Interview - Rise Ventures

INVESTING IN INNOVATION

Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Howard Mears and Liam Allwood, co-founders of Rise Ventures, about innovation, responsible investing, and building a business community on shared values. – Written by Charlie Plumb

Established in 2020, with a mission to help connect environmentally and socially responsible businesses with investors that will allow them to grow, Rise Ventures is a one-of-a-kind investment consultancy. With a strong grounding in the worlds of finance and entrepreneurship, founders Howard Mears and Liam Allwood hope to drive innovation through investment to help change the world for the better.

A PLATFORM FOR SUCCESS

Rise Ventures came about partly because of the devasting impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic wrought upon the business community, an origin that has shaped the company’s approach to investing. “Rise Ventures started just before the first lockdown, about 20 months ago,” says co-founder and CEO Howard Mears. “We started the business to open the doors to private investing, because we wanted to support good small businesses. With COVID causing a lot of businesses to unfortunately shut down, there’s a massive opportunity for new businesses to innovate right now. There are thousands of dynamic and sustainable companies in the UK, but if they don’t get representation and support, they won’t grow.”

Rise Ventures acts as a facilitator between businesses, investors, and the private markets, with an aim towards creating a better economic and environmental future. “We wanted to build out a platform where we can leverage our network of investors, entrepreneurs, and creatives to support the next wave of business,” explains Mr. Mears. “It sounds like a very lofty goal, but it’s something that we’re doing right now, which is incredibly humbling. We use what we call the ‘Rise Approach’, working exclusively with a select group of 10 companies, all of whom we can really get behind. We’re not just here to make a quick buck; it’s about building a reputation, rather than just making revenue. We want to provide our investors with the opportunity to work with businesses of the very highest caliber.”

STAMP OF APPROVAL

Part of Rise Ventures’ approach to creating that better future is to ensure that the businesses they work with are truly committed to sustainability. “We created an ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) profile,” says Mr. Mears. “It’s a hot topic now in both private and public investing, but there was no standard in the market when we came to it – each individual company had their own benchmark. We’ve created our own model to try and help set an industry standard, and we’re working towards a level of accountability in the private markets that we haven’t seen before.”

For public companies, ESG profiling is a lot easier than it is for private companies because of the lack of historic data,” explains co-founder and COO Liam Allwood. “There’s a potential for greenwashing as well. Some companies that people might not consider environmentally conscious companies would score quite well on ESG because they throw money at governance, for example. We wanted to create a level playing field that gave a correct representation to our investors. That’s why we require our partners to meet our criteria in all three areas. Everyone we work with is carbon neutral or better, and most of them are better.”

PRIORITIZING INTEGRITY

To Rise, it’s equally important that their partners’ commitment to change reaches all the way from the top to bottom. “The key elements we consider as part of the business proposition are the market, the industry, and the leadership team,” says Mr. Mears. “It’s not just about the founder or founders, it’s about the whole core team. There’s lots

of qualitative information that goes into this decision; it’s an exhaustive judgement call, but one that we believe is well worth the time and effort that goes into it.”

One of the more difficult sides of this judgement call is ensuring sustainability efforts come from a genuine place, not a cynical one. “There was one opportunity that came across our desk that seemed like a great product,” says Mr. Allwood. “But the founder was saying, ‘we’ve got to put a green touch on everything nowadays, or people won’t buy it.’ He didn’t believe in it himself. That was a factor in why we ultimately didn’t work with him, even though we believed in the product and the investment opportunity. They weren’t trying to drive change – they were just trying to make money. We’re not looking for opportunities that have a low return on investment, but we wouldn’t feel comfortable representing somebody that didn’t match our company values. We’re trying to achieve something here. If people aren’t pulling in the same direction as us, then what’s the point?”

CIRCLE OF GROWTH

To help its clients maximize their potential for growth, Rise launched the Rise Network, bringing together professionals and services into a single cohesive ecosystem. “We’re not here for the short term,” explains Mr. Mears. “If we give a company money, and simply say ‘good luck’, they’re much less likely to succeed than if we work out exactly what they need, and source the allocation. Having the network means that if a company needs a web developer, they can work with someone in our network that we’ve used, and that we know and trust. It’s an essential tool for business growth because it means that people don’t drop money in the dark. The whole concept of the network is orientated towards helping businesses – because if businesses succeed, our investors succeed, and if our investors succeed, then we’ve done a good job. It’s a circle of growth.”

“We partnered with an incubator out of Sheffield, called Kollider,” says Mr. Mears. “They take young businesses who need support and help them to build their business, which aligns closely with what we’re doing. Beyond the network and the brokerage, we’ve also built a syndicate, which is our group of core investors, people with whom we have ongoing, active relationships. Through the syndicate, we’re opening the door to impact investing, and matchmaking investments.”

Looking forward, the company is set to expand efforts to drive sustainable innovations on a global scale. “We’re fortunate to be where we are right now,” says Mr. Mears. “We’ve funded some fantastic companies, and we’re working with many more to build out our communities in the sector. On top of our 10 companies per quarter, we’re launching an Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Fund, backed by family offices and venture capital funds. Through that, we hope that we can bring more support to eco-positive companies, and offer investors the chance to mitigate their risk further by investing across a portfolio of eco-positive companies. We think the fund is going to generate a lot of interest for investors who aren’t as interested in direct investing, but who might prefer to take a fund approach. We’re also looking into partnering with charities, as well as moving into the USA and either Asia or Europe within the next 18 months. Our model is extremely scalable. We’re lucky to have such a great team. We’ve got some great people in there helping to build our brand out, and that’ll help us grow the business community that we have as well. Everyone’s welcome.” c