Who Holds Capital, Holds Responsibility - Why VCs are Choosing B Corp
ISSUE 16 From moving money to shaping society’s future
Climate change, inequality, population decline and regional decline: the challenges we face are more complex than at any time in living memory. Against this backdrop, two perennial questions are being tested anew: what constitutes corporate success? and what is the purpose of investment?
Within the global venture capital (VC) industry, a significant shift is under way. Beyond assessing portfolio companies, more investors are choosing to place themselves in a position to be assessed by society. The clearest expression of this is a growing trend for VCs to obtain B Corp certification in their own right.
PART 1: What is B Corp? Japan and Global Trends
“At AENU, we’ve always believed that impact and returns aren’t trade-offs - they’re interdependent. Now, that belief is certified.1”
So wrote Fabian Heilemann, CEO of the Europe-based impact VC AENU, in May 2025 when announcing the firm’s B Corp certification. His line captures a wider global shift: not only measuring investee companies against standards, but measuring oneself against the same bar.
🌍 The Birth of B Corp
B Corp certification was launched in 2006 by the US non-profit B Lab2. Part of the founding team had previously run the sports apparel company AND1. Their experience - pursuing responsible business yet confronting profit-first pressures from capital markets and during an exit - sparked the idea of a system that would institutionally support companies to pursue both social value and profit3.
The mechanism is the 200-point B Impact Assessment (BIA). Firms are scored across five domains - governance, workers, environment, customers and community - and are certified if they score 80 points or above. Certification is renewed every three years. Scores are published to ensure transparency4.
🔎 Critique and Evolution
As certification spread, criticism followed: “Can you pass by scoring highly in only some areas?”; “Is this being used as big-company marketing?” Responding to such concerns, B Lab has decided to introduce new standards from 2026. These set minimum thresholds across seven areas - climate, human rights, fair work, JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion), circularity, government affairs, and stakeholder governance - shifting from partial optimisation to a more holistic baseline5.
🇯🇵 The State of B Corp in Japan
As of September 2025, Japan counts 64 certified B Corps6. The list spans sectors: Kuradashi (cutting food waste), Value Books (used book buying/sales), Gojo & Company (aiming to be a private-sector version of the World Bank), ovgo (plant-based American cookies), SANU (nature-positive land development, architecture and operations) and CFCL (sustainable fashion), among others.
B Market Builder Japan (BMBJ) provides hands-on support, helping SMEs and regional firms to pursue certification - an important factor in diffusion7.
Yet no VC has joined that list - so far.
🌐 B Corp VCs Around the World
Internationally, a growing number of VCs have secured B Corp status. In the UK, Bethnal Green Ventures - a “tech for good” pioneer - integrated B Corp early8. Germany’s AENU certified with a notably high score of 127.59. In the US, SJF Ventures and Obvious Ventures are certified.
The movement extends to limited partners and allocators. The UK impact investor Better Society Capital (formerly Big Society Capital) obtained certification in 2023 and has encouraged B Corp-aligned practices among the funds it backs10. Examples include Eka Ventures, focused on consumer behaviour change, and Triodos, known for sustainable finance. This chain reaction suggests a system in which not only companies but the flows of capital themselves are pulled towards B Corp standards.
The trend is also spreading into private equity and asset management, nudging the entire capital cycle to internalise B Corp criteria.
⚖️ The Challenge for Japanese VCs
In Japan, by contrast, issues around DEI and compliance have come to the fore. In 2024, sexual harassment at a major VC was reported11 and prompted LP interventions12. Surveys by the Japan Venture Capital Association also highlighted the under-representation of women and other forms of diversity13.
As global VCs step into a posture of being assessed themselves, too many Japanese VCs remain solely in the posture of assessing others. That gap could become a defining factor for international credibility.
PART 2: Why VCs Aim for B Corp — Lessons from AENU and Eka Ventures
If Fabian Heilemann of AENU articulates a philosophy, Jon Coker, General Partner at Eka Ventures, offers a standard. He says:
“…shared value is the creation of economic and societal value in parallel.14”
He also draws a clear line around the role of impact in investing:
“…impact isn’t an investment thesis in and of itself. VCs need to decide where they are going to be experts and then build on that. We decided that at Eka, our core objective is to identify investment themes that would deliver impact and value in parallel.15”
Where Heilemann asserts the interdependence of impact and returns, Coker codifies shared value and thematic selectionas practical criteria. Read together, their statements clarify why VCs globally are turning to B Corp.
🤝 Pressure for Trust
As of 2024, the impact investing market had reached $1.571 trillion (USD)16, roughly trebling from $502 billion in 2019. Rapid growth, however, brings sharper scrutiny: are real social outcomes being delivered? Hence the question: does B Corp certification function as credible third-party assurance? Evidence suggests yes.
She & Michelon (2023) analyse non-financial communications among 1,074 US B Corps and show that legal purpose and accountability mechanisms increase both the quality and volume of stakeholder dialogue (text-mining based)17.
Stubbs (2017), in a qualitative study of 14 Australian B Corps, finds B Corp is not merely a label but a “tool for transformation”, enhancing legitimacy internally and externally18.
Paelman et al. (2021) track 129 European B Corps (2013–2018), matching them 1:1 with non-B Corps (PSM) and applying difference-in-differences. Certification exhibits a statistically significant positive effect on sales growth(coefficient 0.1430, p<0.01), with the effect strengthening over time (interaction 0.0617, p<0.05). Lead–lag tests support parallel trends and causal interpretation19.
In short, B Corp is not a mere symbol. It: (1) strengthens transparency and accountability; (2) confers legitimacy; and (3) is associated with tangible growth. In a market wrestling with credibility, B Corp appears to work.
🛠️ The AENU Case
Germany-based AENU gained B Corp in 2024 with 127.5 points, well above the 80-point threshold - underpinned by its Systemic Impact Framework20. The framework isn’t just a pre-investment screen; it runs through the whole process:
Theme selection: a focus on systemic issues such as climate, equity and healthcare access21;
Ex-ante impact measurement: translate product/service outcomes (e.g., GHG reductions, improved access, inclusion) into KPIs22;
Post-investment monitoring: quarterly/annual KPI tracking and structured reviews to keep growth and impact in step23;
External review: third-party assessments to avoid “self-marking” and guard against impact-washing24.
Heilemann’s line is telling:
“This is not a checklist, it is the core of our daily work.25”
💡 The Eka Ventures Case
UK-based Eka Ventures has, since its 2020 founding, placed shared value at the centre of its investment philosophy. As Coker states:
“We define our impact focus as only investing in companies where the product delivers a direct and measurable societal impact.26”
Eka invests against two themes:
Consumer Health: enabling the shift from treatment-centric medicine to preventive healthcare27;
Sustainable Consumption: shifting from linear, wasteful, carbon-intensive models to circular, decarbonised, efficient ones (e.g., food waste reduction, supply-chain efficiency)28.
The common thread is to create economic and social value in parallel. As Coker argues elsewhere29:
“We believe that waves of technology unlock shared value opportunities that don’t exist for the incumbents. That is why we exist as a fund.30”
🪞 Institutionalised Ownership, and a Question for Japanese VCs
What AENU and Eka Ventures share is not mere rhetoric but institutionalised ownership. They embed impact measurement into the investment process, submit it to outside scrutiny and accept the same standards they ask of others. That, ultimately, is the value of a B Corp-certified VC.
As Heilemann puts it, systems matter only when woven into daily practice31; as Coker puts it, standards must guide actual capital allocation32. For Japan’s VC industry, the implication is clear. Beyond the recent focus on DEI and compliance, the deeper issue is how to institutionalise credibility in a global market where LPs, founders and society at large are asking: what about you?
Japan, fortunately, has deep cultural resources - sanpō yoshi33 (the Japanese business principle of success through responsibility) and mottainai (a Japanese phrase conveying a sense of regret over waste, or to state that one does not deserve something because it is too good)34. Translating those into a contemporary investment framework is possible, and B Corp offers one such route: a way to embed responsibility in the architecture of the firm, not just the messaging.
The evidence base is supportive: stronger stakeholder dialogue (She & Michelon)35, legitimacy as a tool for transformation (Stubbs)36, and measurable growth effects over time (Paelman et al.)37. For Japanese VCs, B Corp is not simply a badge; it is a practical option for building international trust and sustained relevance in the capital markets of the future.
A quiet question, then, to close: What standards will we choose to build trust?
How we answer may shape the next chapter of Japan’s VC industry.
AENU. (2025). AENU Is Now a Certified B Corporation™ - And We’re Just Getting Started. https://www.aenu.com/insights/bcorp/
B Lab. (2023). About B Lab and B Corps. https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/movement/about-b-lab
Lesonsky, R. (2018, June 14). How did the B Corp movement start? Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/how-did-the-b-corp-movement-start-2018-6
B Lab. (2023). Certification Hub / New Standards Overview. https://bcorporation.net
Financial Times. (2023). New B Corp rules unveiled after critics allege greenwashing. https://www.ft.com/content/8667fd7d-3e3f-49ed-89a2-d0f11cb5a4d5
B Corp Japan. (2025). 日本のB Corp認証企業一覧. https://bthechgjapan.net/japanese-b-corps/
B Market Builder Japan. (2024). 公式サイト. https://bcorporation.jp/bmbj
B Lab Directory. (2024). Bethnal Green Ventures – Certified B Corporation. https://bcorporation.net/directory
AENU. (2025). AENU Is Now a Certified B Corporation™ — And We’re Just Getting Started. https://www.aenu.com/insights/bcorp/
Better Society Capital. (2023, July 20). Walking the talk: Big Society Capital achieves B Corp status. https://bettersocietycapital.com/latest/walking-the-talk-big-society-capital-achieves-b-corp-status/
東洋経済オンライン. (2024). VC大手｢ジャフコ｣のセクハラ事件に業界は沈黙. https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/835257
Business Insider Japan. (2024). VCセクハラ問題：中国電力など出資4社「適切な対応」を要請. https://www.businessinsider.jp/article/298467/
日本ベンチャーキャピタル協会（JVCA）. (2024). 2024年ダイバーシティ（DE＆I）調査の結果ならびにJVCAのDEIに関する取組について. https://jvca.jp/news/43142.html
Coker, J. (2025, June 11). Building systemic impact, why shared value wins & the founder learning curve[Interview]. Impact Highlight Series #5, The Footprint Firm / ImpactVC.
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Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). (2024). Sizing the impact investing market 2024. https://thegiin.org/publication/research/sizing-the-impact-investing-market-2024/
She, C., & Michelon, G. (2023). Business Strategy and the Environment, 32(3), 1098–1116. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bse.3432
Stubbs, W. (2017). Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(3), 331–344. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bse.1920
Paelman, V., Van Cauwenberge, P., & Vander Bauwhede, H. (2021). Sustainability, 13(13), 7191. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137191
AENU. (2025). AENU Is Now a Certified B Corporation™ - And We’re Just Getting Started. https://www.aenu.com/insights/bcorp/
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Coker, J. (2021, June 16). Eka Ventures: Our Thesis. Medium. https://medium.com/eka-ventures-writes/eka-ventures-our-thesis-15ed4fe75be1
Eka Ventures. (n.d.). Thesis. https://www.ekavc.com/thesis
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AENU. (2025). AENU Is Now a Certified B Corporation™ - And We’re Just Getting Started. https://www.aenu.com/insights/bcorp/
Coker, J. (2025, June 11). Building systemic impact, why shared value wins & the founder learning curve[Interview]. Impact Highlight Series #5, The Footprint Firm / ImpactVC.
Lewis, R. Sanpo Yoshi: the Japanese business principle of success through responsibility https://medium.com/social-innovation-japan/sanpo-yoshi-japans-responsible-business-philosophy-15db037a840e
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mottainai
She, C., & Michelon, G. (2023). Business Strategy and the Environment, 32(3), 1098–1116. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bse.3432
Stubbs, W. (2017). Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(3), 331–344. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bse.1920
Paelman, V., Van Cauwenberge, P., & Vander Bauwhede, H. (2021). Sustainability, 13(13), 7191. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137191