Philosophy

Investing In Our Shared Future: Our Commitment to Responsible Investing

At Golden Gate Ventures, we aim to create sustainable long-term returns for investors with a lasting, positive impact for all of our stakeholders. As one of the earliest VC funds in Southeast Asia, we have not only invested into companies fuelling the region’s growth, but also helped build communities and ecosystems in the markets that we operate in. Our long-term view allows us to take a collaborative, open approach to managing our various stakeholders - portfolio companies, investors, peers, employees and other players in the ecosystem.

Mission

Empower the Audacious (through Human and Financial Capital)

Vision

To be the No. 1 digital VC for entrepreneurs in emerging ecosystems

Values

Pioneering
Respectful and Empowering
Data Driven
Diversity
Self-motivated
Enjoyment

Principles

We are committed to investing responsibly. We will integrate ESG risks and opportunities at all stages of the fund lifecycle, from LP onboarding, to investing, harvesting and exiting. We are certain that the assessment and management of ESG considerations will lead to better decisions throughout the firm and ultimately superior financial performance.

We are committed to fostering impact. We understand the importance of investing in communities and giving back to the ecosystem. We will drive impact by investing in companies and supporting initiatives that are in line with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

We are committed to measuring and quantifying our impact. We recognise that only with an appropriate measurement and assessment framework can we truly assess our impact. We are aligned with international standards adopted by leading stakeholders in the space, while acknowledging that various stakeholders are at various stages of growth and may require more support to implement and adopt ESG considerations.

ESG Policy

We are committed to investing responsibly.

We believe that ESG is a powerful tool for a transformative investor, and giving appropriate, formal consideration to ESG topics is an important catalyst for creating value for our firm, our portfolio companies and the Southeast Asian ecosystem at large, allowing us to not only mitigate ESG risks, but also act on ESG opportunities.

Golden Gate Ventures: ESG Risk Management Framework
At Golden Gate Ventures, we recognize that responsible investment is key to driving long-term value creation for our stakeholders. As an early-stage venture capital firm investing across Southeast Asia, we are committed to embedding Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles into our investment strategy. Our ESG Risk Management Framework is designed to identify, assess, and mitigate ESG risks while unlocking opportunities for sustainable growth within our portfolio.

Our ESG Commitment
We view ESG not just as a compliance requirement, but as a powerful tool to help startups scale responsibly. By proactively addressing ESG risks, we strengthen the resilience of our portfolio companies and contribute to a more sustainable and inclusive innovation ecosystem.

Key Elements of Our ESG Framework

1. ESG Integration Across the Investment Lifecycle
Golden Gate Ventures applies a structured approach to ESG at every stage of our investment process:
- Screening: We evaluate potential investments against an exclusion list that ensures we do not invest in businesses with activities that pose significant ESG risks (e.g., environmental harm, unethical labor practices, or non-compliance with global ESG standards).
- Due Diligence: Our ESG assessment focuses on key risk areas, such as labor practices, consumer protection, data privacy, cybersecurity, and corporate governance.
- Investment Decision & Action Plan: Companies that do not yet meet our ESG standards commit to an action plan, ensuring improvements in areas such as sustainability, ethical governance, and impact measurement.
- Ongoing Monitoring & Reporting: We track and measure ESG performance through structured reporting, ensuring transparency for our investors and continuous improvement for our portfolio companies.

2. Alignment with Global Best Practices
To ensure the highest standards of ESG risk management, Golden Gate Ventures aligns its policies with leading international frameworks such as:
- AIIB Environmental and Social Framework
- IFC Performance Standards
- Joint MDB Approach for Paris Agreement Alignment
- United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

These frameworks guide our risk assessment, monitoring, and impact measurement strategies, helping us maintain strong governance and ethical investment practices.

3. ESG Reporting & Accountability
Golden Gate Ventures is committed to transparency in ESG management. We provide semi-annual reports to our investors, covering:
- Portfolio-wide ESG risk categorization and compliance status
- Progress on ESG action plans within portfolio companies
- Significant ESG incidents, if any, and remedial actions taken
- Impact measurement metrics, such as job creation, gender diversity, and environmental sustainability

Our investment team, ESG Manager, and Investment Committee work closely with portfolio companies to support their ESG improvements while ensuring compliance with our standards.

Building a Sustainable Future

At Golden Gate Ventures, we believe that venture capital plays a crucial role in shaping the future of technology and business in Southeast Asia. By integrating ESG into our investment strategy, we not only enhance financial performance but also contribute to a more responsible and sustainable innovation ecosystem.For more information on our ESG Framework, please drop us an email at esg@goldengate.vc

Community Development

We are committed to fostering impact.

As one of the earliest VC funds in the region, since 2011, we have helped to build and shape ecosystems and communities from the ground up.

We help build ecosystems in key markets that we operate in.

We support initiatives that give back to the ecosystems we operate in.

Golden Gate Ventures understand the importance of investing in communities and giving back to the ecosystem. Over the last several years, Golden Gate Ventures has supported several initiatives with the long term goal of creating lasting social impact.

Asean Digital Skills Vision (World Economic Forum) which is pioneering a collective pledge on training digital skills for ASEAN regulators, ASEAN SME workers, ASEAN students, as well as broader ASEAN citizens. As part of the program Golden Gate Ventures invests in  a Vietnam and Indonesian scholarship.

Company Culture

We are committed to fostering impact.

Our corporate culture strives to create lasting impact for our team.

We believe that our employees are our strongest asset and as a company we strive to lead by example. These are some initiatives we have implemented internally:

Treat People with Respect Policy
Employee Handbook
Health Savings Account
Golden Gate Ventures Knowledge Fund
Holistic Personal Development
Psychological Safety
Anonymous Hotline

Inclusion

Diversity Drives Innovation.

We strongly believe that innovation is sparked when people from different backgrounds see different solutions to the same problem.

The Billion Dollar Fund for Women was created to mobilise capital to invest in women-founded companies within the next decade. Golden Gate Ventures Pledged US$ 10,000,000 to this initiative. A total of over 70 funds from six continents and over 25 countries have so far pledged to deploy capital towards women-founded, equating to a total of $1 billion.

Providing diverse candidates for recruitment - When Golden Gate Ventures supports a portfolio with their talent search, we make sure to include a diverse pool of candidates, and at least one woman in the pool.

Fast Track Female-Founders Programme. What it means: If it is a woman-led company, the deal is automatically accelerated to partner level, instead of having to go through the usual analyst-associate-partner hierarchy. This ensures that female founders are given sufficient consideration at the highest level in the firm.

  • We started doing this in 2019 and have fast-tracked dozens of startups per year since.
  • Two became our portfolio: Rukita (coliving in Indonesia) and Shohoz (ride hailing in Bangladesh).

Further Reading

McKinsey Study: Diversity Correlates with better Financial Performance

Grievance Redress Policy

For any questions or concerns about our Environmental & Social Policy and/or the portfolio investments financed by us, please reach out to us at: esg@goldengate.vc or by sending a mail to the following address: Golden Gate Ventures, 73b Duxton Road, Singapore 089532. We’ll ensure a timely response and take appropriate actions after carefully assessing your query or concern.

Where the question or concern relates to a portfolio investment financed by us, the interested or affected person(s) are first encouraged to discuss the matter directly with the portfolio company. In cases where the question or concern was not addressed sufficiently at the portfolio company level, interested parties may submit their query to us in writing, providing the following information:

  • Name and contact information of the sender;
  • Name of the company to which the concern relates;
  • Description of the concern and any supporting documentation;
  • Date of the incident or action giving rise to the complaint (if applicable);
  • Specific remedy sought (if applicable); and
  • Any other information as deemed appropriate by the sender

    There are no fees involved in submitting a question or concern through this process. Interested or affected parties can raise queries or concerns without any fear of retaliation. We take confidentiality very seriously. All submissions will be handled with the utmost care to protect your privacy. You may request that your identity and any personal information remain confidential, and we will not disclose your details to the portfolio company or any other party without your explicit consent.

    AIIB PPM

    The Project-affected People's Mechanism (PPM) of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is applicable to the portfolio companies of Golden Gate Ventures’ Fund 4. Stakeholders (including but not limited to employees, customers, investors, vendors etc.) of our portfolio companies are encouraged to raise concerns or report instances of misconduct by contacting our team (as per above process) or by filing a submission with AIIB through the bank's submission webpage here

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