“Tech for Good” Investments Are Rising

Investments in “tech for good” start-ups reached a record $79 billion last year, according to Bain & Company analysis of data from our Startup Investment Cruncher and Crunchbase. Although venture capital and minority private equity investments in this category—which includes digital healthcare; educational technology; clean technology; enterprise environmental, social, and governance (ESG) software; and other sectors advancing innovations with potential societal benefits—has slowed in 2022 amid an overall pullback in start-up funding, the year-to-date value is still already “tech for good’s” second-highest total on record and nearly double the 2017 total. This trend underscores the fact that investors increasingly see strong value creation potential in technologies that support businesses’ ESG initiatives.