Heading for Change

We’re thrilled to share that 13 women-led startups from the Greentech Europe 2024 Autumn Cohort received a total of USD 130K in equity-free funding, thanks to our partnership with Visa Foundation. These entrepreneurs are tackling Europe’s pressing environmental challenges with solutions in clean energy, waste reduction, sustainable agriculture, and more. Now in its third year, we’re proud of the incredible impact the Greentech Europe program has achieved! 🌍 We have supported over 200 women-led startups across more than 24 countries. 💰 We have channeled over USD 800K in non-dilutive funding to help close the gender financing gap in climate innovation. Join us in celebrating these trailblazing startups driving a more sustainable future and meet the top two peer-selected innovators from the last cohort: Carbon Cell and HaPPE Earth. https://lnkd.in/g-ZZN_Fh

The Gender Equality in a Low Carbon World (GLOW) programme, by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, is an important initiative that investigates opportunities for women’s economic empowerment in just transitions. Through 12 projects spanning 17 countries across Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, GLOW shines a light on the untapped potential of women’s leadership and resilience in building sustainable, equitable societies. For insights, key findings and recommendations from the programme: https://lnkd.in/ejA4N7vT

Our portfolio company 🚛🌿 DORA, with founders Rikke and Sidsel is revolutionising road freight and haulier operations by improving efficiency, enhancing customer service, and enabling transparency in CO₂ emissions tracking, through their Transport Management System. With road freight demand projected to triple by 2050 and EU's stringent CO₂ reduction targets for heavy-duty vehicles coming into play (including a 15% reduction by 2025 and 45% by 2030), the demand for innovative, sustainable logistics solutions is set to surge. Since our investment into DORA, in the beginning of 2023, we have seen the continuous progress and developments from their small but growing team, and the raving reviews from their customers. We’re both proud and excited to see DORA get this recognition as a player to watch within the Future of Mobility together with Elonroad, Vidde Mobility, RemotiveLabs, Monta, Heart Aerospace, Radar Reticence AB and Candela. Cc: Nora Thea Jairo Elin Di Digital

Heading for Change's Advisory Circle member Jennifer Pryce has written a piece for GreenMoney Journal where she talks about how she found her way to impact investing (at a theater in New York) and why impact investing that's focused on women, needs to go beyond women as beneficiaries of capital, to women deploying capital as leaders of financial firms and existing at every professional level of impact investing organizations. She argues that it's especially important to include more women in finance as we transition to a clean energy economy. "Investments to adapt to climate change and develop low-carbon technologies will generate trillions of dollars of investment and millions of new jobs over the next decade. Ensuring women are at the table making these investments and are part of the wealth building story needs to be the legacy of this generation of leadership. And the data indicates that they’ll be good at it too – women overall make better investors and generate higher returns when making investment decisions at financial firms." Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/gErvCrPW

At Heading for Change our investments work in parallel with our grant capital to advance climate solutions and build the field, creating a growing evidence base for why a gender lens matters in addressing the climate crisis. Our portfolio is made up of investments across three core categories of funds, each at a distinct point in the journey towards full climate and gender integration: 🚀 Trailblazers - Funds that already have a deeply intentional and integrated climate and gender lens and are setting a course for others to follow 🌱 Market Shifters - Mainstream climate-first funds committed to deepening their gender lens and influencing the market at scale 🗣️ Future Leaders - A small set of first-time funds closely aligned with our criteria and where we can be extra catalytic Being a donor-advised fund, our impact is powered by the charitable contributions of our Donor-Partner community - 90% of which flow to investments, and 10% to grants. Any investment returns flow back into gender-smart climate investments and grants. If you're interested in helping us expand our impact, we'd love to have you join us! https://lnkd.in/eVz7_Dmv

Launching 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗩 𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 This year, we made the decision not to launch our 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘎𝘢𝘱 𝘙𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 for the sixth time. While it has been pivotal in highlighting disparities in venture capital, progress has not occurred at the scale or speed required. In light of today’s global challenges - economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability, and widening inequities - we felt it was time to focus on actionable solutions rather than restating painful truths. This year, we therefore created 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗩 𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 in its place - a tangible solution to accelerate change. A downloadable guide to support the transformations needed. 👉 https://lnkd.in/daiD_kZz Drawing on our experience as impact-driven investors, the UV Blueprint offers actionable strategies for LPs, GPs, and founders to dismantle systemic barriers and drive meaningful progress. What's in 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗩 𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: 🧩 Why we need to remove systemic barriers to enable systemic change, and how the intersection of impact and diversity is a key-driver of growth and innovation 🧩 The critical role of Limited Partners (LPs): it starts at the source, with guidance on how LPs can leverage their position of power to drive the transformation 🧩 Strategies for General Partners (GPs) to achieve inclusive, equitable and transparent investments, to address the fact that the funding gap isn’t “just as bad” as before; in many cases, it’s worse 📝 And it also includes a note for underrepresented founders With this contribution, we hope to spark more actions toward a more inclusive and innovative future for venture capital. 🔗 Link to the downloadable version is available in comments. Nora Thea Jairo Elin

For the latest instalment of our 'Voices from the Field' series we speak to The 22 Fund's extraordinary Founder Tracy Gray. Tracy talks to us about her biggest influences, how equity and justice are in her DNA, and why she believes investment capital has the power to change lives. "Equity and justice are in my DNA - passed down from my mother and father and passed down from their ancestors from being African-American in the Deep South of Mississippi. They saw so much injustice. Then I saw similar inequities when I entered venture capital over 20 years ago. Now I’m also influenced by my partner Monica whose parents were immigrants who came over with nothing and became entrepreneurs and my other partner, Rajan Kasetty, who grew up poor in rural India and co-founded a tech company that went public and is still in business today with ~ 30K employees. We can leverage investment capital to change lives, not just extract value from the planet, people, animals and minerals." Read the full interview with Tracy here: https://lnkd.in/eFdHSMws

Our Chief Catalyst Sana Kapadia on stage with Impact Europe's Roberta Bosurgi to kick off day 2 of #ImpactWeek with a fireside chat about gender-smart leadership and why we urgently need to move more capital towards women

"Why invest with a gender lens? Why not! We need to value women. We need bold action. We need to lead with the heart (and we need to raise our boys to be more heart-centered, too). We need new ways of doing business, of investing." Sana Kapadia (Heading for Change) & our CEO Roberta Bosurgi talking about gender-smart leadership at #ImpactWeek

JEI is excited to see community members Akaya Windwood & Tzeporah Berman on this list of Women Over 50 Leading on Climate Action in Forbes. We're grateful for their inspiring leadership! https://lnkd.in/dxppwxpz