- Jeff Ubben is leaving his $16 billion hedge fund ValueAct Capital to launch a first-of-its-kind impact hedge fund: Inclusive Capital Partners, which he will lead along with Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism founder Lynn Forester de Rothschild.
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Hedge funds’ focus on maximizing short-term returns is at natural odds with the stakeholder-centric, medium to long-term approach favored by impact investors.
Financier Jeff Ubben might be about to change that. Ubben is leaving his $16 billion hedge fund ValueAct Capital to launch a first-of-its-kind impact hedge fund: Inclusive Capital Partners, which he will lead along with Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism founder Lynn Forester de Rothschild. This new hedge fund will harness Ubben’s reputation as an activist investor by pushing for the sort of strategy and personnel changes that can generate sustainable social and environmental impact.
ICP will also zero in on companies typically avoided by impact investors. Why? “Finance is, like done. Everybody has bought everybody else with low-cost debt,” Ubben told the press in his announcement, adding that the decision wasn’t entirely altruistic: “When you’re talking about addressing climate change with a business solution, that is the biggest problem in the world. That’s like a 10-times-your-money deal.”
In Other News: Electric charger boom, outgoing TaskRabbit CEO
An analysis of the pandemic’s impact on venture capital shows changes in check size and number of rounds. An electric vehicle boom also means an electric charger boom. COVID-19 data from emerging markets may not include gender. How can tech company culture become more inclusive? The outgoing TaskRabbit CEO — one of only a few Black women leaders in Silicon Valley — favors portable benefits for gig economy workers. Singapore’s COVID-19 spike in food delivery was a setback for food waste and single-use plastic packaging containment efforts.
Levity Break
A new Queen (no, not Camilla or Kate) is getting the royal stamp treatment.
