We see ESG as an opportunity, and a crucial responsibility
Luminar's ESG thesis (updated 2022-09-23)
At Luminar Ventures, we strongly believe that digitization will not only improve how business is done, but it will also improve society and our planet. It’s now almost three decades ago that John Elkington coined the “Triple Bottom Line” of People (ESG), Planet (Sustainability) and Profit (also known as the 3Ps), and this is becoming more relevant than ever as we see a strong acceleration from investors towards improving the balance between these areas. These 3Ps have been cornerstones of the creation of our fund, where we believe every company need to make sure they excel on all 3 to attract talents, customers, investors to give us, and the planet, great returns, and long-term sustainable companies.
We are therefore looking for founders that have that same view and passion for creating value beyond Profit. This does not mean that we only looking for impact companies, as we believe this mindset should reflect all type of companies starting today.
It is an important part of our work with portfolio companies, we actively support our founding teams in setting up their own ESG and SDG strategies and objectives throughout their growth plan.
Some of our portfolio companies, in our first fund, are offering services that are more directly targeting climate change such as Greenely, Normative, Omocom, Carla and Hemma. Many of the companies are also having a great social impact, including Mindler, Insurello, Vården.se, Health Integrator, Heja and more.
We have great hopes for this development to continue in our portfolio during the years to come and in our second fund.
Identification of sustainability risks (ESG & SDG)
Luminar is assessing every company from a ESG and SDG perspective. If sustainability risks are discovered during the investment decision process, they will be discussed by the investment committee and an overall assessment will be made of whether the risk can be managed. Otherwise we will not invest.
Adverse sustainability impact
No consideration of adverse impacts of investment decisions on sustainability factors
On 10th of March 2021, the “Level 1” of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations (SFDR) started to apply. Luminar does not consider adverse impacts of investment decisions on sustainability factors. This is because of a lack of consistent, accessible, and accurate data from the underlying portfolio companies. Luminar will maintain the position of not considering principal adverse impacts on sustainability factors until such time Luminar has the necessary data and framework to be able to report on them clearly.
Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation
SFDR Article 8 website disclosures
LV II Conopus AB