Jun 17, 2021
In this podcast, Karim Nurani welcomes venture investors Kai Chen and Diana Adachi of True North Impact Investments to talk about measuring ESG impact investing, how diversity leads to better decisions, cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and the importance of transparency in impact reporting.
In this podcast, we explore five major themes:
Diversity Leads to Better
Decisions
In negotiating ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance)
investment commitments, a significant amount of impact value can be
left on the table. The policies of True North Impact Investments
are focused on identifying how ESG tenets are factored into a
company's decision-making. Diversity at corporate executive and
board levels leads to more responsible business strategies
throughout the organization. Of particular importance is
California's new AB979 legislation, which mandates minority and
diversity representation on large corporate boards by the end of
2021.
Measuring ESG Impact
Investing
Some people believe that companies using ESG policies do not
provide good financial returns. This is incorrect. It's important
to measure ESG performance and demonstrate the impacts that
policies actually have. The equities trading algorithm used by True
North tracks 13 technical indicators and balances risk vs return vs
impact. For example, the algorithm provides the ability to
determine a portfolio's overall carbon footprint as a fractional
ownership percentage of the investment position. Thus, the
quarterly carbon footprint of one's holdings can be compared with
that of the overall sector.
Cryptocurrencies and Digital
Assets
A primary concern in this field is the level of energy consumption.
The location of the blockchain servers and miners is important.
Also, SolarCoin offers rewards solar electricity generators with an
energy-referenced cryptocurrency, as an incentive to promote energy
efficiency. Cambiatus is another global digital assets
initiative, where individual leaders' ESG values and community
commitments play key roles in investment decision-making.
Transparency in Impact Reporting
It's important for progressive companies to be radically
transparent in impact reporting. Too often, too many impact reports
are written for the environment in-crowd, not the corporate
decision-makers and investors. However, ESG company boards are more
responsible long-term strategy-minded. and investors will have
similar features and are a bit distinct to regular investors. If
the board, executives, investors, are aligned on ESG issues, that
predicts more stability and, in turn, a more successful business
venture.
Corporate Behavioral
Analytics
The True North Venture Fund recognizes that ESG-responsible
businesses behave differently in the market than their traditional
counterparts. The fund uses AI and behavioral analytics to identify
promising ventures in the health and wellness sector. In addition
to predicting the business impact for each dollar invested, another
KPI (key performance indicator) for the fund is the ESG impact for
the next incremental dollar invested
About Our Guest:
Fund Manager
True
North Impact Investments
Consultant
Simon-Kucher
& Partners
Partner SVP
True
North Impact Investments
Board Member
Cambiatus
Advisor
Hard
Yaka | Commit
Good
Member
Codex Stanford Blockchain Group
About Our Host:
Karim Nurani
Investor and Entrepreneur
Chief Strategy Officer, Linqto
Fearless innovator. Perpetual student. Equal parts irrepressible and curious, always scanning the horizon for a better way. This is how Karim Nurani is routinely described by those who know him best.
This particular handful of traits has served him exceedingly well across three decades as an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. It’s a journey marked by the formation and successful guidance of over a hundred startups from mining to process manufacturing, leadership in a number of top venture firms, and lucrative forays into markets as diverse as IoT, GreenTech, SAAS, and FinTech. His special power is a rare ability to embrace the multiplicity of perspectives and mindsets that coexist in the business realm—entrepreneur, executive, investor; early-stage, IPO, and established enterprise.
A great believer in the law of mutual attraction, he puts a great stake in relationships with like-minded thinkers across sectors and around the globe—an endless source of inspiration, knowledge, and exciting opportunity.
Find Karim on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/karimnurani/
About Our Linqto Private
Investing:
To
continue learning about digital assets and trends in private
investing, we also invite you to register for our Global Investor
Conference, taking place on June 22nd, 2021.
Linqto enables accredited investors to invest in pre-IPO companies
like Tealium and Standard
Cognition in a matter of minutes using our mobile app
or website. We invite you to sign-up on the Linqto website or on
our free app on your Apple or Android device.
About This Podcast:
This podcast and related links are for education and entertainment purposes only. Linqto does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of any links and information provided in correlation with this podcast. Any action taken by the listener or reader, which is based upon the information provided in the podcast or related links, is strictly at the individual’s risk.