A shared ambition to be the best, the confidence to be calm, and collaboration above all else.
They represent the people we are, and the way we work together.
It really felt from the outset like a partnership. They have this really good balance of support and challenge, and that’s with everyone that you meet at ECI.
One of the things that really stands out is the focus on people and the culture of an organisation…and making sure that the people agenda is the main agenda.”
We are proud to play our part in positive change for the private equity industry, as founding members of the following organisations. But we know that more change is needed, so we are always looking for new opportunities to make further progress for good in our society, our environment, and our industry.
A not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving gender diversity in European private equity.
ECI deliver an internship programme with upReach, an award-winning social mobility charity that supports students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
A global network for LGBT+ investment professionals with a mission is to make the direct investing industry more welcoming for LGBT+ professionals.
The industry body and public policy advocate for UK private equity.
ECI are B Corp certified, reflecting our commitment to business being a positive force for good.
Our charity partner, Wilderness Foundation, protects wild places while using transformative wilderness experiences to empower young people.
ECI is Cyber Essentials Plus accredited, a Government-backed certification scheme demonstrating operational security against common cyber-attacks.
Our mission has always been to build successful businesses for the long-term. That means companies which are scalable and sustainable. B Corp is a natural fit with this and we wholeheartedly support the B Corp ethos of business being a force for good.
Becoming B Corp certified means that while we have high ESG standards at ECI, historically that’s been quite internal facing. This makes those standards public and represents a real commitment to what we want to do on ESG.
I’m delighted that we’ve got our B Corp certification — it’s a really exciting part of our journey. We’ve always had a mission about building successful businesses, and this is part of how we create our own business to be even more sustainable. When we first started thinking about becoming B Corp, the thing that really resonated with me personally was this idea of businesses being a force for good. That’s something I’m very passionate about. The announcement that we’ve achieved B Corp certification is a really proud moment and a key milestone for us — mainly because it’s recognition of the hard work and effort we’ve put in over several years to get to this point, after more than ten years of looking at ESG.
We’ve developed a huge amount of experience and expertise in the area, both internally within ECI and across a range of external relationships. B Corp certification means the whole ECI team now has a benchmark from which to make further progress.
It’s important because we see a lot of demand from people asking what progress we’re really making on ESG — whether that’s from the ECI team, the management teams we meet, or our investors. People want to understand how you’re balancing the needs of profit, but also people and planet.
So what we’ve done is pour all of that information and experience together into a knowledge base — the ESG Toolkit. It’s a selection of case studies and tools that businesses we’ve invested in have found useful as they go on their ESG journey. What we find is that management teams really struggle with knowing where to prioritise and what to focus on — there’s just too much. That’s where the impact assessment can be really useful, because it allows you to benchmark yourself against each of the subcategories and understand where you’re doing really well and where you can do better.
We are delighted to be part of a network of like-minded companies and look forward to taking inspiration from the great work that’s already happening both in our industry and beyond. Importantly, it’s not just the internal knowledge and expertise within ECI — now that we’re part of the B Corp network we have access to a global network of contacts in different sectors and of different sizes, whose knowledge and experience we can tap into as well.
We’re excited to have achieved our B Corp certification, but this is just the beginning of the journey. The framework highlights lots of areas where we still need to improve, and I’m excited that we’ve got plans in place to make that happen.
We’re ambitious for our own business just as we are for the portfolio companies we back, and having that framework enables us to have some concrete plans on the areas we need to improve in.
I know it’s a cliché, but ESG really is a journey — so this is a great step forward. Now it’s all about continuing to invest in the work that we’re doing and how we help management teams. So watch this space.
Generating financial value must be sustainable. For our companies to thrive, so too must the world in which they operate.”
During our investment MiQ evolved to prioritise its offering on diversity and inclusion, ensuring all its people could feel secure bringing their whole self to work.
HIRED A GLOBAL HEAD OF INCLUSION & DIVERSITY, SARA AXELBAUM
LAUNCHED ITS INCLUSION, DIVERSITY, AND EQUITY ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT
CHANGED RECRUITMENT PROCESS TO DRIVE REPRESENTATION ACROSS THE BUSINESS
Gender pay gap of 0.
Female representation increased from 37% to 45%.
BIPOC representation increased from 38% to 54%.
We track ESG portfolio KPIs, and have done for the last five years, to ensure we have full visibility of how the portfolio is performing in key areas and support our portfolio to improve performance over the course of our investment. We have a designated ESG Committee at ECI to support progress both within our portfolio and in our own business.
