A message from The Partners

At Horizon we hold a deep understanding of our responsibility as investors to ensure we are making a positive contribution and supporting companies that create value to society.

2022 has been an instrumental year for Horizon with regard to ESG progress. Having built the foundation of our ESG strategy in 2020 and 2021, this year has been key to developing upon this and embedding ESG initiatives within both our investment practise, and the operations of our portfolio.

This year we have focussed in particular on taking a closer look into every stage of our investment process and how we can actively identify and exploit opportunities for improving our ESG impact at each.

We are inspired by each of our portfolio companies and the enthusiasm their teams demonstrate towards taking action to address a wide variety of ESG issues.

This year we have learnt the value that can be derived from providing our portfolio companies with the opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other’s strengths in this regard. This in turn educates our team at Horizon and provides continuous motivation to support these initiatives.

Horizon Highlights

- Team growth: from 12 to 17 - 38% of Horizon investment / origination team is female (up from 36% in previous year)

- 100% investment committee stage papers include an ESG section

- 4 internship opportunities donated to students from disadvantage background as part of our longstanding commitment to charities that support social mobility

Portfolio Highlights

- 4500+ employees across the portfolio, of which 36% are female (10 points above the UK tech industry average)1

- 29% of senior management is female across the portfolio (vs. 26%)

- 100% of companies calculate GHG emissions

- 90 ESG measures collected across portfolio