Investing to solve global challenges
Reynir Indahl isn’t just a man who talks the talk, he is a man who walks the walk.
Having had a wobble as he turned 40, questioning what he was doing and what impact he was having on the world, Reynir, much to his family and friends confusion, turned his back on his successful career in finance in order to focus on being a solution to the world’s most significant challenges.
Drawing on his Harvard education, Reynir founded Summa Equity in 2016, a purpose-driven, Nordic private equity firm managing €1.4 billion, to invest in companies looking to solve global challenges.
“The world is developing rapidly. This poses new social and environmental challenges. By investing in companies that actively work to solve these challenges, creating a prosperous society for everyone, Summa is part of the solution.”
This isn’t Reynir’s first time on Corporate Unplugged, he originally sat down with Vesna in 2018 to discuss Summa Equity and the work it was doing, and now feels like the right time to catch up with Reynir again, to see how far he’s come and hear what he’s learned over the last few years.
When Reynir first ventured into impact investing, he was concerned with the effect that the financial system was having on the world around us, and how companies are increasingly affecting environmental issues. But then he realised that everyone is feeling its effects - social inequality is on the increase, for example, and this concerned him because he didn’t know if he was part of the solution or part of the problem.
So he took steps to rectify this. Which has subsequently led him to where he is today.
“These challenges create immense opportunities in the financial system. And investors can be a big force for driving that change. So I decided to leave private equity and started to work with with philanthropy and impact investing.”
We hope you enjoy this podcast as much as we did.
In this podcast:
- Why Reynir credits the financial crisis as the transformational point in his life
- How Summa Equity creates value
- How Summa Equity chooses and works with the companies they invest in
- Why Reynir’s passion is problem solving
- How his kids are helping him see the world differently
- Why companies need to unleash the creativity in their organisations
- What Private Equity 4.0 is
Links:
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