Let's rethink growth
Why
Why do we exist?
We believe that people should not have to choose between investing for their own financial future and the future of people and the planet. And we recognise that all investments create impact - positive and negative. So, we exist to prove that it is possible to invest money positively whilst making a sound financial return and to ensure all investors – no matter how much money they have - can invest in this way.
It is estimated that an additional investment of $2.5 trillion per annum is required to solve the current social and environmental problems defined under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Government spending alone cannot close this gap so businesses and financial markets must step up to the challenge. Snowball was created to increase the amount of capital diverted towards achieving these goals.
What
What is Snowball?
Snowball is a diversified, multi-asset investment vehicle that aims to create positive outcomes for people and planet whilst generating sound financial returns.
We invest in a range of public and private funds that support a variety of social and environmental outcomes across the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We currently have deployed our funds invested in public and private market investments and we target a risk-adjusted annual return of 3-4% above inflation, net of all fees, over the long term.
We have a 3 year track record investing with this strategy.
The New Normal
Impact
What’s our approach to impact?
The financial industry is directly linked to the impact of its investments on people and planet. So, we select our investments opportunities with care and scrutiny. Impact is integrated across our investment process and at an early stage, pipeline investments are screened against our impact framework, which also provides the basis for measuring impact. The framework considers impact from two perspectives.
- 1. The potential impact of the investments that our managers hold
- 2. How our managers work with their investments/investees to improve their impact
This twofold approach enables us to monitor and compare managers across companies and asset classes.
Over time, Snowball aims to increase the impact intensity of our investments both by using active portfolio decision-making, and by engaging with management. Our framework rates more highly investments that are intentional, measurable and additional. However, as this is easier across some asset classes than others, it needs to be balanced with our diversification strategy.
Defining and measuring impact is relatively new and as part of our mission we are always keen to share our knowledge and work with others to improve our own.
Invest Positive
Investment
How do we approach investment?
We have designed the portfolio to make impact investing as easy as possible and remove the barriers associated with impact investing –illiquidity, complexity and administration.
We invest globally but currently have a greater UK exposure and are sector and theme agnostic.
We strive to have a portfolio that is balanced across our five impact themes - Housing and Communities, Education and Employment, Financial Inclusion and Social Justice, Environmental Sustainability and Health and Well-being. However in aiming to achieve our financial goal (targeting a 3-4% return above inflation per annum) housing and financial inclusion and clean energy infrastructure typically feature heavily in our portfolio.
We are long-term investors which means that we invest in asset classes such as private equity where returns are generated over a longer time frame (typically seven years). Our strategy is to invest cash in public market funds and to draw this down into private market investments over time.
For more detailed information on our portfolio please get in touch.
Disruption
How do we plan to disrupt the current status quo?
Incentives: we see investment as a service industry and our cost structure reflects this. Snowball only charges investors the operating costs of the fund – which means that as the fund grows, the overall charge is reduced. No performance fees, no manager bonuses – a simple and straightforward service fee.
Intentionality: every investment we make has a specific purpose beyond generating a financial return.
Transparency: we aim to be completely open and transparent with our investees and investors – from what is in our portfolio to reporting on the intended versus actual impact of our investments.
Accessibility: we want to break down the “invisible wall” between the investment industry and retail investors by being as clear and succinct as possible in our communications and how we talk about our investments.
Let's Rethink Growth
Team
Snowball has a small, highly dedicated team with a wealth of experience from leading commercial businesses to non-profits and from impact measurement to investment.
Daniela Barone Soares
CEO
Daniela joined Snowball as CEO in September 2019 and is excited by the opportunities for systemic change that Snowball offers. Daniela has over 13 years’ experience as a CEO at the intersection of the commercial and impact worlds- including almost ten years at Impetus, a private equity foundation and has a track record in leading organisations through sustainable growth, innovation and high performance. She is passionate about social innovation, tech for good and sustainable capitalism. She chairs a social technology business, Gove.digital and is a non-executive director at Halma Plc. Daniela has received various accolades, including being selected by the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards as one of the top 100 women in engineering (2019) and by Brazil’s Istoé Dinheiro magazine as one of '20 People who are Changing Brazil and the World for the Better’ (2017).
Peter Baxter
CIO
Peter joined Snowball because he believes that the social and environmental problems faced by current and future generations are too big to be solved by governments and philanthropy, and that asset owners and managers must get fully involved. Peter was previously CEO and CIO at Old Mutual Asset Managers UK and has over 30 years’ experience in asset management. Peter is a trustee and chair of the Social Enterprise Committee at Trust for London, a charitable foundation tackling poverty and inequality in London, and is Senior Independent Director at Civitas Social Housing plc.
Abigail Rotheroe
Investment Director
Abigail joined Snowball to make impact investing possible for all savers. Before joining Snowball, Abi had an extensive career working across a range of organisations from investment banks to non-profits including over 15 years’ experience in investment management. Just before joining Snowball she worked for New Philanthropy Capital as Head of Social Investment. Whilst at Snowball Abigail co authored The Investor's Perspective - an account of Snowball's approach to impact measurement and management. Abi is passionate about improving equality and diversity and has worked with The Young Foundation, Woman's Trust and the Fawcett Society.
Jake Levy
Investment Analyst
Jake joined Snowball as he believes in a responsible and fair financial system which works for society and the environment. Having previously worked as a solicitor, Jake transitioned into impact investing through the On Purpose leadership programme, working at Big Society Capital and then in the impact investing team at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity. Alongside his work, Jake has also serves as a Trustee at the Creative Mentor Network and has recently completed a term as a school governor at the London Enterprise Academy.
Henry Bacon
Head of Finance & Operations
Henry was drawn to Snowball because of its ambitious mission to transform investment management. His career started in corporate banking working at Santander, CaixaBank and latterly MUFG as a senior member of the credit team. In 2017 Henry took part in the On-Purpose leadership programme to make the move into impact investing, which is where his path crossed with Snowball's. Henry is passionate about solving inequality and is a regular volunteer. He is a mentor and adviser to the CEO of The Avenues, a youth charity in a deprived area of North Westminster.
Laura Boyle
Head of Stakeholder Engagement
Laura joined because we can all create positive impact through the spending, saving and investing choices we make. As head of marketing for the world’s largest law firm serving successful individuals Withersworldwide, she saw clients going beyond philanthropy, moving instead to reduce the dissonance between their main work/investments and their values. She believes the new impact economy must be created inclusively, and develops solutions for implicit bias as founder of Square Circle. She is a trustee of DOT and part of Catalyst 2030, which connects private capital with systems change solutions.
Andrew Page
Senior Adviser
Andrew is keen to support the Snowball mission to transform investment management and make impact investing central to the investment decisions of a broad spectrum of investors. His career has predominantly been in financial services performing a variety of roles for the Bank of New York Mellon, Sun Life Financial of Canada, Royal Bank of Scotland, Old Mutual and Lloyds Bank. Andrew has recent trustee and depositary experience through the oversight of large investment managers with a variety of fund types.
Daniela Barone Soares
CEO
Daniela joined Snowball as CEO in September 2019 and is excited by the opportunities for systemic change that Snowball offers. Daniela has over 13 years’ experience as a CEO at the intersection of the commercial and impact worlds- including almost ten years at Impetus, a private equity foundation and has a track record in leading organisations through sustainable growth, innovation and high performance. She is passionate about social innovation, tech for good and sustainable capitalism. She chairs a social technology business, Gove.digital and is a non-executive director at Halma Plc. Daniela has received various accolades, including being selected by the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards as one of the top 100 women in engineering (2019) and by Brazil’s Istoé Dinheiro magazine as one of '20 People who are Changing Brazil and the World for the Better’ (2017).
Peter Baxter
CIO
Peter joined Snowball because he believes that the social and environmental problems faced by current and future generations are too big to be solved by governments and philanthropy, and that asset owners and managers must get fully involved. Peter was previously CEO and CIO at Old Mutual Asset Managers UK and has over 30 years’ experience in asset management. Peter is a trustee and chair of the Social Enterprise Committee at Trust for London, a charitable foundation tackling poverty and inequality in London, and is Senior Independent Director at Civitas Social Housing plc.
Abigail Rotheroe
Investment Director
Abigail joined Snowball to make impact investing possible for all savers. Before joining Snowball, Abi had an extensive career working across a range of organisations from investment banks to non-profits including over 15 years’ experience in investment management. Just before joining Snowball she worked for New Philanthropy Capital as Head of Social Investment. Whilst at Snowball Abigail co authored The Investor's Perspective - an account of Snowball's approach to impact measurement and management. Abi is passionate about improving equality and diversity and has worked with The Young Foundation, Woman's Trust and the Fawcett Society.
Jake Levy
Investment Analyst
Jake joined Snowball as he believes in a responsible and fair financial system which works for society and the environment. Having previously worked as a solicitor, Jake transitioned into impact investing through the On Purpose leadership programme, working at Big Society Capital and then in the impact investing team at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity. Alongside his work, Jake has also serves as a Trustee at the Creative Mentor Network and has recently completed a term as a school governor at the London Enterprise Academy.
Henry Bacon
Head of Finance & Operations
Henry was drawn to Snowball because of its ambitious mission to transform investment management. His career started in corporate banking working at Santander, CaixaBank and latterly MUFG as a senior member of the credit team. In 2017 Henry took part in the On-Purpose leadership programme to make the move into impact investing, which is where his path crossed with Snowball's. Henry is passionate about solving inequality and is a regular volunteer. He is a mentor and adviser to the CEO of The Avenues, a youth charity in a deprived area of North Westminster.
Laura Boyle
Head of Stakeholder Engagement
Laura joined because we can all create positive impact through the spending, saving and investing choices we make. As head of marketing for the world’s largest law firm serving successful individuals Withersworldwide, she saw clients going beyond philanthropy, moving instead to reduce the dissonance between their main work/investments and their values. She believes the new impact economy must be created inclusively, and develops solutions for implicit bias as founder of Square Circle. She is a trustee of DOT and part of Catalyst 2030, which connects private capital with systems change solutions.
Andrew Page
Senior Adviser
Andrew is keen to support the Snowball mission to transform investment management and make impact investing central to the investment decisions of a broad spectrum of investors. His career has predominantly been in financial services performing a variety of roles for the Bank of New York Mellon, Sun Life Financial of Canada, Royal Bank of Scotland, Old Mutual and Lloyds Bank. Andrew has recent trustee and depositary experience through the oversight of large investment managers with a variety of fund types.
Founders
Founding investors
Snowball was founded in December 2016 by James Perry, Alexander Hoare and Paul Blyth together with a group of mission aligned investors, including Panaphur, The Golden Bottle Trust, C. Hoare & Co, Skagen Conscience Capital, Gower Street and The Taylor Family Foundation.
We will shortly announce our new Board.
Supporters
Reports
Our approach to impact management
We integrate impact across our investment process and the way we manage impact works at two levels.
- Manager Impact: how our fund managers work with their investments to continually drive more impact.
- Enterprise Impact: the potential and actual impact of the investments our managers hold.
We invest in fund managers dedicated to achieving impact. These managers are acting on our behalf – and yours – and are creating a shift in the way the investment industry acts. In our new report, we share our analysis of responses to a survey we sent to our managers and you can see more of how our framework operates.
We’d love to hear what you think too. Message us with thoughts, questions and suggestions at hello@snowball.im
This is the second report we’ve shared on our approach to impact. We worked on our first report with The Impact Management Project who work to build global consensus on how to measure and manage impact. In the report we analysed the impact of the ventures and enterprises that our managers are invested in. You can view that report below.
The Investor’s Perspective: building an impact management process for a multi- asset class portfolio
Contact
If you would like to discuss how you can help us create change in the financial industry, or are a fund seeking to partner with a like-minded investor, get in touch here.
Snowball Impact Management Limited is an Appointed Representative of The Fund Incubator Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN208716). Snowball’s funds and services are suitable only for Professional Investors. Please click on the Privacy Policy in our footer to find more information and our disclaimers.