Our policies
Our Vision
Critical Ventures envisions a World where businesses operate with a deep sense of responsibility and respect for the environment and society. We believe that sustainability is not just a trend, but a long-term business strategy that creates value for all stakeholders.
Our Mission
Our mission is to lead by example and create a positive impact on the World through our operations and investments. We strive to minimize our environmental footprint, promote social responsibility, and create value for our stakeholders. We believe in the power of business to drive positive change and will use our platform to drive this change forward.
Our Values
- Environmental Stewardship: Prioritizing investments that have a positive impact on the environment and promoting sustainable practices in our portfolio companies.
- Social Responsibility: Seeking out companies that have strong social responsibility policies and practices, including fair labour practices and community engagement.
- Transparency and Accountability: Demanding transparency and accountability from our portfolio companies and investing in companies with a proven track record of responsible governance.
- Long-Term Value Creation: Focusing on investments that create long-term value for all stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the environment.
- Diversity and Inclusion: Promoting diversity and inclusion in our investments and encouraging portfolio companies to create inclusive cultures and diverse workplace environments.
- Ethical Business Practices: Supporting companies that adhere to high ethical standards, including anti-corruption policies and responsible marketing practices.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Engaging with stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, and communities, to understand their perspectives and incorporate their feedback into our investment decisions.
- Continuous Improvement: Continuously evaluating and improving our responsible investment practices to ensure that we are making a positive impact on the world.
By applying responsible investment values, Critical Ventures is committed to creating long-term value for all stakeholders while promoting sustainable business practices and a better World for future generations.
How we implement this
We do not invest into the following sectors:
- Adult content
- Gambling
- Animal testing
- Arms trade
- Tobacco
It is CVT’s belief that retrofitting a sustainable business mindset and model, can be time consuming and challenging further down the line. We invest for growth and so we take a considered judgement that these issues could come to bear during ownership or at exit, if they are not considered at the point of investment.
To ensure the effective and consistent application of this approach, CVT operates an ESG Integration Policy which details how ESG considerations are taken into account throughout the investment process, from the point of origination to exit. CVT takes a practical, proportionate and material approach to ESG integration, containing two key elements:
1. Management (Culture, Capacity & Governance) – this refers to the allocation of appropriate resourcing, training and senior support to ESG integration. It demonstrates CVT’s actions have integrity aligned with the strategic position of CVT and oversight from senior management.
Examples of which include:
- Training across the investment team on ESG
- Training of the Investment Committee on ESG
- Providing greater transparency on the approach to ESG
2. Investment (Process & Reporting) – this refers to action taken in the investment process to assess and improve ESG factors affecting the target asset, how these might affect an investment decision and how decisions are captured and changes to ESG factors during asset ownership.
Examples of which include:
- Formal reviews by the investment team of ESG trends and topics at a micro, macro and sector level to feed into origination process;
- ESG due diligence process with results included at Investment Committee;
- Sharing areas of weakness, with constructive guidance, on how to progress so awareness on a range of ESG issues develops with ownership.
CVT is committed to evaluating the success of its approaches.
The investment teams report to CVT Board on selected ESG KPIs and where possible measure and report where it is believed it can influence better or faster progress towards greater sustainability either as a business, an employer, or an investor.
CVT II Fund and CVT are increasingly mindful of the impact, that its activities and those of the businesses in which it invests have not just on the environment, but also their employees, communities, and society at large.
CVT II Fund’s investees shall help create new employment, develop, and implement new technologies and products, improve productivity all of which contribute to the economy and have benefit to those employed in those businesses and their supply chains.
Our Sustainability Priorities
CVT is particularly focused on supporting through its investments achieving the United Nations defined Sustainable Development Goals, with particular focus on priorities defined under:
Disclosures pursuant to the sustainable finance disclosure regulation (EU) 2019/2088
The European Union has introduced a series of legal measures, the main one being the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/2088) of the European Parliament and Council of November 27, 2019, on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector (“SFDR”). This regulation requires companies that manage investment funds and other collective investment schemes to provide transparency on how they integrate sustainability considerations into the investment process in relation to the schemes they manage. The Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288 of April 6, 2022, was also introduced, which complements Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 of the European Parliament and Council with respect to regulatory technical standards (“Delegated Regulation”).
No consideration of principal adverse sustainability impacts (SFDR - Article 4)
Critical Ventures acknowledges the significance of the primary detrimental effects that investment choices can have on sustainability aspects. We are in the process of establishing internal structures to detect, assess and mitigate the main negative impacts on ESG standards.
At present, Critical Ventures does not take into account the main negative effects of investment choices on sustainability elements as outlined in the SFDR. However, once Critical Ventures begins to evaluate the detrimental sustainability impacts of its investment decisions, it will make the pertinent information available to investors and on the Critical Venture’s website.
No consideration of sustainability adverse impacts
Remuneration and integration of sustainability risks (SFDR - Article 5)
The Remuneration Policy prepared by Critical Ventures establishes the guidelines for the company’s remuneration structure. It maintains uniform criteria for all employees, its directors and top ranking officers, complies with the requirements set out in the Portuguese law that has enacted the EU Alternative Investment Funds Manager Directive (AIFMD).
The Remuneration Policy aims to align the interests of investors and Critical Ventures, discourages incentives for unsuitable risk-taking and is consistent with the company’s sustainable long-term financial growth. In accordance with the SFDR, the remuneration policy does not incentivize the taking on of excessive sustainability risks.
Final Considerations
Recognizing the relevance of the ESG topic for Critical Ventures, given the internal actions already undertaken, as well as its impact on the company’s operations, Critical Ventures pledges to regularly review its situation on the integration and consideration of sustainability factors.
By using this website you are deemed to have accepted this Privacy Policy.
At Critical Ventures, we are committed to protecting the privacy and security of our website users. This Privacy Policy outlines the information we collect, how we use it, and the measures we take to protect it.
Information Collection
We collect information from our website users in several ways, including:
- Contact forms: When you submit a form on our website, we may collect information such as your name, email address, phone number, and other contact information.
- Cookies: Our website uses cookies to improve your experience and track website usage. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device when you visit a website.
- Log data: Our servers automatically log information about your device, browser, and IP address when you visit our website.
Information Use
The information we collect is used for several purposes, including:
- Providing you with the services and information you request
- Improving the user experience on our website
- Analyzing website usage and traffic
- Contacting you for promotional and informational purposes
- Information Sharing
We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties. However, we may share your information with third-party service providers who assist us in operating our website and providing services to you. These third-party service providers are bound by strict confidentiality agreements and are only allowed to use your information for the purpose of providing the services we request.
Data Security
We take the security of your information seriously and have implemented appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect it from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, or destruction. Despite these efforts, it is important to remember that no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure.
Data Retention
We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to provide you with the services you request, comply with our legal obligations, and enforce our agreements.
Your Rights
You have the right to access, correct, and request deletion of your personal information that we hold. You also have the right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal information. To exercise these rights, please contact us using the contact information provided below.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the updated policy on our website.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at cvt-contact@critical-ventures.com.
At Critical Ventures, we take the privacy of our website visitors seriously and are committed to providing a safe and secure user experience. This Cookies Policy explains what cookies are and how we use them on our website, www.critical-ventures.com (the "Site").
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device when you visit a website. They are used to remember your preferences and activities on the Site, as well as to provide other important information to the website owners.
Types of cookies we use
We use two main types of cookies on our Site:
- Essential Cookies: These are necessary for the proper functioning of the Site and cannot be disabled. They are used to remember your preferences and activities on the Site, as well as to provide other important information to the website owners.
- Non-Essential Cookies: These cookies are not necessary for the proper functioning of the Site, but they help us to provide a better user experience by remembering your preferences and activities on the Site.
How do we use cookies?
We use cookies to provide a better user experience on our Site by remembering your preferences and activities. We also use cookies to gather information about the use of our Site, such as the number of visitors, the pages visited, and the time spent on the Site. This information helps us to improve the user experience and provide more relevant content to our visitors.
Managing cookies
You can manage the cookies stored on your device through your browser settings. You can choose to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or select which cookies you want to accept or reject. Please note that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of the Site and some features may not be available.
Changes to our Cookies Policy
We may update our Cookies Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or to comply with new legal requirements. We will notify you of any changes to our Cookies Policy by posting the updated policy on our Site.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about our Cookies Policy, please contact us at cvt-contact@critical-ventures.com.
By using this website you are deemed to have accepted these Terms and Conditions of use.
Critical Ventures has made every possible effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information contained on this website. Notwithstanding our commitment to provide accurate and updated information, this website should not be considered a strict reflection of the services offered by Critical Ventures and neither does it constitute a confirmed offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any service.
All copyright, trademarks and all other intellectual property rights, including databases on the website and its content, are the property of Critical Ventures or authorised for its use. It is prohibited to copy, reproduce, re-edit, publish, broadcast or transmit any text, image, graphic, logotype, icon or software code that appears on the website for any public or private purpose, without the prior written authorisation of Critical Ventures.
It is forbidden to adapt, modify or recreate any of the information or materials that appear on this website or to utilise them for any purpose that is not strictly personal and not-for-profit. The user also accepts to access and use the website only for lawful purposes.
Due to the inherent nature of the internet, errors, interruptions and delays may occur in the service at any time. Accordingly, this website is provided without any warranties of any kind and Critical Ventures does not accept any liability arising from any interruption to the website whatsoever.
Nothing in these Terms of Use shall restrict or exclude any liability that Critical Ventures has to any party that cannot be excluded by law.