Victor Straatman is a globetrotter and an investor. After graduating from the Technology University of Delft, he moved to New Zealand and worked for several years. In 2004, he founded the digital agency Redkiwi in the Netherlands. Ten years later he returned to Vancouver and worked as a mentor for startups. During his stay in Canada, he co-founded the regenerative agricultural startup Meatme.
Why this is important
Startups are the ones who will develop the solutions to our current challenges. They need the right support. Investment funds must be dedicated not only to profits, but also to the wider social impact of startup innovations.
Straatman joined 4impact Capital in The Hague earlier this year as a partner. The fund is a venture capital fund that invests in impactful digital technology companies. The VC invests in early stage funding, from seed to series A, and will also invest in Nordic and Benelux DACH companies (Germany Austria and Switzerland). The VC invested in two Dutch companies: Solar Monkey which developed software for solar installers and Deftpower which develops EV-charging technology.
Straatman was invited to speak on one of several stages of the Upstream Festival in Rotterdam, a startup event that is organized by UP!Rotterdam.
During your presentation, you discussed how businesses can find a balance between profit and impact. When do you think companies make an impact?
“It is on many levels. It must be driven by an intention to impact, so that the company founders are motivated to make a change. Second, there’s a correlation between the impact of an organization and its top line. The more revenue an organization generates, then the greater the impact. The ability to measure impact is what gives an organization its significance.”
What are the factors you consider when investing in new companies?
“In the basic, the essential elements that characterize the companies we invest are their impact, the digital technology and the team. When we examine the business, we first look at the team. We consider the founders, their skills, their values and their ambitions. We are looking for entrepreneurs with a global vision and a desire to scale.
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We then check the business model. Can it create both impact and profit? We examine the technology to determine its uniqueness and defendability, and to identify the competitors.”
Why is teamwork important to you?
“We invest in the early stages, usually.” At this stage, the startup may already have some commercial traction and have its first customers. However, the technology is still in the development phase and may only work in one country. At this stage, the ability to be persistent and to find new solutions to get the company to where it wants to go is critical.
A recent report revealed that Dutch companies are growing four times slower than US companies. What’s missing?
“This slowness is mainly due to the lack of capital.” The Netherlands have developed significantly in terms of innovation ecosystem compared to when I first started. More capital will help grow companies. I see more capital holders stepping up, but we still need more. We at 4impact capital provide different options to capital holders.
Pension funds are investing more.
“Pension funds are a good sign.” However, the sweet spot for their tickets is usually above EUR100m, whereas most VCs can accept single double-digit tickets. Pension funds still have a little gap to close before they invest in VC.
As a nation, we also need to work on building the innovation ecosystem by connecting founders. In other ecosystems there is a support system. It takes a shift in culture. In the United States, failure makes you stronger. Here, it’s more of a negative mark. It will take patience and time.”
4impact Capital invests in software firms. What trends do You see in this area?
“Digitalization is a huge chance.” Data is becoming more available, and this can help optimize many resource intensive processes. The future looks bright. As a fund we are working to close our second fund, which is targeted at EUR75million with a EUR100million hard cap. This fund is over four times bigger than our first. In this sense, we also experience an acceleration.”
What motivates you most at work?
“I love my job, especially working at this early stage of business development when companies are being built and growing. 4Impact can and I will add value in this area. I’m glad to spend time with companies that have a positive impact, and help them accelerate. We are active investors, so we are involved with the companies that we invest in. We connect them with other players in the industry to help them accelerate their growth.”