Environmental, Social and Governance

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ESG management is no different to any other aspect of business performance and the appropriate management of resources and people makes sound business sense.

We are committed to working with our portfolio companies to ensure ESG considerations are incorporated into business as usual practices and we seek to lead by example where we can. Our ESG planning starts pre investment and is reviewed as part of each and every new investment assessment. It is then monitored on an ongoing basis at Board level. 100% of our portfolio is assessed from an ESG perspective pre investment, and 100% participate in our annual ESG survey.

The businesses we invest in are technology and/or service based businesses. We are passionate about people and this is the area in which we are often most able to make the most significant difference.

“ESG is not just a process or a policy that we monitor ourselves against, but actually reflects who we are and what we do”. ‍

Andy Marsh, Founder and Managing Partner

Communities

We believe in making a positive contribution to both the communities in which we and our portfolio businesses operate. 100% of our portfolio support charities and encourages their workforces to make a difference to the charities and organisations that they believe in. Recent organised events include bike rides for breast cancer, Halloween events for hospices, sleeping rough for homeless charities and sponsoring local football teams from poorer socio demographic areas. Further afield, and outside of our local communities, other causes supported include community projects in South Africa, charities to educate and empower girls and young women in Kenya and mental health awareness throughout the UK.

“The Advanta Foundation has always been a group wide initiative which staff across our offices are passionately committed to. Throughout the years, our calendar has always been peppered with fund raising events, big and small, that were designed to raise money for children’s charities both in the UK and abroad”.

Craig Webster, CEO, Advanta.

Environment

We are committed to minimising and managing the environmental impact of our businesses. 100% of our portfolio have taken steps to reduce energy usage and carbon emissions. Example initiatives in the past year have included the dynamic routing of vehicles to reduce fuel usage, and plant-a-tree projects. Moreover, and very importantly, the services that our portfolio companies provide help their customers reduce their impact on the environment. Some examples of the benefits of our services include assisting customers to work remotely and to reduce business travel and flights, to manage workflows electronically and to significantly reduce paper usage, and to consolidate IT servers and to therefore reduce energy consumption.

“We are committed to giving something back and we try to make a positive impact to a wide range of social and environmental causes. We give each member of staff a Fluent Giving Day, which allows them to undertake charitable work in the local community, whether that is tree planting ,mentoring local school children, litter picking around the local area or other activities.”

Kevin Hindley, CEO, Fluent Money Group.

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People

We ensure that the people we back, the management teams we partner with, are like-minded and we use our influence through our Board seats to ensure that our businesses recruit, retain and develop people from a range of backgrounds and experiences. We are passionate about social mobility and believe that our investments benefit from the wide-ranging views and experiences that result from having a diverse workforce.

Our portfolio:

• Believes passionately in diversity;
• Uses regular communications and people surveys to ensure that employees are aware of overall corporate strategy and that management is aware of how their people are feeling on the ground;
• Supports and pays the Living Wage in the UK;
• Is not in favour of zero hour contracts, unless employees specifically state that they prefer them;
• Invests heavily in training, often sponsoring technical and professional qualifications to ensure the continual development of our employee base;
• Promotes from within whenever possible and appropriate to do so.

“Our people are all important to us. We work hard to foster a culture where everyone is equal and has one voice. From our newest starter right up to our directors, everyone plays a vital part in our journey and gets a say into how we achieve our goals. We are always striving to be an inclusive workplace and are proud signatories to the Tech Talent Charter that requires us to submit our diversity data annually.”

David Jobbins, CEO, Transparity.

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