11 Juil Investment: Strategy and curiosity will drive change in practices
Perspectives Series – Portraits of venture capital investors: #3 Éric In, Founder of Mapleric Impact Positif.
In 2022, a Canadian government study revealed that only 4% of venture capital funds support women-led businesses. However, investing in these businesses could add $150 billion to Canada’s GDP by 2026.
To change the situation, we must collectively dismantle the prejudices faced by these female entrepreneurs and adopt practices that make venture capital investment theses more inclusive.
Our community of practice, made up of investors and experts, was created to address these issues.
We met with Éric In, a member of the community of practice, impact investor for some 15 years, and founder of Mapleric Impact Positif.
Mapleric Impact Positif is a strategic consulting firm serving investment funds, entrepreneurs, and impact-driven non-profits.
Can you tell us what led you to approach investing from a gender perspective?
It didn’t happen overnight; it came about over time and was influenced by my professional background.
I started out in France, working in traditional SME and venture capital investment, then moved to Canada to work in technology funds.
In 2020, I joined a family office founded and run by a woman. I was interested in the (environmental) impact objective and discovered the possibility of combining the social equity dimension: our mission was to deploy 75% of the capital to organizations led by women, Indigenous people, or people from diverse backgrounds.
That’s when I saw the transformative potential of such an approach.
There were also more personal factors. In 2020, during the events triggered by the death of George Floyd, I was at home in lockdown and saw my partner—a Black Montrealer of Haitian descent—deeply upset.
It was a moment of awakening.
I told myself that we don't have to wait until retirement to have an impact on our environment. We have to act where we are, with what we know how to do. For me, that was impact investing.
In this environment, women entrepreneurs in particular are leading high-impact projects, but still face too many obstacles in accessing resources. This imbalance must be corrected.
So I decided to found the consulting firm MAPLERIC Impact Positif, drawing on my 17 years of experience in investment, including five in impact investing.
My goal is to help other change agents develop their impact through their investments or businesses, while contributing to greater representation in this field. I work with:
Investment funds that have inclusive, high-impact investment theses (such as the Afro-Entrepreneurs, a fund for mothers who have experienced personal challenges, or a circular economy fund) and want to convince large institutional investors;
Impact entrepreneurs and/or those from underrepresented communities to help them with their financing and growth strategies, speak the language of VCs or impact investors;
Non-profit organizations that contribute positively to systemic change.
You are familiar with the biases that permeate the ecosystem, but do they only affect entrepreneurs?
First, it is important to understand that judgments are not always rational; they are often based on habitual thinking or preconceived notions. But also, contrary to what one might think, they are present at all levels of the investment sector.
In fact, it is not only entrepreneurs seeking financing who are affected by these prejudices, but also, for example, investment fund managers.
This is because the typical profile of a successful and trusted manager, even today, is a confident man with a few years of experience who displays his success with classic outward signs of wealth.
Managers from diverse backgrounds, who do not fully fit this image, start out with a credibility deficit.
Investors who have these biases, whether unconscious or not, will therefore have limited confidence in fund managers from diverse backgrounds. This will significantly reduce access to capital for the companies supported by the fund.
That’s why, in our field, it’s important to combat bias at all levels.
Have you identified concrete ways to deconstruct them?
To counter this perception, one strategy I often suggest is to reverse the logic of the presentation.
Rather than trying to convince your audience with a perfect pitch, you need to create a moment of connection—by slipping elements of your background and personal experiences into the introduction that may resonate with the investor—in order to build trust.
Finally, don’t hesitate to ask questions in return. Asking the investor what interests them, what they observe in the market, how they see things, opens a window that allows you to understand their implicit criteria, as well as their blind spots.
A response tailored to this window is sometimes worth more than a long technical pitch.
You joined the community of practice in its second year. What were you looking for?
People who are sensitive to diversity or equity issues are often quite isolated within their organizations. There are usually only one or two of us working on these issues, and it quickly becomes exhausting.
I needed a space to recharge my batteries, but also a place to share ideas and approaches and test strategies.
I also hoped that the community would have a ripple effect, a systemic influence. If enough players in the ecosystem come together, then we can start to spread ideas, even in large funds or more rigid institutions.
And I was also curious to see if what we were able to do in a family office—with a lot of latitude—could be replicated within other organizations and on a larger scale.
Did you come away with any new strategies or adjustments to your practices?
Yes, absolutely. Working on the 2X Challenge criteria, for example, really interested me. It’s a real toolbox, and I encourage all organizations to use it to take stock of their practices.
You realize that there is always room for improvement, even when you think you are already well advanced on these issues. And we were able to identify what could be integrated quickly, such as improving data collection.
For example, some indicators are fairly simple to document (diversity of entrepreneurs in the cases studied), but they are not yet systematized in the investment process. Being able to integrate them without disrupting everything is already a step forward.
And then, by analyzing these criteria, we can better understand where the bottlenecks are.
Is it a lack of will, or simply a lack of exposure or habit?
Do certain requirements seem new, when in fact they are already required in other contexts?
These discussions allow us to objectively identify the obstacles, better circumvent them, or defuse them.
These reflections also help me in my consulting work. When I advise entrepreneurs or funds seeking to integrate more inclusive practices, it is easier to refer to recognized standards and benchmarks.
I often tell them, “Look at what you can do now, with the resources you have. We’re not aiming for perfection, but for progress.”
That’s what the community has given me: concrete, adaptable benchmarks and a shared vision of what a truly inclusive investment could look like.
One of my goals in joining the community was also to see if our discussions could influence organizations such as Investissement Québec, or other private institutions that manage large funds. Because capital is the lifeblood of any endeavor. And if it is directed with a focus on equity, the leverage effect is immense.
For example, the Fonds de finance sociale fédéral has secured $800 million in funding, part of which has already been deployed through financial intermediaries.
These public funds have enormous potential to support more inclusive models, but their deployment requires convincing private investors (2 private dollars for every 1 public dollar), and the evaluation criteria themselves must not be biased.
We often hear: “Our priority is local economic development or sustainability. We don’t want to impose quotas that would place too many constraints on businesses.”
In fact, investors seeking the best returns should instinctively promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, simply because these are performance drivers for businesses. And so they should also be metrics for evaluating investment proposals.
What the community of practice allows us to do is to highlight these issues, discuss them among peers, and better understand where there is room for maneuver. Because ultimately, if public actors play their role to the fullest, they can become powerful catalysts for change.
