⦿ INSIGHTS

Introducing an 8th T to Our Updated Investment Framework

Since day one, we have made efforts to take responsibility beyond what’s expected of a VC. We are now making these efforts more explicit by gearing up to launch a holistically impact-aware strategy. Here's how we are taking the next step to building the VC fund of Tomorrow.
Introducing an 8th T to Our Updated Investment Framework
WRITTEN BY
Sara Rywe
Partner
WRITTEN BY
Ida Åsle
Former Director of Platform

byFounders is evolving. Since day one, we have made efforts to take responsibility beyond what’s expected of a VC. We are now making these efforts more explicit by gearing up to launch a holistically impact-aware strategy. As part of that, we are adding a criterion to our current investment evaluation framework: The 7 Ts.

On the occasion of our anniversary late last year, we took a moment to reflect on whether, and how, we’d lived up to what we initially set out to do.

The ambition to set up a fund for founders, by founders, was spurred in part by what used to be an uneven playing field in the Nordic investor landscape, in part by a shortage of local “smart money” for globally ambitious Nordic founders.

The situation has since changed for the better — and is still improving.

Fortunately, both the availability of capital and the quality of funding sources have increased since we started investing. Much of this transition can be attributed to the influx of capital to venture and our local ecosystems.

We’re very encouraged by observing this change.

Becoming Explicitly Impact-aware

But other, more far-reaching challenges prevail. We are far from solving many of the tremendous issues facing us at this point and into the future, on both social and environmental parameters.

We see top talent seeking our purpose-driven employers and organizations like never before. Consumers demand sustainable products and services from companies they can trust. And with new and forthcoming legislation on ESG risk by the EU and others, all economic actors will have to adapt.

On all of these points, we believe younger companies have an advantage over industry incumbents. Getting it right from the start is that much easier than reorienting a tanker.

As a fund, we want to reap the opportunities this shift presents by investing in startups with a positive impact and supporting them in securing their success.

Though, we’re not starting from scratch.

About 50% of our current portfolio companies already do have an intentional, positive impact associated with one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals:

"Until now, we’ve had an implicit disposition towards founders and companies with positive impact. In our second fund, we’re ready to make this focus explicit." - Eric Lagier, Managing Partner, byFounders

Letting Our Values Guide Us

By elucidating our focus on impact, we make sure that it informs everything we do at byFounders. However, we are not becoming an impact VC.

We don’t expect impact startups to make up 100% of our portfolio, as we still want to keep our doors open for startups that drastically transform industries for the better while not directly addressing one of the SDGs.

What’s important, however, is that we invest in responsible founders who care about topics such as diversity and inclusion, employee wellbeing, and carbon footprint.

We believe superior financial returns will come from investing in companies contributing to a better Tomorrow.

Either through their product or service or by how they run their business.

Ideally both.

We are adopting an impact-aware approach throughout all of our actions as a fund and firm.

This approach will complement our existing core values and principles from when we first started the fund.

Here’s one of the changes we will make to walk our talk.

Let Us Introduce You to Our 8th T: Tomorrow

Thanks to our connections to, and visibility in, the Nordic and Baltic ecosystems, we see approximately 100 deals per month. Investing only in about ten new companies per year, we naturally have a rigorous screening process.

From the start, we’ve centered our screening process around the “7 Ts”. We are now adding an “8th T”: Tomorrow.

You can read more about our thinking behind each T here.

Under the eighth criterion, we ask: in what way is your company contributing to a better tomorrow?

Staying true to our roots and competencies, we take a liberal approach here.

What’s important to us is that you are conscious of the impact you have.

That your product or service does not have a negative impact, and that you continuously strive to improve it.

Your impact comes from both what you sell and how you run your business. A “traditional” B2B SaaS company with founders who care about how they run their business in the most sustainable way still fits under our umbrella. While it might not be classified as an impact startup, we expect it to be a responsible one.

If you can succinctly answer this eighth question, along with how you meet the other seven — well, then your company is right up our alley 👋.

But we won’t stop there.

Once we have invested in your company, we will help you reach your ambitious goals — as always. What’s new is that we’ll actively help you improve your impact as well. Namely, we will support you in implementing sustainable operations and measure your social impact. Some activities will be mandatory, others we’ll encourage you to take advantage of. The outcomes will be tangible, measurable metrics that we will report on regularly. Keep your eyes open for more on this soon.

We can’t wait to embark on this journey together! 🚀

Submit your pitch deck here:

More about the author(s)
Sara Rywe
Partner

Sara oversees our investments in Scandinavia - focusing primarily on Sweden, Norway, and Denmark - and has a particular interest in the future of work and FinTech. Her strong interest in social impact (and diversity!) is something that she continues to focus on here at byFounders and she is the mastermind behind our ‘impact-aware’ strategy.

More about the author(s)
Ida Åsle
Former Director of Platform

Ida is our former Director of Platform. A formative member of our team, she leveraged our community's potential to establish resources that facilitated growth for our brand and portfolio companies.

Ida furthermore steered our external communications, amplifying our reach, while wielding her expertise to aid our founders with their PR strategies.

Her wide-ranging interests and empathetic understanding of the founder's journey are hallmarks of her approach, and the assets she crafted, including her insightful blog posts, continue to be treasured resources.

External
September 22, 2023

The Carbon Rush: Investing in Carbon Dioxide Removal

Casper Bjarnason delves into the Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) landscape, discussing the significance of CDR in achieving climate targets, the determinants of its success, and the venture capital perspective on investing in this field.
External
September 7, 2023

6 Reflections From My 6 Months Interning in Venture Capital

Matias Salonen is the newest member of the byFounders investment team. He joined as an intern in January 2023 and recently transitioned into a full-time investor role. In the following, Matias reflects on the lessons learned and shares his path into venture capital and recommendations for prospective VCs.
External
April 18, 2023

We are Publishing our First Impact-Awareness Report

Playing our part in building a better tomorrow
External
October 20, 2022

5 things I wish I knew before starting in early-stage VC

For years, I tried to self-educate myself about VC and the startup industry. I read and studied as many books, articles, and podcasts as I could, and watched as many episodes of Silicon Valley as possible to get a glimpse into the life of a VC. I have now been with byFounders for 9+ months and I have come to the conclusion that VC is not something that can be self-taught. Here's what I've learned.
External
June 1, 2022

Environmental social governance law enhances Danish tech startup's impact

Environmental social governance (ESG) became mandatory in Denmark in late 2021. This differentiation between impact funds and ESG will be a game-changer. The transition will provide much-needed differentiation from impact funds, and is one that the Danish tech startup scene will master the better than most.
External
October 28, 2021

Why we’re launching a coaching program

Because no founder should have to go it alone.
External
July 28, 2021

COVID-19 accelerated responsibility among investors & had an impact on mission-driven founders

Denmark is in a unique position to become one of the largest impact startup hubs in Europe. The responsibility of investors, beyond financial returns, is being taken more seriously following the corona crisis and criteria like ESG will soon become mandatory. Paired with a new generation of mission-driven founders, who are becoming more selective about what investors they will allow onto their cap table, we see the responsibility movement positively accelerating.
External
May 11, 2021

Let Me Tell You About My Internship at byFounders

What is it like working for a VC in the New Nordics? Our most-recent joiner, Kipras, shares his experiences to, hopefully, help others who may be thinking about breaking into the industry find the best fit.
External
March 23, 2021

Introducing an 8th T to Our Updated Investment Framework

Since day one, we have made efforts to take responsibility beyond what’s expected of a VC. We are now making these efforts more explicit by gearing up to launch a holistically impact-aware strategy. Here's how we are taking the next step to building the VC fund of Tomorrow.
External
March 23, 2021

How We Evaluate Companies: Our 8 T Framework

Similarly to how you need to consider who you want to join you on your journey, we as investors need to consider what rocket ships we should opt for a seat on. In this post, we are outlining how we structure our thinking when evaluating companies.
External
January 7, 2021

byFounders' Guide to the Term Sheet

What do you need to know at seed stage? In the spirit of transparency, we wanted to share our Term Sheet and our thoughts behind some of the clauses we deem most important.
External
November 20, 2020

Our Secret Sauce

What makes us a community-powered VC fund? Why, our Collective members, Portfolio founders, and core team, of course. Let us introduce you to them.
External
September 24, 2020

Industry Deep Dive: New Rules in Fashion

In this post, team member, Bjarni, aims to take a closer look at recent innovations within FashionTech and highlight some of the trends and startups that are disrupting the fashion industry. Based on this, he will make some predictions as to what is to come.

Delete me when done