Peter Harrison Schroder CEO: "Venture Capital Will Contribute to Sustainable Growth"

Participation as a Speaker at 'Nextarise 2021'

Peter Harrison, CEO of Schroder Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Schroder Investment Management announced on the 8th that Group CEO Peter Harrison attended the ‘NextRise 2021’ venture and startup fair, emphasizing the role of venture investment and asset management firms in the transition to a sustainable economy.

NextRise is the largest startup event in Korea, where over 600 domestic and international startup companies gather in one place to seek investment and collaboration. During the event, Peter Harrison delivered a lecture titled “The Past and Future 30 Years of Venture Capital: From Digital Transformation to Decarbonization” at the online global conference held during the fair.

He explained that as of last month, 8 out of the top 10 global companies by market capitalization received support from venture capital, indicating that venture capital has led the ‘digital transformation.’ The new ICT-based companies that emerged through this have brought innovation to major markets. He added that these companies are optimally positioned to solve challenges related to ‘decarbonization,’ making them suitable for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In particular, based on the current status of domestic venture investment, Peter Harrison positively analyzed Korea’s potential for sustainable development. Although Korea’s high proportion of manufacturing requires massive investments to achieve decarbonization, it ranks 10th globally in venture investment scale and is actively investing in new technology startups. Therefore, through cooperation among large corporations, startups, and venture capital, Korea is expected to become a leading country in ESG initiatives.

Furthermore, looking ahead to the next 30 years, he analyzed that the low-interest-rate environment will favor achieving the ‘decarbonization’ goals. Investors are seeking new investment destinations due to the low-interest-rate trend and are expected to pursue returns through long-term growth investments.

He emphasized that the role of asset management firms is crucial for more investment funds to move toward sustainable investments. Asset management firms need to analyze crises and opportunities to achieve sustainable performance of investee companies and also consider the social impact of corporate activities as a third factor.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.