WORKING & INVESTING, SUSTAINABLY
We invest in healthcare transformation with a vision for a future in which access to care and the right to health have no geographical boundaries. Since 2019, we have backed need-driven healthcare technology founders, regardless of their age, gender, race, or background, through the very first years of building solutions to healthcare's most pressing problems, which affect a broad range of populations and industry stakeholders.
Investing in healthcare is our purpose and our responsibility. We approach our mandate with a strong alignment that a mission can complement investment return instead of being seen as separate or where one is preferable. We are committed to these twin objectives. In doing so, we find ourselves perfectly aligned with Sustainable Financing, the set of practices and processes implementing ethical decision-making in business and investment in the pursuit of financial returns alongside environmental and/or social objectives.
This page reflects our commitment to Sustainable Financing and is a collection of practices and shared learnings from our team. It reflects on our journey to do well by doing good, improve our healthcare industry one investment at a time, and be the working example of the values we wish to see in the venture and technology ecosystem.
Our
Focus
Sustainable finance refers to any form of financial service that integrates environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria into business or investment decisions for the lasting benefit of clients and society.
Our commitment to Sustainability encompasses our internal operations (the business decisions of the Alternative Investment Fund Manager) and our portfolio companies (the investment decisions on behalf of our managed Funds). Internal training helps us stay up-to-date with the latest Sustainability best practices and regulations.
While all aspects related to Sustainability are important, we recognize our strengths in integrating social and governance stakes, with a particular focus on:
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diversity, inclusion, and equality;
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ethical, transparent, and socially responsible business conduct;
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impact of our portfolio companies' products and services on societies' good health and well-being.
Building a Sustainable
Business
Since our founding in 2019, we have fostered a culture that welcomes everyone, where everyone can succeed and feel valued, respected, and engaged regardless of gender, age, sexual orientation, or cultural background.
We have achieved nearly perfect gender diversity across our core, Barcelona-based permanent team, including at the senior investment and partnership levels. The same is true for our extended teams, including our advisors, venture partners, and visiting analysts. On recruitment, diversity in the hiring funnel is closely monitored, and our process incorporates standard interview questions and case studies for all candidates.
We are also multigenerational, international, and proud of the diversity of our backgrounds. We represent more than ten countries from North America to Europe and can tell tales of very different socio-economic and cultural upbringings. Our shared values and a strong commitment to improving health bring us together. We work together through open and respectful debate, committed to shared decision-making based on transparent processes and thoughtful fact-based research.
We are convinced that diverse teams reach their highest potential when every individual is fully themselves at work. We are committed to fair and equal pay for our employees. We’ve implemented a number of initiatives to ensure our work environment is safe and conducive to good health.
For example,
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we sponsor a gym membership for all our employees in partnership with a fitness center that maintains gym, spa, and sports facilities all over the city;
- we sponsor healthy lunches every work day in the office in partnership with local, family- and women-owned small restaurant businesses;
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we created and implemented a POSH policy;
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we offer each employee an annual preventive health check-up and audit our offices annually for safety and ergonomics standards.
These are just some of the tangible ways we cultivate an inclusive and safe workplace, fostering a collaborative culture that values and celebrates our differences and our shared beliefs.
Investing in Sustainable
Companies
We exist to improve healthcare. We do so through technology innovation by investing in and supporting need-driven founders. We subscribe to the idea that a mission can complement investment return instead of being seen as separate or where one is preferable—and remain committed to these twin objectives.
Inspired by Stanford Biodesign, we find ourselves perfectly aligned with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Sustainable Development goal to "Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages." With our approach, we understand and stratify the industry's needs, seed entrepreneurs and activate other stakeholders to address them, and map and utilize all assets at our disposal to achieve this one desirable outcome: better healthcare for all.
Our focus on healthcare includes:
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new alternative models of healthcare delivery;
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solutions to improve the operations of traditional providers;
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ways to increase access and consumption of health information;
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services to aid any patient access and adhere to prescription medication;
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products that R&D teams leverage to increase the success rate and reduce the cost of developing novel therapies;
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tools to improve the manufacturing, packaging, and distribution of medications and medical products;
- technology-enabled processes to enable data sharing and utilization by healthcare industry organizations and patients—also to reduce barriers to continuous data-driven innovation.
With our emphasis on multistakeholder efforts in healthcare, unmet health needs, and underserved patient populations, the societal stakes of our investments are obvious. By mandate, all our portfolio companies' economic activity contributes to a social objective to improve healthcare.
In addition, Sustainability considerations are incorporated throughout our investment process to create lasting value for all stakeholders. At the screening stage, we check company activity against our exclusion list and apply gender diversity tags for all new investment opportunities. At the due diligence stage, our process and the final memo that supports an Investment Committee's decision include considerations about the impact on and value to all healthcare stakeholders, as well as a review of the company's management team and structure against our standards for diversity, shareholder accountability, and governance. After an investment, we have the opportunity to prove ourselves as good stewards of our companies by coaching founders on good governance, advocating and monitoring gender diversity in their growing teams, and facilitating cross-pollination of best practices with respect to sound management structures and employee relations, often by leveraging our position on the company's Board of Directors.
Extending our Reach: Research & Engagement
Beyond our business and investment decisions, our focus is the foundation for our research activities and engagement process.
Since 2021, we have been active participants in research to understand and monitor gender diversity in the Venture Capital and Private Equity industry at large. We have published and disseminated the results of our research, advocating for rigorous standard methods to measure and track change. Our commitment includes serving on the local committee of Level 20, a not-for-profit international organization founded with the aim to improve gender diversity in the private equity industry, and participating in conferences and events to speak on this topic. Through our research, dissemination, volunteering, and participation at conferences and events, we aspire to contribute to the societal solution to the systemic lack of diversity.
Beyond diversity, we engage with the community where we live and work in support of initiatives that can have a positive societal and economic impact. We frequently speak at events organized by others in Barcelona on relevant healthcare topics and organize our own to attract an international audience to the city. We philanthropically support a non-profit association, Fundación Kālida, part of Maggie’s network and their first center in mainland Europe, that provides free expert care and holistic support to cancer centers. We encourage and create the conditions for our employees to volunteer their time, expertise, and resources to important causes consistent with our commitment to Sustainability in the community.
Beyond borders, we are active members of Invest Europe, the world’s largest association of private capital providers. The association states, "Invest Europe’s members take a long-term approach to investing in privately held companies, from start-ups to established firms. They inject not only capital but dynamism, innovation, and expertise. This commitment helps create healthy and sustainable companies across Europe, securing millions of jobs and delivering strong returns for leading pension funds and insurers whose members depend on them for their retirements." We adhere to the Invest Europe Code of Conduct, reference the Invest Europe Handbook of Professional Standards, and benefit from the association's training courses, which provide first-class tuition for practitioners and regularly published guidance and tools on topics including responsible investment, investor reporting, and risk measurement.
Contact
Us
To learn more about Sustainable Financing at Nina Capital, contact us at sustainability@nina.capital. Our Managing Partner, Marta, oversees our initiatives on this topic.
If you have a special interest in gender diversity, please contact us at diversity@nina.capital. Our Principal, Yahel, is our officer for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
Feel free to request a copy of our Sustainability Policy, or please simply click here to download it.