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Navigating complexity
Making the invisible visible — the heatmaps
Investing to catalyse systemic transformation is a complex task. If we want to navigate forward then we need some way to see where we’re at and decide where we want to go. Is there a way to turn a collection of passionate, relationship-driven bets into something we can actually look at and learn from?
Our answer to that question answer was through a simple mapping practice, producing what we call heatmaps. They’re not particularly sophisticated. They don’t require special software or a portfolio analyst on retainer. But we think that they’re a useful way to make visible what’s otherwise impossible to see when you’re standing inside your own choices.
It’s important to note that the heatmaps are not intended to act as a tool for allocation decisions, at least not directly. They’are a tool for reflection, for self-understanding.
To that end we have started by looking at what we’re building through three heatmaps. Each one sheds light on different aspects of the same portfolio:
- Four Lenses × Instruments Displays the range of financial instruments being used by the Explorers.
- Four Lenses × Topic Clusters Not purely sectoral in the traditional sense, but topics that are of particular interest or significance for the group.
- Four Lenses × Geography Where the investments currently being targeted, usually a specific region but can also be global.
Just to note!
The heatmap is not the portfolio.
It’s like a mirror that shows you what your choices are actually producing – the concentrations, the cold spots, the patterns that no single Explorer can see from their own position.
The Four Lenses
The “Four Lenses” are how we’ve chosen to bound the system we care about. Every project in our portfolio is tagged to one or more of them.
These lenses aren’t hard categories to sort things into. They’re views onto the same interconnected system. Most of what we fund operates across more than one.
What our map showed us – overview
- 16 Active Projects / Current portfolio initiatives
- 6 In Pipeline / Initiatives in development
- 22 Total Initiatives / Across all lenses and geographies
We ran this exercise on our actual portfolio. Sixteen current projects, six in pipeline. Twenty-two initiatives were thus analysed in total.(Note: The pipeline has since expanded to 14.) Here are some observations:
Strong regenerative intent across the board. Real passion, real relationships, real work being done. That was clear immediately.
But the concentration patterns were stark. The portfolio is Eurocentric, early-stage focused, and clustered in two instruments: common equity and grants. Topic clusters showed genuine strength in some areas and complete cold spots in others. But of course we didn’t start with heatmaps and it’s not our intention to fill all gaps. We follow what is happening and we use the heatmaps to help us shape the thinking in our next choices. The projects are also strongly related to our networks. We follow our network. The heatmap is our mirror, it might or might not indicate where to fly next.
None of these findings are failures. They’re information. The map is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do: making visible the patterns that form when individual, passion-driven choices accumulate into a collective portfolio. The question is what we do next.
What our map showed us – topics
We have genuine strength in regenerative economy, steward ownership, and narrative/culture. New materials flagged in our assessment as systemically critical is not present in our portfolio. Of course other important topics miss as well. We started from our own systemic interests. These aren’t gaps in the world; they’re gaps between our networks and the work already happening.
What our map showed us – topics
The concentration in Western Europe is stark. Sixteen of twenty-two projects. Two projects reach into North America. Three operate globally. Sub-Saharan Africa appears twice in the pipeline.
