Key takeaways from Maki.vc ESG Survey Report 2022

In this blog, we share the results of Maki House ESG Survey Report 2022

We strongly believe the earlier you embed ESG into the company’s DNA, the better. To follow how ESG practices are progressing at Maki House and better support our portfolio in these matters, we conduct an annual ESG survey. The findings help us learn more about how our portfolio companies have matured, which areas they're improving in, and where they’d need more support.

Here is a snapshot of the respondents and our key takeaways from the survey (the survey was conducted to both Fund I and Fund II, and the results are separated) – you can download the full survey summary from the end of this blog:

Composition of the respondents

We surveyed 20 portfolio companies from Maki Fund I and had a 75% response rate from founders and startup executives across Finland, Sweden, Norway, and France.

Companies are becoming confident about their ESG maturity

We asked the respondents to rate their company’s overall ESG maturity on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). The resulting average of 3.0 shows that our portfolio companies are becoming somewhat confident about their ESG maturity.

More jobs are being created year on year by Maki portfolio

In 2022, Maki House companies created more jobs than in the previous year and employed 28% more people. As an example, software company Enfuce grew from 75 to 137 employees.

Diversity within companies is continuously improving

Female representation in VC-backed firms remains worryingly low and for example in Finland, the share of women on boards stood at 6% in 2021 and on founding teams at 20% in 2020. Our portfolio companies have significantly surpassed these industry standards, particularly with 33% of our Fund I portfolio companies having a female founder/co-founder. Maki House teams are continuously growing in size as well as expanding their operations to new countries. The average number of different nationalities among employees has increased by 49% – and our 2022 survey revealed one company representing 40 nationalities in total, the highest given number so far. The majority of employees in our portfolio companies, 85%, are between the ages of 25-44 years. From 2021 to 2022, the number of employees under the age of 25 has decreased. As the companies are maturing they tend to attract more senior professionals, which in return is driving up the average age of the teams.

The primary ESG focus is on carbon footprint and work-life balance

We asked Maki House companies to share their primary ESG goal for the next fiscal year – and we noticed that a drive to reduce climate impact and elevate work-life balance topped the table.

Lack of resources is the biggest hurdle in implementing ESG

What are the biggest challenges in implementing ESG? When asked this question, companies responded that the ‘lack of internal resources and know-how’ was the key hurdle in their way. Moreover, 85% of the companies expressed a need for support to formalize their ESG approaches. We also noted that while social and governance matters are considered rather well, the environmental aspect is lagging behind – only 21% of companies indicated they estimate their greenhouse gas emissions.

Want to learn more about our ESG journey? You can download the full Maki.vc ESG Survey Report 2022: