Foreword
Welcome to Oakley Capital’s Fourth Annual Responsible Investment Report. At Oakley Capital, our mission remains clear: to be the partner of choice for exceptional founders and management teams, helping them build outstanding businesses. This report shares our progress in 2024 and reaffirms our commitment to responsible investment and sustainable value creation.”
Peter Dubens Managing Partner and Co-Founder
In this report, you’ll find an overview of the progress we've made on our sustainability journey, our future ambitions, and the principles that guide our mission. We believe that this mission – to embed sustainability across our business – is more important now than ever.
At our recent AGM, we had meaningful discussions about how we continue to support our exceptional founders and businesses in creating value and, in turn, delivering strong returns to our investors. Across our industry, achieving that has become more challenging, with higher interest rates putting pressure on M&A activity, corporate earnings, and economic growth. Despite these headwinds, Oakley considers that we made strong progress in 2024 in sourcing deals, exiting investments, and fundraising. But we cannot afford to be complacent. To continue delivering success, we must use every tool available.
That mindset shapes our two-pronged approach to sustainability – what we call ‘hygiene’ and ‘opportunity’. In other words: what we must do to meet regulatory requirements, and what we choose to do because we see long-term value in going further. We believe that sustainability is not just a compliance issue but a growth driver—an opportunity to help our founders build more resilient and valuable businesses.
Our sustainability programme continues to focus on three core areas – energy & climate change, employee culture and engagement and cybersecurity and data protection – which we believe are essential to mitigating risks and unlocking value within our portfolio companies.
Across the portfolio, we are supporting exciting sustainability initiatives that we believe will help us deliver these goals. Selected examples include:
Image: Thomas’ London Day Schools
Thomas’ London Day Schools
is preparing the leaders of tomorrow by embedding sustainability into its curriculum—part of a broader mission to nurture responsible, globally minded citizens. Read more about this initiative.
Steer Automotive Group
is piloting projects to make vehicle repairs more sustainable—from responsible parts sourcing and using painting processes that use less energy and fewer chemicals, to deploying AI tools that improve repair efficiency. Its Steer Academy is one of the UK’s largest apprenticeship programmes, providing accessible pathways to training and employment for young workers. Read more about these initiatives here and here.
TechInsights
is driving positive change in the semiconductor industry by helping to develop low-emission chip designs. Its new EcoInsights data service gives users a clearer understanding of the environmental footprint across the chip supply chain, while opening up new revenue opportunities. Read more about this initiative.
Thanks to our focus on asset-light, digital-first businesses, Oakley’s portfolio already has a relatively low carbon footprint, and our recent risk assessment has indicated a generally low exposure to physical and transition climate risks.
Our stakeholders—including our founders and investors—expect us to lead by example. As Oakley continues to grow, we are staying focused on measuring and reducing our own carbon footprint, while encouraging our portfolio companies to do the same. In 2024, we developed our first climate strategy, setting out a clear roadmap for reducing emissions as we grow.
The strength of our organisation lies in our people. In order to support their development and growth, in 2024 we launched the Oakley Mentoring Programme to promote employee engagement and career development. This is not only the right thing to do—it also makes business sense. In a competitive market for talent, we aim to attract the best people from the broadest talent pool. Retaining and nurturing that talent is just as important, and I’m pleased to share that our 2024 employee survey showed strong engagement, with a significant majority saying they would recommend Oakley as a great place to work—something I’m very proud of.
As we look ahead, we are reminded that sustainability is not an end in itself. It is a means to a greater end: the protection and creation of long-term value—for our founders, our companies, our investors, and all our stakeholders.
Peter Dubens
Managing Partner and Co-Founder
Oakley’s portfolio already has a relatively low carbon footprint, and our recent risk assessment has indicated a generally low exposure to physical and transition climate risks."
Peter Dubens Managing Partner and Co-Founder