Letter from the Founders

INVESTMENTS

Letter from Plum Alley Founders on Investing with Intention

At Plum Alley, we are deeply committed to driving positive outcomes for humanity, society and the planet by investing in emerging technologies and medical breakthroughs. We believe advances in technology give us the best opportunity to solve the most important challenges of our generation while driving incredible value for investors. Since 2015, we have focused on investing with intention by backing early stage companies that need to exist in the world. Plum Alley has always asked the question before we invest: "What value does this company bring to the world and does it matter?" We are equally committed to achieving a more equitable distribution of opportunity and resources by investing in companies with at least one woman founder from the STEM fields. Research shows that inherently diverse teams bring value to all aspects of business, and we believe they will outperform.

This inaugural report captures the important ways our Plum Alley portfolio companies are driving positive outcomes. We are proud that our portfolio companies contribute to a range of impact areas while also being committed to employing sustainable business practices and building an inclusive corporate culture. Frameworks for assessing impact in early stage companies are nascent and continually evolving. In the realm of early-stage companies, traditional impact or “ESG” metrics have varying applicability, particularly given company size and stage. More specifically, early stage companies often have small teams, limited history and are iterating their product with rapid evolution looking for optimal product market fit. For this report, we examined a variety of resources and developed our own framework which considers three lenses in terms of how we look at companies for investment and track progress over time.

Our Plum Alley lenses include: Core Impact & Company Purpose; Gender & Racial Diversity; and Related Benefits & Impact. We decided to start with the companies' stated purpose to identify their core area of impact. Within the core area of impact, we looked across three of our key thematic areas of focus: Environment, Health, Inclusive Growth. Additionally, we captured foundational metrics related to each company’s commitment towards building a diverse and inclusive team and culture. We are tracking this lens with a view that companies with a strong commitment toward gender and racial diversity are better positioned to tap different perspectives and creative thinking to remain competitive in a rapidly changing world. Within the other related benefits and impact lens, we captured the ways our companies are contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and tangential areas of impact. For example, some of our companies have been instrumental in addressing issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BLM movement and driving greater racial equity in our country.

This inaugural report applies the Plum Alley framework (described in greater detail on pg. 5) to summarize data gathered from our portfolio companies in January, 2021. We know that our framework will evolve and be refined over time. We welcome input from investors, founders and others who share our deep commitment to employing a meaningful and contemporary way of assessing the outcomes early stage companies can have on humanity, society and the planet. We hope you are inspired by the efforts Plum Alley portfolio companies are making to transform our future for the better. We are honored to work with our founders, and we are grateful to our investors who share our commitment to invest with intention.

Deborah Jackson Co-Founder and CEO

Andrea Turner Moffitt Co-Founder and President