IMPACTASSETS 50™
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
ImpactAssets 50
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
Bridges Fund Management Ltd
Climate Change
Community Development
Health and WellbeingFirm Overview
Bridges is a fund manager that specialises in sustainable and impact investing, with offices in London and New York. We aim to generate attractive risk-adjusted financial returns for our investors alongside measurable positive social and/or environmental impact. Since 2002, we have since raised over $1.5bn of capital across our platform of Sustainable Growth, Property and Social Sector Funds. Bridges invests in businesses, properties, social enterprises and outcomes contracts that address pressing societal challenges, with a focus on four impact goals: healthier lives, future skills, sustainable planet and stronger communities. We focus on opportunities where growth and impact go hand-in-hand. Our investments include businesses that enable the circular economy and provide better quality of home care; property investments that cater to the property requirements of an ageing population; and the provision of hands-on support and financing for the delivery of social outcomes contracts to tackle homelessness and support vulnerable families.
Years of Operation: 10 years or more
% of Capital from Top 3 Investors: Less than 25%
We are uniquely driven by a clear conviction that building a better future for people and the planet is also a unique opportunity to create lasting economic value.
We use an impact-driven approach to create returns for both investors and society as a whole by focusing on opportunities that help meet pressing social or environmental challenges. Our investments range from fast-growth businesses to property to social enterprises; across all our strategies, we focus on four impact goals to help us source and select compelling investment opportunities. Closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, these four themes reflect social and environmental mega-trends that are re-shaping our world: Healthier Lives, Future Skills, Sustainable Planet and Stronger Communities. In addition to a financial return, each investment’s impact is managed, measured, and reported to investors against the Impact Management Project’s five dimensions of impact. We encourage the companies we invest in to be responsible towards all their stakeholders, in the belief that this is in the interest of their companies, as well as their communities.
We are differentiated from our peer group in three main dimensions:
- We are an original pioneer with close to two decades of track record of an exclusive focus on making investments that deliver positive social and environmental impacts and attractive financial returns.
- We are a multi-strategy private markets manager, with four strategies: growth capital, real estate, long-term equity, and social outcomes contracts, where we are able to leverage our expertise, contacts, and dealflow in the same four impact goals across the platform for the benefit of each strategy.
- We have been at the forefront of the impact investment market and have always contributed to the broader development of the sector through participating in and leading market-building activities. Our more notable contribution is the Impact Management Project which is facilitated by Bridges Insights, our non-profit field-building arm.
Investment Example
World of Books, a market-leading ‘circular economy’ technology business, has pioneered the reuse and recycling of books that might otherwise go to landfill. It works with charity shops and recycling merchants to collect and buy used books, while also buying unwanted books directly from consumers through its proprietary Ziffit ‘scan and send’ app. The technology platform it has developed over the last decade enables it to re-sell as many of these books as possible, via its own website and others such as Amazon and eBay, while the rest are recycled to make corrugated cardboard packaging and newsprint. This allows World of Books to offer over 2m high-quality, low-cost used books for sale to a global customer base – while also reducing carbon emissions.
Leadership and Team
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Michele Giddens – Co-CEO More Info
Michele co-founded Bridges alongside Philip Newborough and Sir Ronald Cohen in 2002 and now oversees strategy, client development, talent development, public affairs and impact management. She sits on the Investment Committee for all Bridges Funds and has a key role in leading and developing Bridges’ internal team and directing the firm’s strategic growth. Michele has played a leading role in the growth of the sustainable and impact investing sectors in the UK and worldwide. She was an adviser to the UK Treasury’s Social Investment Task Force and chaired the Community Development Finance Association from 2003-2005. |
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Philip Newborough – Co-CEO More Info
Philip co-founded Bridges in 2002 alongside Michele Giddens and Sir Ronald Cohen and oversees Bridges’ investment activity across all its strategies and geographies. Phil chairs the Investment Committee and has overall responsibility for Bridges’ portfolio and exit strategy. He has personally led Bridges’ successful investments in The Gym Group, The Office Group, The Hoxton, Simply Switch and Viva Gym, among others. As co-CEO, Philip also focuses on leading and developing Bridges’ internal team, and directing the firm’s strategic growth. He is also a regular speaker about investing for impact and the value of purpose in business. |
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Simon Ringer – Partner & Head of Property Funds More Info
Simon is a partner at Bridges and is responsible for leading our property investment strategy. Simon has spent over 20 years in the property industry. For the majority of his career, he has been involved in fund management and banking. He was instrumental in the creation of the property fund management business of Charterhouse Bank (now HSBC) where he was a director and has developed and managed a range of property funds at Jones Lang LaSalle Corporate Finance and PRICOA (now Rockspring). Simon has a Bsc (est man) from Oxford Brookes and is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. |
Financial Performance
Impact Performance
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Percentage of Total Assets Under
Management that are Impact Investments: |
100%
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Throughout our deal sourcing and due diligence progress, we systematically target investments in which there is a strong lock-step between their commercial success and their social and/or environmental impacts. Our deal origination efforts start with our impact goals, which can be mapped to the SDGs and the underlying targets, to find business models that could address a pressing societal challenge. As our investees scale, maximising profitability should also maximise their impacts.
The environmental, social and governance performance of our investees is a crucial part of our due diligence considerations. In addition to developing a core impact thesis, we also systematically assess an investment opportunity's ESG performance, by applying the B Impact Assessment framework to identify areas of ESG risks and opportunities as well as running an impact management workshop with the investee management team. These processes flag up the key ESG risks which we would consider how to mitigate as well as key ESG opportunities which would be fed into our impact management plan with each investee.
Impact Tracking and Monitoring
Learn More
38 Seymour St. London W1H 7BP UK
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