Goodbye FRAME, hello Reframe Venture!
October 2025
We’re still here - just with a new name!
With our annual FRAME conference behind us, we’re getting back to business as usual. We’ve just come back from a European tour, doing three trainings with KfW Capital and Invest-NL (and their funds) on Responsible AI and Responsible Dual Use, and are currently on our first ever trip to Asia (Singapore and Tokyo). In three weeks, our first big meeting in the US in a while is on the agenda (read on for more information).
All of that to say: with our new name settling in (say hello to Reframe Venture, indeed), we are on world tour! But the learnings from that journey will be the subject of the next newsletter — let’s talk first about what happened in September and October!
Welcome to New Members!
It’s been a big couple of months onboarding twelve new members - a record number for us! We are excited to start working with: Claret Capital (UK), Collective Global (US/Global), Futury Capital (DE), Gobi VC (APAC), GreatPoint Ventures (US), Gresham House (UK), IIP Denmark (DK), Iron Wolf Capital (Baltics), Keen Ventures (NL), Macmillan Cancer Support (UK), PureTerra (NL), Vireo Ventures (DE).
Look out for them in our next peer-to-peer Orbiit matching round - a chance to share ideas, challenges and strategies - or say hi when you spot them in any other call!
Not a member yet? Membership gives you exclusive access to all our events and resources (i.e. those marked [members only] in this newsletter). Drop us a line - we’d love to have you on board and can tell you all about it in our information calls! 🚀
There’s nothing more fulfilling than bringing this community together in person, and seeing just how many of you are driving real change. Our FRAME conference in London on Sep 18 did exactly that and left us with a lot to reflect on: from hearing directly from the former CEO of Reddit who helped spark Silicon Valley’s #MeToo movement, to a live audience poll revealing that most of us still question whether technology has made the world a better place. And that was only the main stage…
Beyond the big stage, during FRAME and the LP-only pre-FRAME workshop with 65 LPs, you ran the show! 50+ co-hosts - LPs, VCs and other non-profits from our ecosystem - put on almost 30 breakfasts and breakout sessions focussed on a large variety of the big themes in our world. ESG correction, the importance of Human Rights, the continued struggles with DEI and ongoing frustrations with reporting, you all went above and beyond to go dee! We wrote up some of the learnings from these sessions which you can read here.
Some Key Takeaways:
🤝 LPs and GPs agree: we must continue to lead by example. Despite the political uncertainty and continuing correction, responsible investing and ESG action can’t stop, especially not right now. Change language, if you have to, but don’t switch practice.
🏹 What even is defence tech? The lack of consensus around the term is one danger that is feeding the (potential?) bubble right now - and is a barrier to discuss what responsible investing in the sector looks like.
🗺️ DEI beyond diversity: don’t merely count diversity; it’s all well and good to have women on the IC, but do they lead deals or are they only ‘sitting in’? Let’s finally focus on D+E+I that makes a difference!
If you missed FRAME this year and have FOMO or just think that FRAME has quickly become a key piece of your events calendar, we hope to join us at FRAME 2026 on September 17th. You can pre-register your interest here and we’ll contact you as soon as early bird tickets are available later this year!
Our team is expanding!
Say hello to our new Operations Coordinator, Honi Pein. As well as being our Portfolio Programme Fellow, she has now also taken on an operations role within Reframe, ensuring all internal processes run smoothly.
Welcome also to our Emerging Markets Research Fellow, Daniela Araya, who will support our lead Emeka with the expanded work we are doing with our core partners BII, FMO and GIZ. Lots of tools and events across Africa, LatAm and APAC are currently being planned - stay tuned!
We’re really happy that Cecile Blilious has joined us as our new Portfolio Support Co-Lead. A leading voice in ESG for VC for over 25 years and a founding member of our Steering Committee, she will now work alongside Henry to expand our Portfolio Programme.
🌍 Snapshot: European Training Tour
Susan, Johannes and Oliver delivered two in-person trainings for 25+ fund managers in the Netherlands and Germany, as well as an internal training for KfW Capital, equipping them with the theory and practice to assess ESG-related risk of investments, with a specific focus on AI and Dual Use tech.
The groups did case studies, played interactive games to highlight how ESG-negligence can introduce financial risk into portfolio investments and discussed how to implement robust responsible investment practices within their investment process.
As our trainings evolve, we are continuing to see a lot of confusions and frustrations (with unexplained ESG and reporting especially). Let us know if you feel we can help - we are now also doing more one-on-one trainings with individual LPs and funds!
👥 Training: Next dates
Nov 20: London [Dual Use], 10 seats available [VC and LP]!
Nov 25 /26: South Africa [with FMO, portfolio only]
Jan 19/20: Paris [several trainings with partners]
Jan 29: London [Flagship responsible investing training], 2 Fund seats available!
Feb 5: Copenhagen [with EIFO]
If you’re interested in joining a training session in one of these locations, or somewhere else [including a bespoke training for your fund], please register your interest here or email Johannes directly at johannes@reframeventure.com!
🇺🇸 Stanford AI Summit: Less Than 1 Month Away!
In partnership with Project Liberty Institute, ImpactVC and Omidyar Network, we’re hosting a Summit on Responsible Investment in Data and AI on November 13 at Stanford. Amongst other topics, we’ll be examining what’s at stake for markets, how investors should be thinking about privacy and surveillance, how AI can intersect with the climate and the (necessary) human-centred nature of AI. Here is the full lineup:
If you’re a VC or LP based in the region and interested in coming along or generally getting involved in our work in this domain, we’d love to hear from you - register your interest directly in Luma.
🚀 Upcoming Reframe Venture Events
If you are attending or would like to join any of the upcoming events, let us know!
💫 October
PEI Forum Responsible Investing | Singapore | Oct 22/23
‘State of DEI’ Lunch | Tokyo | Oct 27 | Email if you are interested!
‘Responsible AI’ Lunch | Tokyo | Oct 28 | Email if you are interested!
Quarterly Membership Call | Online | Oct 29 | VC Members Only
💫 November
How To Use Our Resources | Online | Nov 6 | VC Members Only
Dual Use Working Group | Online | Nov 11 | VC Members Only
AI x Labour / Productivity | Palo Alto | Nov 12 | Invite-only workshop
Responsible Investment in Data and AI | Stanford | Nov 13
PEI Forum Responsible Investing | London | Nov 18/19
Regulation Explained: EU AI Act | Online | Nov 19 | Members Only
EM Deep Dive: Gender Diversity as Value Driver | Online | Nov 19 | EM community welcome!
The Future of VC - Dinner | London | Nov 19 | LPs Only
Insights: Can AI agents be ‘responsible’? | Online | Nov 20 | Public
💫 December
How to do Impact (Spotlight: EIF) | Online | Dec 2 | LP Members Only
Membership Call (Spotlight: Extantia) | Online | Dec 2 | VC Members Only
Deep Dive: What to do with your carbon? | Online | Dec 2 | VC Members Only
Responsible AI DD Tool Launch | Online | Dec 4 | VC Members Only
30mins with… Professor Cameron Hepburn | Online | Dec 4 | LP Members Only
If you are interested in join our working groups: We’re host regular Member-only working groups on dual use/defence, impactful & responsible AI and soon supply chain responsibility. Please let us know if you want to join and we will add you to the call invites!
📰 Insights from us and the Community
Our Community-Driven Booklet: Inside the FRAME
We gathered best and worst practices on ESG and responsible investment (RI) integration from 50+ of our VC members. Our community came together strongly, opening their internal processes to show how they weave responsible investment practices into both VC firms and their portfolios. 🔗 Read the full publication here.
🔧 Coverage of our FRAME conference:
New Private Markets reported evolving attitudes as the community shifts from “ESG” to broader sustainability and value creation priorities. 🔗 Read more here.
ImpactAlpha highlighted its role in fostering collective engagement around ESG and sustainability in venture capital. This reflects a growing momentum in the VC community to evolve beyond traditional ESG towards broader, value-driven sustainability practices. 🔗 Read more here.
New Private Markets featured another article on how investors seemed unsure how to handle many AI risks, highlighting challenges around data quality, governance, and misaligned incentives. 🔗 Read more here
We also received a lot of positive reception on LinkedIn after the event - thank you to everyone who shared their insights!
A snippet of LinkedIn mentions post-FRAME
Friend and partner publications and announcements:
daphni has just released an open-source sustainability assessment tool - via 4 questions, they rate start-ups on their sustainability practices and provide a plan of action to improve. 🔗 Access the tool here.
Our CEO, Johannes Lenhard, alongside Paul Felhinger from Project Liberty Institute published an article on how LPs are grappling with AI and data risks amid misaligned incentives. 🔗 Read the article here.
Travers Smith has just published a piece exploring the complex challenge of human rights due diligence in defence investments addressing regulations like SFDR, as well as varying LP policies and side letter demands. 🔗 Read the article here.
How are you embedding climate, resources, and nature criteria in your investment activities? WWF Germany and ResFutura are identifying strategies which combine strong returns and long-term competitiveness. Help them gather information to produce their tool; participating will help you gain visibility among family offices engaged in transition investing. 🔗 Share your perspective here.
Elaia’s Sustainability team has launched a newsletter diving into open questions on AI and societal and planetary health. 🔗 Read their first edition (and subscribe) here.
A few of our members have released impact and ESG reports in the last two months - congratulations and well done for all the great progress:
What we are reading otherwise:
Rosie Bradbury highlighted in PitchBook’s Capital Pool how LPs (e.g. Manulife, Stepstone) are increasingly integrating AI ethics into their ESG due diligence. 🔗 Read the full article here.
Breakdown Journal published an essay exploring the socio-environmental challenges of Canada’s Ring of Fire development. The essay raises critical questions about balancing economic interests with social and environmental protections. 🔗 Read more here.
The Financial Times has broken down some of the forecasted effects AI will have (and has had) on the labour market. 🔗 Read more here.
Interested in Joining Reframe Venture? 🤝
If you're a VC or LP and haven't become part of our community yet, find our updated membership benefits deck here or schedule a 1-on-1 information call with Priya! We are certain that Reframe Venture can support your responsible investment journey!