GENEO Capital Entrepreneur officially sets up its mission committee
Paris, 10/10/2023
GENEO Capital Entrepreneur's mission committee held its first official meeting today, marking another concrete step in GENEO's transformation into a mission-driven company, effective May 19, 2023.
This committee will be responsible for monitoring the execution of the mission and the strategic and operational implementation of GENEO's raison d'être: "to provide the real economy with positive finance that reconciles performance and meaning". It is fully in line with the possibilities opened up by the 2019 Pacte law enabling companies to redefine their social, societal and environmental role. Becoming a mission-driven company is the most demanding possibility offered by the Pacte law, since it requires the company's raison d'être and objectives to be set out in its articles of association, and to be audited by an OTI (independent third-party organization). In particular, the ITO verifies the robustness, reliability and exhaustiveness of the impact indicators associated with the statutory and operational objectives. The mission committee, which will meet three times a year, will support and monitor the proper application over time of the four statutory objectives and the associated roadmap.
GENEO has already launched a number of dedicated initiatives:
Objective 1: To provide the companies supported by GENEO with the peace of mind they need to weather economic cycles and pursue their growth strategy over the long term.
- GENEO Capital is an "evergreen" investment company that offers long-term investments to companies, enabling them to seize growth opportunities while managing adversity and deploying their strategy. This latitude has enabled our investee companies to achieve 47 acquisitions in 4? years.
Objective 2: Promote the activation and growth of human capital as a decisive lever for value creation by providing operational and human support as well as expertise.
- GENEO offers a Carnet de Croissance, an operational tool to help companies organize, secure and execute their business plans. Business partners dedicated to impact and digital issues work with managers to design and implement these growth notebooks. In 2022 alone, GENEO carried out 340 new support initiatives in its invested companies, with the support of a unique Shareholder Community comprising over 220 entrepreneurs and families.
- To promote the activation and growth of human capital as a decisive lever for value creation, GENEO has developed a impact index for SMEs & ETIs. 100% of our portfolio companies have measured their Human Impact Index.
Objective 3: Support the growth of each company's positive impact and its transition to sustainable business models.
- GENEO systematically co-constructs positive impact plans with its investee companies, combining a global sustainability approach with alignment with the business model: to date, 100% of investments have developed a positive impact plan. By 2022, 68% of companies invested by GENEO have defined and/or deployed concrete measures to reduce their carbon footprint. And more than 390 jobs have been created within GENEO's portfolios.
Objective 4: Share the value created with all stakeholders to give each generation the means to achieve its ambitions.
- Each GENEO team member has pledged́ to donate a third of their carried interest to the GENEO Community endowment fund. Thus, since 2020, over €475K has been allocated to the endowment fund, which notably supports the Fédération des Ecoles de Production. The GENEO Mezzanine team has also undertaken to index up to 50% of its carried interest to impact criteria, for the benefit of the same endowment fund.
The Mission Committee's task is to:
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the actions implemented to achieve these four objectives;
- Validate the overall coherence of the mission model and assess the ambition and achievement of the objectives.
- Support the continuous improvement process in implementing the commitments made.
- Anticipate societal trends and emerging solutions.
An "annual report from the mission committee" will present its assessment of how the mission is being carried out. This report, attached to the management report, will also be checked by OTI for overall consistency.
Claudia KIENTZLER, GENEO Capital Entrepreneur's "impact" business partner, is responsible for coordinating the action plan associated with the operational objectives.
The 9 members of the mission de mission committee are :
- Delphine GÉNY-STEPHANN (Chairman)
- Valérie BASCHET (Co-founder of MEANEO)
- Delphine DIRAT (Senior Manager, Industry and Government Affairs Sustainable Finance, LSEG )
- Bertrand LECLERCQ (Chairman and Founder, Arbor&Sens)
- Fanny LETIER and François RIVOLIER (Co-founders of GENEO)
- David MAHÉ (President, Human & Work)
- Christian NOUEL (Lawyer at the Paris Bar)
- Cécile PATOUX (Entrepreneur)
- Véronique VINCENT (Project Director, Groupe Caisse des Dépôts )
- 1 GENEO employee (Rotating seat)
"Aware of the social, environmental and human issues at stake, GENEO Capital Entrepreneur has remained true to its values and commitments since its creation.
through its mission committee. We are convinced that the SMEs and ETIs of the future are those that commit to a dual movement: the exemplaritý of their social and environmental practices and the transition of their business model to generate a positive impact on their stakeholders and on Society, declare Fanny Letier and François RIVOLIER, co-founders of GENEO Capital Entrepreneur. We are very proud to be one of the first French investment companies to adopt the status of mission-driven company".
"Since its creation GENEO Capital Entrepreneur has been built around its raison d'être, in perfect convergence with the Pacte law," stresses Delphine Gény-Stephann, President of the mission committee. I'm delighted that our committee includes entrepreneurs and experts committed to impact issues. Our work will be driven by a spirit of exacting standards and sincerity, in line with the work of GENEO's Stakeholder Committee."
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About GENEO Capital Entrepreneur :
GENEO Capital Entrepreneur's raison d'être is to provide the real economy with positive finance that reconciles performance and meaning.
Designed to unlock the potential for value creation, job creation and impact of SMEs and ETIs, GENEO Capital Entrepreneur has nearly 600 million euros at its disposal. It manages in particular :
- GENEO Capital is an evergreen investment company with a 99-year lifespan, majority-owned by families and entrepreneurs. GENEO provides tailor-made capital that adapts to the pace of each company, offering responsiveness and flexibility. Its resources increase regularly as GENEO and the companies it invests grow.
- The GENEO Mezzanine fund: a positive-impact mezzanine fund for ETIs and large SMEs, with a specialized impact transformation team. This fund makes it possible to provide real quasi-equity (not counted in debt ratios) without opening up companies' capital, and to support them in their development and impact disruption while offering them significant financial incentives.
As a business partner, GENEO mobilizes its teams and specialized business partners (external growth, positive impact, digital and innovation) to support the execution of structuring, growth and transformation projects. It also boasts a platform of over 140 independent experts and a community of more than 220 families and entrepreneurs, providing a unique opportunity to share experiences and build a business network unmatched in France. The terms of this operational support are tailored to the specific needs of each company, and formalized jointly by the GENEO team, the management team and the company's other shareholders in a "Carnet de croissance".
Passionate about those who make, create and want to move the lines, the only ambition of the GENEO team is to bring the ambition of each entrepreneur to the top.
At GENEO, when we invest, we invest!
For more information: www.geneocapitalentrepreneur.com
https://twitter.com/GeneoCapital
https://www.linkedin.com/company/geneo-capital-entrepreneur
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChZh_aqfqG-v9ANGWlLY2Tw
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