Impact Investing

 

First Deeptech Fund in Japan to
Implement Impact Evaluation

Since its establishment in 2015, Real Tech Holdings has been taking the lead in investing in and fostering technology-based startups that seek to solve the problems that the earth and humanity face. They include the renewable energy startup Challenergy Inc., which aspires to safely supply electricity to all of humanity by innovating wind power generation, new materials startup U-MAP Inc., which is working to resolve the recently increasing problem of heat generated by electronics, and long-range unmanned aerial vehicle startup Terra Labo, which enables an early response to disasters.

The impact investment market, which is intended to generate positive social impact alongside economic returns, has been growing rapidly in recent years, mainly in Europe and the United States. The global “impact investment market” size was approximately JPY 77.8 trillion, and the estimated market size in Japan stands at JPY512.6 billion as of 2020.

Meanwhile, investments in deeptech startups that could have an innovative social impact have been limited in Japan. In order to promote the social implementations of technologies by ensuring that the corporate value of deeptech startups is appropriately assessed, resulting in further investments by ESG and impact investors, we have decided to become the first deeptech investment fund in Japan to adopt social impact evaluation.

Impact evaluation reports on the portfolio companies are to be released to the extent possible as they become available.

Real Tech Holdings partnered up with Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, a leader in positive impact finance, to assess the societal and environmental impact of its investments in accordance with the Positive Impact Finance Principles (*1) proposed by the United Nations Environment Programme and Finance Initiative (UNEP FI).

*1 The Principles for Positive Impact Finance:
A financial framework established by UNEP FI in January 2017 for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By having companies disclose their contributions to the achievement of the SDGs through KPIs and banks provide finance after assessing the positive impact of such contributions, this framework guides efforts to increase positive impact and reduce negative impact from the activities of companies being financed. As responsible financial institutions, banks providing finance monitor indicators to ensure that positive impact continues.