EIF Working Paper 2020/063: ESG considerations in Venture Capital and Business Angel investment decisions: Evidence from two pan-European surveys

This working paper provides testimony on the integration of ESG considerations and impact investing in the areas of venture capital (VC) and business angel (BA) investing. The results are survey-based and are derived from the respective questions in the EIF VC Survey 2019 and the EIF Business Angels (BA) Survey 2019. The paper discusses the combined findings from both surveys in relation to the respondents’ ESG considerations, and clusters the ESG-related results around six main themes:

• What is the level of ESG engagement in VC and BA investing?
• What motivates VCs’ and BAs’ ESG engagement (and what deters them from doing so)?
• What are the most common ESG investment strategies?
• How do VC firms implement ESG criteria in terms of policies and procedures?
• How do VCs and BAs perceive the relation between ESG considerations and investment returns?
• What lies ahead for ESG investing?

The EIF Working Papers are designed to make available to a wider readership selected topics and studies in relation to EIF’s business. The Working Papers are edited by EIF’s Research & Market Analysis and are typically authored or co-authored by EIF staff or are written in cooperation with EIF.