A version of this article appeared for the first time in Inside Wealth Newsletter of CNBC with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the investor and consumer with high shuttle. Register to receive future editions, directly in your reception box. Melinda French Gates has hired $ 2 billion to promote women’s rights and economic mobility. In 2015, she created her family office, Pivotal Ventures, to support these causes not only by philanthropy but also by investing in funds and startups led by women who serve women. These investments are managed by Erin Harkless Moore, who joined Pivotal Ventures in 2020 with Investment Advisory Cambridge Associates. “We want to prove that investments in women can generate the best class yields and performance while progressing the social process alongside this,” Harkless Moore told CNBC. Pivotal Ventures is in good company. Although some traditional asset managers have withdrawn from the impact investment in the attacks of republican legislators, families have not moved away. Over the past 10 years, family offices have constantly increased their impact investments, which aim to achieve social or environmental objectives while generating a profit. The category represented 56% of the overall volume of family transactions in the first half of 2024, by PWC. Among the families who make impact investments, renewable energies, climatic solutions and social equality are the three main most popular causes, according to a survey by RBC Wealth Management and Campden Wealth. Harkless Moore said the most recent repression of the Trump’s diversity, equity and inclusion led some to wrongly assume that Pivotal Ventures has changed its position. Since January, Pivotal Ventures has invested in two startups: Little Otter, a mental health application for families, and Millie, a maternity clinic in Berkeley, California. “We had meetings where people were like:” Well, we assumed that you would no longer invest “, said Harkless Moore, Director General of Investments at Pivotal. “We are open to business. We have capital to deploy.” These private investment companies can afford to hold the line because they only respond to their rich founders and are not subject to the same control as registered investment advisers. The other family offices with impact portfolios include the Emerson collective of Laurene Powell Jobs, which supports a multitude of causes such as women’s health through venture capital investments. Blue Haven Initiative, founded by Hyatt Heir Liesel Pritzker Simmons and her husband Ian, Backs Fund and Startups which give low -income populations access to capital. Pivotal Ventures manages the richness of French doors, the former wife of the co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates. In addition to supporting startups, Pivotal Ventures has invested in around 20 funds with some $ 5 billion in combined management. Harkless Moore began his career for two decades in 2005 as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. After obtaining an MBA from the Harvard Business School, she joined Cambridge Associates in 2012 where she was Director General and advised family offices and private foundations on their investments. “I wanted to somehow harmonize my personal values, the world I wanted to see, with the investment I made,” she said about her decision to join Pivotal Ventures. Harkless Moore recognized the idea commonly held that investment in women means worse financial yields – but it did not agree. She cited a pitchbook study which reported that companies founded by women came out more quickly at a lower burning rate. Pivotal Ventures’ criteria to assess investments are largely similar to other institutional investors, she said, and seeks to eliminate biases rather than reducing the bar. For example, it does not disqualify general partners who are not strongly invested in their own funds – an element of a common control list for certain institutional donors. “I want our incentives to be aligned with our fund managers,” she said, “but if you don’t come from wealth or if you haven’t had a substantial exit and you have raised a lot of money, where are you going to find several million dollars to put in your fund?” Pivotal Ventures also prioritizes start -up investments in order to facilitate the founders and emerging funds to land other investors. This means actively looking for entrepreneurs rather than counting on incoming locations. “Often, this company is roughly:” Oh, you know, I need a warm intro “,” she said. “We are trying to get as accessible as possible.” Harkless Moore described anti-dei rhetoric as stimulating and frustrating. However, she said that the investment led by women is there to stay. “I believe in capitalism and markets,” she said. “Even with some of these declines and this rhetoric, capital will always flow towards ideas.” “I think this is where our strategy, we are consistent, that we respect the course, disciplined, and not deviant of our thesis, is incredibly important in moments like these,” she added.
Erin Harkless Moore manages investments for Melinda French Gates pivotal companies.
With the kind permission of Pivotal Ventures
A version of this article appeared for the first time in Inside Wealth Newsletter of CNBC with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the investor and consumer with high shuttle. Register To receive future editions, directly in your reception box.
Melinda French Gates has hired $ 2 billion to promote women’s rights and economic mobility. In 2015, she created her family office, Pivotal Ventures, to support these causes not only by philanthropy but also by investing in funds and startups led by women who serve women.