2020 has been quite a transformative year—one with its share of challenges, but also one that has advanced healthcare around the globe, creating opportunities to evolve for the future.
What has and will continue to remain constant is the importance of good health and our mission at Johnson & Johnson to create a healthier future for our patients, consumers, employees and communities around the world.
One of the ways in which we are continuing our efforts in addressing these unmet health needs is through Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures (J&J Impact Ventures), an impact investing arm that partners with entrepreneurs to build purpose-driven businesses around the world.
The textbook definition of impact investing means investing in companies, organizations or funds with the intention of delivering social impact with financial return. But for me, impact investing means so much more. It means enabling communities to create scalable and sustainable solutions for their health today, tomorrow and beyond. It means building up innovative social enterprises and start-ups that bring affordable healthcare to underserved communities. It also means supporting healthcare workers on the front lines, where their heroic efforts are needed most.
What we didn’t realize one year ago when we launched J&J Impact Ventures is that our world would be facing one of the largest global, public health challenges in history. This year has brought us tremendous insights and growth, and one thing remains certain—J&J Impact Ventures was built with the ability to respond to urgent times like these.
When COVID-19 became more widely spread in March, our portfolio companies adapted quickly to urgently serve their communities, mainly underserved and vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19. They demonstrated tremendous creativity as they re-imagined new business models to have greater reach, convenience and quality of care.
As their partner, we immediately worked closely with each portfolio company to address critical needs and ensure business continuity in places that needed support most. We provided cash grants for PPE and telehealth, introduced new potential investors, postponed initial interest payments for one of our investments facing hardships, and more. Our financial strength and stability – as we’ve seen throughout our history as a company – allowed us to continue supporting our portfolio companies in an unpredictable year.
Learn more about our how our partners have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We’ve also gained invaluable insights as we plan for more investments, with our eyes set on new impact markets in Southeast Asia and in the U.S. Here are some of our top learnings:
Patient capital isn’t enough: Entrepreneurs encounter many unexpected ups and downs, particularly in low-resource settings. We believe in a hands-on and holistic approach. We not only provide investment capital, but also offer our expertise (e.g., domain, market, etc.), our employees and our connections over the course of an investment to maximize impact and support their success.
Stay true to who we are: There are many ways we can bring to life our investment thesis. Our test will be the impact we make—where it’s needed most. To that end, we continue to build a global portfolio of health social enterprises and start-ups, with a focus on addressing the needs of low-income and diverse populations and staying true to:
- Investing in purpose-driven health entrepreneurs, and
- Fostering an impact innovation ecosystem by working with the public, private and philanthropic sectors to catalyze investments through impact bonds, repayable grants and other innovative finance structures.
Invite others to join us: Impact investing in healthcare is still very nascent. Only 6% of the $500 billion impact investing market is allocated to the health sector. Imagine if more entrepreneurs, and investors joined in. We’d likely have even greater expertise, scale and reach to help bridge the healthcare gap, especially in places most in need. I hope our actions signal to other healthcare investors that impact investing is a smart, viable way to getting return not just on an investment but on our global health ecosystem.
We are still learning and growing, but there is one thing I am certain of – our mission is more important than ever. We remain committed to fueling the success of our portfolio companies and exploring future opportunities with new impact ventures that help bridge health gaps around the world. We welcome you to join this journey with us and learn more about J&J Impact Ventures here.