Why I believe in investing with purpose and Dot's mission

Published on
April 28, 2022
Written by
Gabriella Kindert
Category
Expert view

Gabriella Kindert

Gabriella Kindert is Non-executive Director at Dot Investing, she is a senior banking and investment professional, specialised in Alternative Credit and Private markets. Gabriella has over 20 years international experience managing leading institutional investor portfolios and successfully launching a number of innovative private market strategies. In this opinion piece Gabriella shares why she believes in investing with purpose and why she joined Dot Investing.

Over the last two decades, I have been working with leading investment companies and banks, focusing on alternative investments, private equity, and private debt as an asset class. We enabled access to the benefits of private market assets to insurance companies and pensions funds mostly. These institutional investors enjoyed higher returns, diversification, and recurring yields.

I believe that individual investors should also gain a broader access to opportunities and be able to select from the universe of private market investment opportunities for their personal saving plans.

Why are private markets interesting? The number of publicly listed companies has reduced by 50% in the last 20 years. The opportunities to gain access to recurring income (like dividend) became limited. Some investors find it important to have recurring yield for their expenses. There are also many investment opportunities that are outside the publicly accessible universe, especially if you want to contribute to specific initiatives, such as the net-zero economy, energy transition, inclusion of women and minorities. If we include private markets, the opportunity set increases.

Last but not least, the universe of private investments also offers higher return potential, which is important for our saving plans. According to Preqin data, most private funds have outperformed public markets (the so-called illiquidity or private market premium).

On the other hand, it is imperative that investing in private markets should be done in a way that is socially responsible to all parties involved, mitigating risks by preselecting the right opportunities. The selection process requires expertise, network, and transparency.  Which private market funds have the best performance? Which ones have the highest potential? What are the risks involved? How do we ensure alignment of interests? How to gain access with smaller amounts and still be a relevant counter party? These are not easy questions to answer, furthermore there is only limited public data that can be used to make an assessment and compare providers; the barriers of entry remain high.  

Dot Investing can provide the answers and reduce these barriers. It is an investment platform that enables access to preselected private market opportunities to individual investors who may have less investment capital and knowledge than institutions.

I resonate with the company’s mission of “Return with Purpose” strongly and decided to offer my support as its Non-Executive Director and Advisor. The “dot” in Dot Investing reminds me of the importance of connection and interdependence within our circular economy.

I hope more people would join this mission of connecting the dots between return and purpose. After all, investment is not all about return only. It is also about supporting the initiatives that we value for ourselves and the next generation. I am delighted we can provide access to opportunities that fuse returns with purpose.