Three years of data, plainly told

Over the past three years, we've seen measurable progress across our portfolio. However, the picture is not uniform and there are areas where we need to focus. The data shows more companies are measuring what matters. Overall, 65% of our portfolio are at or above our sustainability engagement benchmark: meaning they have implemented practices aligned with what we would expect to see of a company similar in size and stage.

There's also been a shift in that engagement towards the later stages where companies are starting to align their practices with what is expected of them as they mature. This is significant, as policy adoption at an early stage is relatively accessible. As they reach Series B and beyond, the ask increases and companies are expected to start doing more. What matters at each stage differs, and we prioritise our support accordingly, focusing on what is genuinely material to each company based on their size, sector, and circumstances

On environment the trajectory is encouraging, with the proportion of our portfolio measuring their emissions more than tripling since 2022, and the share with active reduction initiatives growing substantially alongside it to 44%. As more companies understand where their emissions stem from, the more likely they are to seek proportionate ways to reduce them.

Among those who have reached our climate maturity threshold — the stage at which we consider it appropriate to start setting targets — 40% have now adopted near-term decarbonisation goals. It’s encouraging progress, but with a 2030 target of 100%, there is still significant ground to cover. Closing that gap is a priority and we are stepping up our direct support for eligible companies as they move from measurement to target-setting.

Governance has also improved consistently, with sustainability policies in place at 62% of portfolio companies, and board-level discussion and accountability all increasing year on year. As the sustainability agenda expands to include AI governance and data ethics, these topics have moved from the periphery to mainstream board agendas as recognised business risks. The acceleration of board-level engagement across our portfolio reflects that shift and we continue to work towards our 100% 2030 target.

On the social side, the picture is mixed. Supply chain responsibility is a genuine area of progress. Sustainable supplier policy adoption has more than doubled over two years, and human rights has grown steadily alongside. DEI however, is more complex. Policy adoption has remained broadly flat, sitting at 79% — partly reflecting a shift in our portfolio composition with more US-headquartered companies, and an external environment that has made DEI harder to navigate. It remains a priority, and our commitment to 100% adoption by 2030 is unchanged. We recognise that what this looks like will vary depending on where a company is headquartered and the environment it operates in, and we are adapting our engagement accordingly.

The metrics in this section track adoption: the percentage of portfolio companies that have a sustainability policy, discuss it at board, or are measuring their emissions. They tell us about engagement. They don't tell us whether any of it is driving impact or commercial outcomes.

At Atomico, we believe it does. The case studies found in the “In Practice” section make this argument. However we are not yet able to demonstrate it systematically across the portfolio. What we can say is that the companies in our portfolio that engage most seriously with sustainability tend to be the ones that maintain the strongest employer brand and are best prepared for due diligence from future investors and acquirers. Whether that's correlation or causation is a question we intend to keep investigating.

A majority of the companies we partner with are now building with AI as a core component of their products and operations. Questions about how AI systems are governed, how they're tested for bias and safety, and how companies are thinking about their downstream effects are becoming material to how we assess them through our due diligence.

However we don't yet have a consistent framework for measuring this across the portfolio, and we haven't included it as a tracked KPI in this report. This is a deliberate choice. We would rather take the time to get the framework right than measure the wrong thing. This is something we will continue to focus on over the coming months.

As an investor, our primary focus is our portfolio as that is where we have the greatest impact. But the credibility of what we ask of our portfolio rests on holding ourselves to the same standards. Our firm-wide sustainability commitments are an expression of that accountability: doing the work internally, openly reporting on what is working, and being honest about where we need to do more.

On climate, our total emissions have fallen significantly over the past two years, from 4,178 tCO₂ in 2023 to 2,316 tCO₂ in 2025. But context matters here. Part of the shift is attributed to a smaller team, and a significant portion of the reduction also reflects exits in portfolio companies with larger emissions footprints. Our goods and services emissions and business travel have both increased. Actively reducing our operational footprint remains a priority, and we are exploring intensity-based measures — such as emissions per employee — to give a clearer picture of our progress over time.

We continue to levy an internal carbon fee on our emissions, which we increase annually in line with inflation, and to date have donated a total of $253,960 to Milkywire's Climate Transformation Fund. And supplier sustainability is an area of genuine progress: 48% of our supplier spend is now with suppliers who have a near-term decarbonisation target, up from 30% last year, moving us closer to our 70% target by 2030.

On diversity, the picture has moved in the wrong direction. A smaller team size has affected our metrics, with female representation across the firm falling to 47%, and within the investment team to 33%. On our target to hire 50% female for all open roles, we achieved 43% last year. We remain above industry averages, but the trajectory is not where we want it to be and we will continue to focus our efforts to ensure balanced representation across the firm. Underrepresented ethnicity and socio-economic background remain areas where we have more work to do, with only 14% of our open roles last year filled with a candidate from an underrepresented ethnic background.

When it comes to allocating capital to diverse founders, our two latest funds, Venture VI and Growth VI, are tracking at 45% and 38% respectively against our target of 40% of investments in companies with at least one underrepresented founder.

Since establishing Conscious Scaling, our focus has evolved alongside the technology landscape — most recently sharpening around responsible AI governance and the social impact of the technologies we back. These are areas where progress is harder to quantify, but the depth of our approach has developed considerably over that period and remains a priority over the coming months. We do not provide follow-on funding to any portfolio company non-compliant with its sustainability term sheet clauses. We have strengthened our due diligence and analysis on the positive and negative societal impact of the technologies we invest in. And this year, we launched our Strategic Sustainability Accelerator for growth stage companies trying to quantify their impact (more detail can be found in our case study). These are all examples of outcomes that matter.