Megan Hung

No matter what your approach to LP:GP relationships looks like, the initial pitch is a critical opportunity. Edith Yeung is going to walk us through how she has crafted trust, interest and confidence among her LP relationships, starting with the pitch.

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Sharing views of my Partner. "Within the climate change investment ecosystem, much of the capital has gone to two ends of the spectrum: venture capital and infrastructure. Those investments are obviously impactful, but more of a developmental, long-term approach to solving climate change. We try to focus on where we can make an impact today. That means looking for companies already reducing emissions or saving energy." Read more from Stuart Barkoff, co-founder and managing partner GEF Capital Partners https://lnkd.in/dX2CMs35

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Thoughtful commentary from Sandhya Nakhasi in ImpactAlpha asserting that now is the time for impact investors to seize the moment and lead, particularly during this election cycle. Their contention is that our markets have become increasingly financialized and disconnected from people and their needs, and that impact investors have the tools and means to address these issues. I'm struck by the note that it’s incumbent upon impact investors to align with those advocates pushing for government regulations, oversight and community-informed incentives that will help bring about a more equitable economy. Please have a look. #ImpactInvesting

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Is SF Climate Week banter a good barometer of the macro climate tech investment mood? Key nuggets to ponder: 💰💰💰 Climate solutions (like most science/engineering and hardware based deep tech) are capital intensive. They require an "all of the above", creative financing approach to obtain the capital needed to scale (from CVCs, government, public-private partnerships, green banks, debt financing...). 🤖 AI - Everything, Everywhere (all at once). As in most sectors, AI is white hot. It can be a key component of climate solutions, but also a demand accelerant ⏩ More AI = ↗ compute and power demand ⚡= ↗ need for energy storage and grid enhancing solutions 🔋. 🏛 🤵 Political Angst. Real worry that a new administration will cut or impede climate tech catalyzing funding (e.g., DOE funding from IRA). #climatetech #climateweek

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I'm attending The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) Impact Forum for impact investing today in San Francisco. What is impact investing? ROI Squared - investing for positive change (Return on Impact) while seeking Returns on Impact. Beyond philanthropy, impact investing seeks to invest for good and receive the original capital back to to allow for ongoing investing for positive change - and often seeking incremental return up to market or venture rate returns. The power of impact investing is is allows the investor to choose both impact goals and target investment returns. As impact investing continues to grow, there are several approaches emerging to scale the impact of invested capital, including the use of blended finance and catalytic capital, impact measurement, and the intersection of venture capital and impact investing. As co-CEO of Spring and a Managing Partner of Spring Impact Capital with Olivia and Graham Day, these are trends and topics we live and breathe daily in our work. I'm looking forward to a day of inspiration, conversation, and community. #impactinvesting #blendedfinance #catalyticcapital #venturecapital

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Next year, I will have lived in the UK as long as I have lived in China. It feels a right time to take stock and reflect on what I have experienced and learned from the two decades of economic research and thinking on #productivity and #growth, future of #globalisation and role of #state. My inaugural lecture on 24 April at Aston University campus - "East, West, Which is the Best? - State, Market and the Return of Industrial Policy" - will contain tales of successes and lessons of failures, and contemplate on the engines of growth - trade, innovation and entrepreneurship. It will draw upon the experience of the West, the East and consider the choices of the middle powers like Britain. There will be stories, reflections and visions… and I will be talking about multinationals, entrepreneurs… and cars! 😉 Centre for Business Prosperity (CBP) Aston University Aston Business School Enterprise Research Centre (UK) The Productivity Institute #EconEvents #Economics #trade #exports #industrialpolicy #entrepreneurship #market #automotive #uktrade #productivity #development #midlands Etienne Dodane, Raj Kandola, Ben Odams, Ben Cropper, Alan Johnson, Stephen Phipson CBE, KT Tang, , Andy Street, Professor Keith Jackson, Andrew Leyshon, Professor Delma Dwight, David Henig, David Bharier, William Bain, Association of British Chinese Professors, Saul Estrin, Ian Harrison, Pete West MSc MIEx, Iana Dreyer, Nicola Pike, nigel driffield, David Bailey, Colin Bell, Mark Hart

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I think more correctly “Japanese companies for over-prioritizing dividends at the expense of Growth (so that wages and capital expenditure can’t be paid). Google & Amazon shareholders without dividends are of course happy as share price is growing. If not growing, they would never be happy without dividend. The professor’s opinion is worth reading but too much emphasizing traditional Japanese values that outdated already. Japan needs GROWTH somehow to pay wages, capital expenditures as well as dividends.

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VC can learn from PE and vice-versa. Is there a best of both worlds? Could they be the yin to each other’s yang? Imagine a conference with partners from both VCs and PE firms. 🤔 What would they be talking about?  🤔 What would they be learning from each other?  🤔 What topics would be alien to each other?  🤔 What blind spots will be revealed? Both are very important sectors to the UK and the global economy and we will all benefit if they evolve and raise their game. In my second essay on this topic, please note I’m making generalisations and my comments will not apply to all firms. (yes, I’m talking to you John O'Connell!) - - - - - 📑 Read the article in full below. 👀 Keep your eyes peeled for more info on this topic! https://lnkd.in/eAKPmNQp #privateequity #venturecapital #PE #VC #RaisingCapital

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Summary: The article discusses the challenges faced by climate tech startups as they transition from the lab to commercial outfit. These companies, which work on hardware and infrastructure projects for climate solutions, struggle to raise necessary funds and often face difficulties in scaling up production. Key takeaways: The transition from early-stage startup to commercial operation is difficult, especially for hardware and infrastructure projects in the climate tech industry. The lack of financing options and specialized expertise for these types of projects creates a "commercial valley of death" that many companies struggle to overcome. Startups often fall into the trap of trying to expand their business too quickly, losing sight of their core value proposition and failing to ensure proper execution. Counter arguments: Some may argue that this "first of a kind" problem is not unique to the climate tech industry and can be seen in other industries as well. Others may argue that with the increasing focus on climate change and need for sustainable solutions, more funding and support will become available for these startups. #venturecapital #vc #startups

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Elizabeth Cook, Managing Partner of VC firm AI Capital, addresses the art of the [VC] deal: An intricate blend of relationship building, offering a succinct and concise value proposition, domain expertise, and of course, profit! #venturecapital #vc #ai #artificialintelligence #enterpriseai #startups #entrepreneurship #investing #alternativeinvestments #familyoffice #pensions #foundations #endowments

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Check out Energize's 2023 Annual Impact & ESG Report, packed with great insights!

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Massive #congratulations 🙌 🎉 , Caroline Flammer, on the launch of the new SIRI program to Develop and Scale Up the Global Marketplace for Blended Finance ! Your laser focus on this vital and instrumental topic to solve the world's grand challenges is highly #commendable! I thoroughly #enjoyed reading your NBER paper on “Blended Finance,” which outlines how public-private partnerships can mobilize private capital for investments with positive social outcomes but insufficient risk-adjusted returns. As you highlight, institutions like the International Finance Corporation (IFC) can mitigate investment risks, enhancing private returns to surpass investors’ hurdle rates. This mechanism is vital in the green energy transition, where determining and operationalizing the optimal blend of public funds to attract private capital across various EMDE countries and renewable technologies remains a key challenge. While your paper adeptly addresses “#project-based blended finance,” the urgency and scale required for the global net-zero transition necessitate a shift towards “#system-wide blended finance.” As you highlight in this article system-wide investing is #key. To enrich and rapidly advance this (running-out-of-) time-sensitive debate, it may be valuable to learn that our paper “The Economic Case for Climate Finance at Scale" (https://lnkd.in/dbkMzfdA) takes a first step at rationalizing “#systemwide #blendedfinance.” We demonstrate that advanced countries providing climate finance can steeply reduce global emissions driven by EMDEs. This finance should cover early coal closure costs and public funds to attract private investments in renewable technologies via blended finance. Our findings show a net economic gain to the West, ranging from 213.7% to 57.1% of the (blended) climate finance cost, making it affordable at 0.25%-0.13% of the G7+EU’s GDP. The research questions your program aims to address are exceptionally #crucial and #timely: “Understanding challenges in blended finance, scaling up projects, effective private-public partnerships, risk allocation, improving financing structures, and accelerating market growth is critical.” — Flammer By working together on vitally important initiatives like yours, we can tackle climate change and biodiversity loss at the necessary #speed and #scale.

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I see equity compensation as the best expression of capitalism: a tool not only for wealth creation but also for wealth distribution. Having been close to this space for a while, I'm thrilled to see companies emerging with solutions that make this type of compensation more tangible for employees and ultimately more valuable for startups as a currency to attract top talent. Today, a friend reached out to discuss equity compensation and how it converts into cash. We reviewed some of the alternatives I've encountered, and he found it helpful. So, I decided to share the list here in the hopes that it might be useful to others as well. Carta | Equitybee | Secfi | Quid | Multiply | Vested | Hiive | Forge | EquityZen | Augment | Nasdaq Private Market | Zanbato | Harness | Carry

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Delving into the world of CDR can feel like navigating a sea of acronyms. To streamline your journey into this topic, we have curated a collection of the most common ones. From MRV, TRL, DAC, and CSRD, among many more, our Notion page provides translations and brief explanations for the most frequently encountered acronyms and units.  Check out the collection here: https://lnkd.in/d3_QjJEV Which acronyms do you frequently encounter and would love to learn more about? Did we forget any common ones? Let us know in the comments below. Views are our own!  In collaboration with Lisa Mangertseder

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I had a great conversation at #InVentures with our portfolio companies Myra Arshad (ALT TEX), Madison Savilow (Carbon Upcycling Technologies) and Matthew Alexander, CPA, CA (Future Fields) speaking on Scaling Climate Tech for Global Impact: Lessons Learned from Investors & Founders. Some key takeaways from our conversation: 1. Find great, early commercial partners to help. They can show you the ropes and really accelerate your know-how and growth. 2. Always have a supply-chain integration in mind when scaling up on the manufacturing and commercial side. 3. There's a lot of moving puzzle pieces when you're first starting out. Sometimes you have to get creative with your funding and milestones. Prioritize and don't be afraid to be scrappy. Big thank you to everyone who attended the panel and for the great conversations.

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This thoughtful article in Stanford Social Innovation Review examines whether impact investing should be more difficult than traditional investing. While that position may elicit varying responses, I concur with author Maoz Brown that for impact investors to deliver value-added impact, there should be something truly distinct about the deals they structure--at least in comparison to deals made by socially neutral investors. The article also presents us with an important thesis that impact investors need to address the urgent problems that are currently being neglected by capital markets, keeping social impact front and center in their growth strategies. #ImpactInvesting

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We announced the NYU Tandon Future Labs Catalyst NYC 2024 cohort! 15 pre-seed startups will join the program after intensive 2 weeks of interviewing over 50 companies. A few things that I've learned during the interviewing process: 👉 In-person makes the difference - we conducted most of the interviews in person. Seeing the team dynamic, being able to show the space, and having those small talks that will not always happen on Zoom, really makes the difference.  👉 Is it all about money? As I don’t think that money should be the first motivation to build a startup, not caring about money is a red flag. Building a successful for-profit company that will financially benefit the founders should be a goal to be motivated by.  👉 It takes a village - I appreciate founders who know the limitations of their skills, know what help they need, and appreciate learning about help that they don’t know that they need. I can not wait to start the program and work with so many great founders!

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South Korea is working hard to set standards in a wild ESG ratings marketplace. “In terms of ESG management, South Korea was a late follower,” says Jay Hyuk Rhee, a professor at the school of business at Korea University in Seoul, “But, now — most, if not all, South Korean corporations take ESG management very seriously.” While South Korea was late to the table — only introducing incentives to adopt ESG global standards in January 2021, following pressure from both consumers and Western companies they supplied goods to — it has created guidelines to gain a more objective and transparent view of these scores that inform investments across assets valued at more than US$37.8 trillion. The ESG Ratings landscape Worldwide, there are at least 140 companies that calculate ESG ratings, and this number is likely to grow, with the ESG data market projected to exceed US$1.3 billion during 2022. These ratings are largely unregulated, and each provider has their own model for calculating them, however, the specific indicators used typically remain concealed in order for companies to protect their intellectual property. This situation often results in wildly different scores for the same company based solely on the ESG rating provider chosen. “It’s very difficult to achieve a consistent result across different ESG rating agencies,” affirms Rhee. And without consistency and objective indicators of where firms can improve their ESG practices, it’s difficult for companies to make changes for the better. https://lnkd.in/g9NdQ27R

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