BPI updates ESG practice with materiality-led portfolio assessment
Today we’re publishing BPI’s 2025/26 ESG Report, our sixth annual edition and one that marks a shift in how we approach ESG across our portfolio.
At the heart of this edition is a structured materiality assessment completed with our portfolio companies. Materiality, as we define it, is about identifying which ESG topics are genuinely relevant to a company’s ability to create long-term value in order to scale, attract capital, build trust, and retain talent. This is fundamentally different to ticking boxes against a regulatory framework.
Rather than relying on founder self-reporting through surveys alone, BPI’s investment team across Berlin, London, Munich, and Singapore, were centrally involved alongside their respective companies. Drawing on company materials, board conversations, and direct dialogue with founding teams, the team built a shared, informed view of the ESG priorities (both risks and opportunities) most relevant to each business.
Each company was assessed across 15 materiality topics spanning Environmental, Social, and Governance dimensions, scored on two axes: how exposed or capable the company is right now, and how central the topic is to its underlying business model regardless of current management. The relationship between those two scores is more informative than either number in isolation.
What the data shows
Across the portfolio, governance and data management emerge as the most consistently material topics, appearing in over 80% of companies and carrying the highest combined scores – a reflection of where many of these businesses are in their growth trajectory. Most topics cluster below the diagonal, suggesting the portfolio is broadly aware of and managing its structural exposures well. The area attracting the most active attention is AI, where the regulatory environment is moving quickly and the business model implications are significant and growing.
The full report includes detailed findings by company and sector, alongside case studies from our portfolio companies Bloom & Wild, Moneybox, Yoto, and Uluu.
Click here to read the full report.