Thank you Norrsken VC and Norrsken for organizing the event!

Landler for conservation is here. We’re thrilled to introduce the latest Landler release—making financing biodiversity conservation easy and accessible worldwide, for any ecosystem. Biodiversity and thriving ecosystems provide the resilience businesses, economies and societies need in the face of climate change. It’s not enough to restore or protect nature in selected areas; we need to fund intact nature on a scale that is up to the challenge! This is why we've developed, in close collaboration with our partner African Parks Network, an innovative method to measure, manage, and monetize conservation effectiveness by land stewards who protect nature. Our approach consists of issuing biodiversity units that represent the Ecological Integrity of a defined area. Land Stewards create them by uploading their land onto Landler and investors purchase them, contributing to nature while creating financial value. The first successful example of such units is African Parks’ Verifiable Nature Unit (VNU). Recently, African Parks has announced the first-ever transactions of Verifiable Nature Unit for the Majete Wildlife Reserve, issuing 144 VNUs to the AWE for Nature Foundation and 58 VNUs to the SUN Institute Environment & Sustainability (Deutsche Post Foundation). The AMES Foundation has also pioneered this new approach by generating 14 biodiversity units in their Dabchick Wildlife Reserve. Our monitoring method uniquely balances scientific rigor with scalability and accessibility. Traceable to specific 1 km² areas globally, it offers a scalable solution for monitoring conservation goals such as protecting 30% of each country or ecoregion. Furthermore, designed to be simple and inclusive, the method requires only an area's polygon and indicator species data, collected through various means, including citizen science data. This approach ensures transparency and equitable benefit sharing, making conservation efforts more accessible and effective for all Land Stewards. Every conservationist is now able to upload their areas to Landler and generate biodiversity units. They will be stored in the conservationist's Natural Capital Account and can then be sold to any investor. Every investor is now able to purchase these units from any project originator. In other words, they can now invest in measured, verified, positive nature outcomes. Moreover, biodiversity units can be used as underlying for nature-linked financial instruments such as bonds or loans. Full announcement in the comments.

The next part of our 'Getting to know us' series is here. Jan shared his thoughts on impact assessment and special financing needs for impact hardware startups! 💡   ➡ How do you assess the impact of startups when sourcing them?   A rigorous impact assessment is indispensable for me. I want to understand 1) the impact problem, 2) the founder's motivation for tackling it, 3) the startup's technology and product (how does it work and how do you measure impact?), 4) the impact logic (is this the best approach to tackle the problem?), 5) the startup's impact potential (how big can it get?), 6) additionality (would it happen anyway?), and 7) impact risk (what could go wrong?).   ➡ Why is CapEx financing crucial for impact hardware startups?   Physical technology has the potential to solve many of the world's impact challenges (e.g., decarbonizing cement and concrete). However, scaling up impact hardware is difficult as technology readiness, customer demand, and financing need go to hand in hand. There is a first-of-a-kind (FOAK) financing challenge not served by the traditional VC and project finance models at the moment. I believe that a lot of capital is out there but requires customization to seize the big opportunities that the green transition holds. We see a lot of stakeholders working on the topic (e.g., Tech for Net Zero or The Climate Brick) and are eager to advance the CapEx financing landscape.   ➡ What is one topic you are currently excited about in impact investing?   Textile recycling is super interesting as it has such a big disruption potential. The industry is responsible for 8% to 10% of global carbon emissions, 20% of water pollution, and generates substantial waste. Shockingly, only 1% of global textile waste is recycled into new clothing. Incredible founders are working on solutions for the problem, and I cannot wait to dive deeper!   Thank you for sharing Jan! It's a pleasure to have you on the team! 🌱

🥁 We are very excited to announce our investment into Paebbl!   👩🏻🔬 Paebbl is on a mission to reduce the CO2 footprint of the cement industry by permanently storing captured CO2 in a raw material. The company converts CO2 into silica-enriched magnesium carbonate, which is sold as supplementary cementitious material to cement producers. Thereby, Paebbl is accelerating the development of carbon-storing buildings and setting new standards for sustainable construction. 🤝 Aurum Impact joins Capnamic, Holcim Holcim MAQER Ventures, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund , 2050, Pale blue dot and The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, in Paebbl's $25M Series A funding round. We are very much looking forward to working with Marta Sjögren, Andreas Saari, Jane Walerud, Pol Knops and the rest of the stellar team!

Tomorrow, Miki Yokoyama will be speaking at the Inside Innovation Panel at EXPO REAL (Messe München), discussing how startups and corporates can collaborate to drive innovation. 💡 She’ll be joined by David Oudsandji from our portfolio company Voltfang, who will share insights on their partnership with GOLDBECK. Together, they’re pioneering innovative energy management solutions for commercial buildings. ⚡️ Sounds interesting? We'd love for you to join! 📅 When: October 8, 10:00 – 10:50 AM 📍 Where: Transform & Beyond Stage, Hall A3, EXPO REAL #ImpactInvesting #EXPOREAL #Voltfang #Goldbeck #Sustainability