Beyond Investing: Vegan Investment Platform Expands Range Of Animal-Free Indices & Funds
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After debuting the world’s first cruelty-free and climate-forward exchange-traded fund (ETF), the U.S. Vegan Climate ETF, vegan investment platform Beyond Investing has just expanded its existing range of animal-friendly investment products to offer a Europe Vegan Climate Index, Vegan World Index Certificate and U.S., U.K. and global vegan venture capital funds.
Jersey-based Beyond Investing has unveiled new investment products in partnership with its affiliate Beyond Impact which are being offered to public and private markets thus providing more choices to investors and furthering the platform’s mission to end animal exploitation.
The company has been investing in alternative protein and plant-based companies since 2017 claiming that it is the world’s first and only vegan investment platform and behind the U.S. Vegan Climate Index, launched in 2018 and tracked by the U.S. Vegan Climate ETF since September 2019. The assets tracking the index which now includes the new US Vegan Climate Index Certificate has soared to a value of US$55 million.
With over 35 years of senior-level finance and investment experience at UBS and alternatives advisory firm Albourne Partners, CEO of Beyond Investing and CIO of Beyond Impact, Claire Smith founded the company with Larry Abele of Impact-Cubed and Lee Coates of Ethical Investors to make animal-friendly investment solutions accessible for vegans and environmentalists within public listed markets.
Its new investment products are Europe Vegan Climate Index, Vegan World Index Certificate and Beyond Impact vegan venture capital funds that will have the Vegan Diversity Fund, Vegan Diversity S/EIS Fund and Beyond Impact Fund II.
Europe Vegan Climate Index
This platform increases its range of large-cap ESG stock indices with the Europe Vegan Climate Index that is a pan-European index and consists of the same policies as the U.S. Vegan Climate Index.
Activities and products that do not meet its criteria include animal testing, animal-derived products, animals in sport and entertainment, fossil fuel production, energy production from fossil fuel, other environmental concerns, military and defence and financing of excluded activities removing around 54 % of the market capitalization of the Solactive GBS Developed Markets Europe Large & Mid Cap EUR Index.
From June 3 2021, the new index has been calculated in real-time by Solactive and published on Bloomberg under the ticker ‘VEGANE’.
Vegan World Index Certificate
In partnership with the U.K. FCA-regulated specialist ESG manager Impact-Cubed comes the Vegan World Index of small to mid-cap growth firms developing plant-based and cruelty-free products and will be available for investing through the Vegan World Index Certificate, which will be quoted on June 15, 2021 on the Leonteq structured products platform.
With the same exclusions as the Vegan Climate indices, this one will include all companies that meet the criteria and focus on those whose mission is helping the food system move away from the practice of exploiting animals like Beyond Meat, Oatly and other lesser-known firms like in Asia and other emerging markets across the plant-based F&B, agriculture, materials and ingredients sectors.
In a press release seen by Green Queen, Smith said: “Unlike others, our expertise and investment experience extends across both public and private markets, particularly important since companies are moving rapidly through investment rounds and may have the opportunity to IPO. By identifying exceptional entrepreneurs whose companies have the potential to grow quickly, we aim to have large-scale positive impact and produce superior returns to our investors. The more listed companies there are, the more complete our solution becomes in our public market portfolios, and we expect the universe of companies for the Vegan World Index to grow strongly in coming months and years.”
Beyond Impact vegan venture capital funds
An active VC investor since 2017, Beyond Impact has supported companies in cellular agriculture, like Mosa Meat and Blue Nalu, in alternative protein, like Geltor and Clara Foods, and plant-based brands like Meatless Farm and Mighty Pea.
It has unveiled three new venture capital funds aiming to provide seed and growth funding to animal-friendly entrepreneurs.
Launching on July 1 2021, the Vegan Diversity Fund will go live on Angelist and will help to offer seed funding to U.S. companies with founders belonging to diverse backgrounds with products that expand the present range of vegan choices.
By identifying exceptional entrepreneurs whose companies have the potential to grow quickly, we aim to have large-scale positive impact and produce superior returns to our investors
Claire Smith, CEO of Beyond Investing and CIO of Beyond Impact
A similar fund is underway in partnership with Sapphire Capital Partners to offer seed and early stage financing to diverse teams of founders in the U.K., with an advantage of the SEIS and EIS tax benefits available to qualifying U.K.-based investors.
With better metrics for gender and racial diversity embedded since its start, Beyond Impact has an impressive gender portfolio split: almost 50% of the companies it backs are co-founded or led by a woman, and nearly 40% were co-founded or led by members of other minority groups.
Lastly, the Beyond Impact Fund II will be a part of larger seed raises from start-ups that are innovating in technology to disrupt the cruelty-free market and will also support its existing portfolio and other later-stage companies through follow-on fundings.
The more listed companies there are, the more complete our solution becomes in our public market portfolios, and we expect the universe of companies for the Vegan World Index to grow strongly in the coming months and years
Claire Smith, CEO of Beyond Investing and CIO of Beyond Impact
Beyond Investing and Beyond Impact say they are looking to contribute to the achievement of 12 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), across hunger, sustainability, climate, biodiversity, health, water, work, clean energy and gender equality.
Metrics given by Impact-Cubed show that the group’s U.S. Vegan Climate Index boasts a 76% lower carbon footprint, 97% lower waste generation and 90% less water consumption as compared to the market benchmark, the S&P500 Index.
Lead image courtesy of Mosa Meat.
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