Beyond Investing Expands Range of Animal-Friendly Investment Products

Launch of Europe Vegan Climate Index, Vegan World Index Certificate and US, UK and global vegan venture capital funds

In June 2021, Beyond Investing announced it is launching five new investment products in partnership with its affiliate Beyond Impact. The products are spread across both public and private markets, provide more options to investors, and further Beyond Investing’s mission of a world free of animal exploitation.

Beyond Investing is the world’s first and only vegan investment platform and the creator of the US Vegan Climate Index, launched in 2018 and tracked by the US Vegan Climate ETF (ticker: VEGN) since September 2019. Assets tracking the Index (which includes the recently launched US Vegan Climate Index Certificate) have grown to over $55 million. Beyond Impact has operated an impact venture capital vehicle investing in plant-based and alternative protein companies since 2017.

The five new investment products are:

• Europe Vegan Climate Index
• Vegan World Index Certificate
• Beyond Impact vegan venture capital funds
  – Vegan Diversity Fund
  – Vegan Diversity S/EIS Fund
  – Beyond Impact Fund II

Europe Vegan Climate Index

The platform extends its range of large cap ESG stock indexes with the Europe Vegan Climate Index. This pan-European index applies the same policies as the US Vegan Climate Index.

Criteria for exclusion include:

• Animal testing
• Animal-derived products
• Animals in sport and entertainment
• Fossil fuel production
• Energy production from fossil fuel
• Other environmental concerns
• Military and defense
• Financing of excluded activities

These exclusions remove approximately 54% of the market capitalization of the Solactive GBS Developed Markets Europe Large & Mid Cap EUR Index.

The new index will be calculated real-time by Solactive and published on Bloomberg under the ticker “VEGANE” from 3rd June 2021.

Vegan World Index Certificate

In a collaboration with UK FCA-regulated specialist ESG manager Impact-Cubed it has created the Vegan World Index of global small to mid-cap growth companies producing plant-based and cruelty-free products. This will be available for investment through the launch of the Vegan World Index Certificate, which will be quoted on the Leonteq structured products platform from 15 June 2021.

The Vegan World Index applies the same exclusions as its Vegan Climate indexes, but instead of including all eligible companies in its universe, it proactively targets companies with products relevant to the trend away from the use of animals. Constituents will include not only headlining vegan companies such as Beyond Meat and the recently listed Oatly, but also more under-the-radar companies in Asia and the emerging markets in consumer products, food, agriculture, materials and ingredients sectors, which are part of the plant-based supply chain.

Beyond Impact Vegan Venture Capital Funds

Beyond Impact, with its specialism in animal-free impact investing, is launching three venture capital funds to provide seed and growth funding to entrepreneurs whose products and services obviate the use of animals. Beyond Impact has been an active investor in this space since 2017, its portfolio including some of the earliest rounds of cellular agriculture companies, like Mosa Meat and Blue Nalu, alternative protein, such as Geltor and Clara Foods, and plant-based brands, such has Meatless Farm and Mighty Pea, along with other companies who, since their initial investment, have gone on to raise 100s of millions of dollars.

Its Vegan Diversity Fund will launch on the Angelist platform on July 1st 2021 with the goal of seeding primarily US companies with diverse founding teams, to ensure a continuing stream of entrepreneurs entering the plant-based space, with innovative products that expand the range of vegan options available. A similar Vegan Diversity Fund is in the process of being launched in collaboration with Sapphire Capital Partners LLP, to provide seed and early-stage financing to diverse teams of UK founders, whilst taking advantage of the SEIS and EIS tax advantages available to qualifying UK-based investors.

Beyond Impact already boasts significantly better metrics for gender and racial diversity within its first vehicle than the venture capital industry as a whole, with close to half its current portfolio companies co-founded or led by a woman, and almost 40% co-founded or led by members of other minority groups.

Finally, Beyond Impact is launching a global flagship institutional fund, Beyond Impact Fund II, to continue its trailblazing strategy of investing in companies that accelerate our transition towards a kinder, cleaner, healthier world. This fund will participate in larger seed raises from start-ups with disruptive technology as well as providing follow-on funding to existing portfolio and other later stage companies to fuel their growth.

Claire Smith, CEO of Beyond Investing and CIO of Beyond Impact, brings 35 years of senior level finance and investment experience at UBS and alternatives advisory firm Albourne Partners, and, in this expansion of her venture capital activities, she is joined by four other professionals with expertise in food and agtech investing, food company operations, industrial processing and impact venture funds.

Smith founded Beyond Investing in 2017 with Larry Abele of Impact-Cubed and Lee Coates of Ethical Investors, to provide animal-friendly investment solutions for vegans and environmentalists within public listed markets. Beyond Impact directly invests in companies that provide superior, scalable and sustainable solutions to the social, environmental, and moral concerns associated with animal exploitation, providing market access and targeting substantial value to investors.

Comments Smith, “Unlike others, our expertise and investment experience extends across both public and private markets, particularly important since companies are moving rapidly through investment rounds and may have the opportunity to IPO. Through identifying exceptional entrepreneurs whose companies have the potential to grow quickly, we aim to have large-scale positive impact and produce superior returns to our investors. The more listed companies there are, the more complete our solution becomes in our public market portfolios, and we expect the universe of companies for the Vegan World Index to grow strongly in coming months and years.”

Beyond Investing and Beyond Impact claim to contribute to the achievement of 12 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, across themes of hunger, sustainability, climate, biodiversity, health, water, work, clean energy and gender equality. Metrics produced by Impact-Cubed demonstrate a 76% lower carbon footprint, 97% lower waste generation and 90% less water consumption by companies in its US Vegan Climate Index, versus the market benchmark S&P 500 Index.

 

About Beyond Investing

Beyond Investing is a vegan investment platform comprising Beyond Investing, a US-based registered investment adviser, Beyond Advisors, a Jersey-based research firm, and Beyond Impact Advisors a Swiss-based investment advisor. It is owned by three experienced investment professionals who follow a vegan lifestyle: CEO Claire Smith who has 35 years’ experience working in the finance industry at UBS and as a partner at Albourne in fund research; Lee Coates, OBE, of UK financial advisor Ethical Investors and founder of Cruelty Free Super in Australia; and Larry Abele, founder of Impact-Cubed, an FCA-regulated asset manager recognized for its leadership in ESG research and investing. Visit www.beyondinvesting.co for more information.

For more information on the US Vegan Climate ETF and important disclosures, please visit www.veganetf.com

For more information on the US Vegan Climate Index Certificate, please visit https://dynamiccapitalgroup.com/en/products/

For more information on the Vegan World Index Certificate, please visit https://structuredproducts-ch.leonteq.com/

For information on the Beyond Impact US Vegan Diversity Fund, please visit https://angel.co/v/back/beyond-impact-vegan-diversity-fund

The fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses must be considered carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other important information about the investment company, and it may be obtained by calling 1-800-617-0004 or visiting www.veganetf.com . Read it carefully before investing.

This list is only partial and these investments are not representative of the entire portfolio. Most early-stage investments fail. A complete list of past investments is available upon request.

Beyond Investing LLC is the adviser to the US Vegan Climate ETF. VEGN is distributed by Quasar Distributors, LLC.