Paul is Managing Partner and CEO at Bethnal Green Ventures.

What do you do? 

I help run Bethnal Green Ventures – we’re a VC firm that invests in early-stage tech for good businesses. That’s for profit startups that will also have a positive social or environmental impact on millions of peoples’ lives.

Given you hold a senior role in your organisation, can you explain the motivation for what you do? 

Really it’s about putting technology to work to solve big social and environmental problems. Historically people in the tech industry have pretended that tech is neutral but that’s never been true – the way it is used is full of value judgements. My motivation is that I want to see tech used for good and not just to get people to click on ads more often.

What’s been your direct experience of Covid-19 – professionally and personally? 

Professionally, like a lot of organisations we’ve gone virtual. The whole BGV team is working from home and then we’re running our programme of support for ventures online as well. Overall the portfolio has done ok – some ventures have been negatively affected (particularly those that sell direct to consumers) but others have had to really step up. For example DrDoctor found that there was a huge increase in demand for their software in hospitals and Talklife saw demand from universities grow very quickly.

Personally I feel like I’ve been lucky. I don’t have any close friends or family who have died because of the virus. Being locked down has caused stresses and strains that others have felt too but I’m all too aware that I’ve been one of the lucky ones. 

What were the main challenges you faced in your role before the pandemic, and what were the causes of those challenges?

The big challenge in impact investment at the moment is that a lot of asset owning investors (usually known as LPs in our world) are talking more about impact investing but there’s not much real action. When you look at the big financial services companies and pension funds and so on, they say they are taking impact seriously but they’re not really doing much about it. The challenge in my role is to try and convince them to invest in our funds. 

How has the pandemic changed the nature of those challenges? Has it created new ones?

Fundraising has always been difficult but the pandemic has made it more difficult at least temporarily. However the signs are that investors are understanding that they can’t just keep on doing what they’ve always done. They need to put their money where their mouth is if we’re to build a more sustainable, equitable economy and planet.

Many people are talking about Covid-19 being a game changer for society. What do you understand ‘re-set’ to mean? 

Starting from first principles in terms of asking how do we create a better society. I think it also means stopping doing some things pretty quickly that are obviously unsustainable. Now is the right time to tackle air pollution, end poor employment practices, stop austerity that leaves us unable to cope with a crisis and many other things that would help build a better system.

What do you think has to change? From a political, economic, technological, institutional and behavioural perspective, for example? 

All those things are related and we need them pulling in the same direction. I get the sense that the financial world has genuinely changed but it will take a while for that to be felt. I’m not so sure about politics – I worry that there’s a lack of humility and learning going on in the UK Government. 

What do you think will change? 

Change tends to happen very slowly and then very quickly. The long arc is definitely towards a better world so hopefully this will be the opportunity to accelerate positive change.

Thanks Paul.