Responsible investment
Responsible investment means integrating responsibility issues into investment activities and ownership, not excluding certain industries or companies from the investment focus. Responsibility is part of the entire investment process: it affects investment decisions, active ownership and exits.
When evaluating companies, we consider the risks and opportunities related to environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) in addition to the economic aspects of the investment. We are a responsible owner in constant dialogue with the management companies of our portfolio funds, the boards of our portfolio companies and our co-investors.
Our corporate responsibility policy and investment activities are based on the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). We follow these principles in all our activities.
Fund investments
- We invest in venture capital and buyout funds whose managers operate in accordance with the principles of responsible investment.
- We follow a systematic accountability assessment of our target fund managers. Every six months, we evaluate their responsibility policies, their integration into day-to-day operations, staff training and the level of reporting.
- Finnish fund management companies take responsibility well into account in their operations and are more familiar with ESG matters than their international competitors.
- Tesi acts as an advisor and as a general partner of the Kasvurahastojen Rahasto funds-of-funds that it manages through its subsidiary Tesi Fund Management Oy.
Disclosures of Tesi Fund Management under the EU sustainable finance disclosure regulation (SFDR) can be found here.
Direct investments
- In direct investments, we conduct an ESG assessment of the company, which seeks to identify the company’s key risks and opportunities related to environmental issues, social impact and governance, as well as areas for development.
- We promote responsible business through active board work and through working groups and committees. A member of the Board appointed by Tesi plays a significant role in corporate responsibility matters. The member must ensure that management understands the importance of corporate responsibility and its components, and that the company’s operations are at a sufficient level to safeguard the company’s value and long-term business opportunities.
Aiming for social impact
We invest in companies and funds with the highest impact potential: the most promising companies grow the fastest and create new jobs and prosperity the most. Furthermore, we challenge ourselves and our portfolio companies and funds to consider how our actions and decisions affect the environment and society now and in the future.
For the strategy period of 2024-28, we have selected investment themes where we see potential to support internationally competitive centres of expertise. Through these themes, we focus on increasing our impact on the specific sectors, and support and encourage companies to solve the challenges of tomorrow:
- Deep tech: companies applying high-level expertise and technology
- Clean transition: companies aiming to create solutions to mitigate climate change, speed up the decarbonisation of industrial sectors and promote digitalisation
- Health and life sciences: companies aiming to improve drug development, diagnostics or other health-improving technologies