e27
Earlier this week, Quest Ventures announced the promotion of two female investors in its team. Michelle Ng, with her promotion to Head of ESG and concurrently Director of Sustainable Impact Accelerator, was named in this announcement alongside Gwen Sim, who was promoted to Associate.
With this promotion, Ng is going to lead the firm’s focus on ESG – a vertical that is becoming understandably popular due to its urgency and ability to create a positive impact in the various aspects of the public’s life.
Quest Ventures takes pride in being one of the earliest in the Southeast Asian (SEA) tech startup ecosystem to recognise the importance of ESG investing back in 2018. As time goes by and investment in the vertical becomes increasingly more important, the firm aims to double down its efforts.
With the announcement of her promotion, Ng states: “Total ESG assets in Asia have grown from a mere US$801 million in 2019 to US$7.9 billion in 2020, and global ESG assets are on track to exceed US$53 trillion by 2025. Investors have realised that people and social impact form the basis of ESG investing, and will no longer be considered in isolation from environmental and governance aspects.”
She continues, “Concerted efforts from the private and public sectors will hasten the integration of the social, technology and finance sectors in order to help socially-impactful enterprises scale further and faster.”
Ng further explains to e27 about the opportunities that the firm intends to pursue and why it requires some significant changes in its approach.
“ESG opportunities identified include the shift to Social (S) in ESG. The human-centricity of ESG investing will become more apparent and urgent,” she says.
She elaborated that with its focus on solutions addressing human-centred problems, the team will invest in and accelerate the growth of socially-impactful enterprises. To realise this mission, Quest Ventures has prepared several initiatives including the Sustainable Impact Accelerator, held in collaboration with raiSE (Singapore Centre For Social Enterprise).
