Dear friends,
Welcome to the Wellstreet Journal! 📰 If you are new here, our goal is to provide you with the latest news and insights from our team, portfolio companies and the broader startup community. We are always looking to support and grow the companies in our portfolio in the best way possible. This newsletter is an informal way to inform our network about what we are up to and our portfolio’s progress.
This edition brings a new section that we’ll continue to include from now on—Wellstreet’s work on ESG🌍
We hope you enjoy the read! 😉
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We started the year by sharing our ambition to embed ESG in our investment activities. 🌍 This acronym (spelled out as Environmental, Social, Governance) is the foundation for future-proofing our portfolio companies and putting in place sound business practices in their DNA already at a very early stage. As we are operating the Fintech Fund under "Article 8", or as a "light green" fund according to the European SFDR regulation, ESG is also a compliance requirement for us as an investor.
We have invested a lot of time and, with external support from our partner Ethos, developed a framework, policies, tools and practices for this work.📚 We also shared our view on the topic in the form of Op-Eds and they were published (in Swedish) at Dagens Industri, Breakit and Realtid.
In an effort to be fully transparent, contribute to the ecosystem and encourage investors/founders to share learnings - we are unlocking our ESG work showcasing the practical approach and tools we use to embed ESG in our portfolio companies' DNA. 📖 You can find on our website a guide to our thought process and how we developed our ESG strategy and implementation: Wellstreet’s Framework and Approach.
On Jan 19, we gathered our founders for a full-day kick-off covering ESG, with an agenda full of best practices and a hands-on workshop where our companies performed a risk assessment. Mentors from our partner deb. (diverse executive boards) assisted each portfolio company. Our portfolio got a flying start to the year with our support to move further up the ESG implementation ladder. Read more about the day here.
Curious and want to read more about the topic? Here are a few insightful reads:
⬥ “The Making and Meaning of ESG”: Paper about ESG and its history written by Elizabeth Pollman at the University of Pennsylvania
⬥ “Six Steps to Improve Your Stewardship Reporting”: A guide from our portfolio company Esgaia for improved reporting and demonstration of investor stewardship.
⬥ “ClientEarth is taking Shell's Board of Directors to court”: As a shareholder, and, crucially, with the backing of a number of large institutional shareholders, ClientEarth is suing Shell over the inadequacy of their climate transition plans.
⬥ “ESG is coming to venture capital. Here’s how startup founders can stay ahead of the curve”: the World Economic Forum shared a guide to the current regulatory changes.
🔔 Did you check our latest tips for startups? 👀You can now get the attention of investors (like us!) by following the Wellstreet Investment Team’s Pitch Advice to Founders and also develop an eye-catching pitch deck by checking our article Pitch deck best practice - pitch like a pro!
🔔 We wish to extend our team with a Head of Partnerships! We are looking for a person who will work closely with our partners and portfolio companies, building out our VC platform for success. Read more about the role here.
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🔔 We’d like to share the news that, after only a few months as an intern, we’re welcoming Joshua Seidel, Wellstreet’s latest addition to the team as an Analyst! 👋
🔔 Congratulations to Evelina Anttila on her promotion to Managing Partner at Wellstreet! 💪 As a Managing Partner, she will play a decisive role in leading the company and shaping its strategy, working closely with our other Managing Partner, founding partner Mikael Wintzell. Soon we will publish a more extended interview with Evelina on the website, keep your eyes out for it!
Portfolio News
🦿 Anatomic Studios is now an official partner of The Active Amputee community, a blog that focuses on the experiences and lifestyles of individuals with amputations.
🛒 Kristian Tysander, CEO of Brink Commerce, shared his e-commerce predictions for 2023. And here's why you don't need to worry about switching to a composable e-com ecosystem.
🙋♂️ DanAds CEO Istvan Beres published a column about inclusive recruitment in Tidningen Näringslivet. Here is the 2-minute summary in English.
📢 New year, new me! HomeMaker and Pixery Media are now one company called Envise - the new proptech company combining interactive web solutions and visualizations.
📈 The sports clothing company ICIW has signed reseller agreements with Zalando and the department store chain Peek & Cloppenburg, expanding to 14 new European markets. 👏
🛥️ X Shore welcomed Prince Daniel of Sweden and some entrepreneurs in his fellowship, including to X Shore Industries 1, as well as Nyköping’s municipal director Mats Pettersson.
Portfolio News
🤔 Aura Cloud has published a whitepaper on the market challenges for deposits and their latest insights and recommendations. And Dagens Industri featured the company's strategic cooperation with Samlink to offer the Next-Gen IT Services for banking and finance.
🔍 Which questions should you ask yourself when choosing your open banking partner? Regional Manager of Enable Banking, Sarah Häger, tells you!
🙏 From expanding the network to growing the team and entering new markets, 2022 was a year of significant and positive growth for Future of Retail. Impressive!
🥇 Steven kicked off 2023 as the number 1 finance app in the App Store! So exciting to see so many people using Steven to keep track of expenses, remember who paid for what, and ask colleagues to pay up when the time is right.
⬥ Sifted found out what to expect when you’re expecting. Here are six founder stories about what it’s like to fundraise while pregnant.
⬥ Tiktok’s algorithm may look like magic, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve found product market fit.
⬥ A copy of the quantum computer at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden will be built and become available to Swedish companies and researchers.
⬥ GPT-SW3, a Swedish text-generator AI, is in pre-release. An initiative by AI Sweden, they'll share it with people who commit to not using it in ways that may cause harm and to sharing the learnings of their research and applications. But why do we need a large GPT for Swedish?
⬥ After the excitement, the consequences: Getty Images is suing the creators of the AI art tool Stable Diffusion for scraping its content.
⬥ “Noma Is Closing. Welcome to the End of Fine Dining”: the announcement that the famous restaurant Noma is closing is a sign of a workplace cultural change.
Help our companies grow their fantastic teams and get in touch if you know anyone who could be a great fit for any of these roles. 💻
⬥ Anatomic Studios is a happy place and they are looking for a Customer Happiness Manager to join them in Malmö.
⬥ ICIW is looking for a new Head of Accounting.
⬥ Pensure would love to be joined by selling stars in Stockholm and Linköping.
That’s all from us for now. We hope you find this newsletter informative and valuable, and we look forward to continuing to bring you the latest news and insights from our team and the investment community. If you have any questions or suggestions for future newsletter topics, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at contact@wellstreet.vc 😉
