Back in 2012, when we first thought about creating a tech-for-good investment firm – and being successful financially – people genuinely thought we were mad.
On weekends in east London, we used to get people together who understood specific social or environmental problems with our friends who were developers, designers, marketeers, business people.
We’d put them in a room, feed them pizza and more, and see what they could cook up themselves over the course of the weekend. They’d build these amazing prototypes, and the programme was attracting the most talented people we knew, who just wanted to do something with their skills to have a positive social or environmental impact.
At the end of the weekend, they would say to us, “how do I quit my job and do this full time?” We created Bethnal Green Ventures to answer that question – and give people the initial support they needed to turn a prototype into a business.
In the summer of 2012, if you cast your mind back, was the London Olympics. That whole of east London felt very, very different. We made small investments in six teams, with support from Nesta at the time.
BGV businesses collaborate to help each other
Two of them became multi-million pound businesses. We could tell that there was something in this.
One of them was Fairphone, which has become Europe’s leading supplier of ethical and more sustainable consumer electronics, particularly smartphones. And the other was DrDoctor, which is now used by over 50% of the NHS’s patients. It’s the thing that powers the smart appointment systems for outpatients’ appointments in the UK.
So we kept on doing it. And we kept on building on it. Eventually, we came to understand that these ventures didn’t just need that little bit of support at the beginning. They needed follow-on support. They needed help growing beyond proving the initial model.
Then, in about 2016, we realised: “Hang on. We’re a VC firm here. We need to be able to back these businesses and help them grow.”
At that point, we started attracting capital from other investors. And we started working with Better Society Capital at that point too.
Since then, we’ve gradually scaled up the support that we can offer to businesses who are trying to achieve a sustainable planet, healthy lives and an inclusive society.
200+ ventures backed with 21 million using BGV products
We’ve backed over 200 businesses. That’s 21 million people using BGV products and services, and we’ve also had nine successful exits.
That means we’re starting to provide that money back to our investors as well. The loop is closing – and we want to keep on going.
We think that the businesses that will be at the top of the stock market in 10, 15, 20 years’ time will be this kind of business. We think that those businesses that can prove that they have a positive social environmental impact will be the ones that all investors will want to back.
That’s what we’re trying to help do with BGV.
This post is based on a talk by Paul Miller at the launch of Impact Unlimited in London on 6 May 2026. Paul is one of the speakers at our Impact Unlimited summit, taking place on 30 September.
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