Kinnevik’s greatest asset is and has always been our people - in our own organisation and in our portfolio. As such, attracting and retaining top talent is a key priority. Kinnevik regards diversity, equity and inclusion as core levers for value creation, and we make full use of the opportunities that arise from employing a team with different backgrounds and perspectives.
1. Female representation
Target: Achieve an average share of women in portfolio company boards and management teams of 40%.
Outcome: The share of women in portfolio company boards was 29 percent per end of 2025 (25 percent 2024) and in portfolio management teams 36 percent (37 percent).
2. Follow-on investments
Target: Only make follow-on investments in companies that are making sufficient progress in relation to diversity and inclusion.
Outcome: All potential follow-on investments are evaluated on diversity, equity, & inclusion (“DEI”) performance and are conditional upon satisfactory progress. During 2025, 96 percent of our portfolio companies made progress on their respective DEI ambitions and gaps (97 percent 2024).
3. Portfolio strategy
Target: Ensure 100 percent of portfolio companies have a DEI strategy in place, including measurable targets and regular internal tracking of progress.
Outcome: At the end of 2025, 96 percent of our portfolio companies had a DEI strategy in place (94 percent 2024).
In 2025, we continued to support our portfolio companies in building high-performing, future-ready organizations through active ownership and hands-on advisory, actively embedding Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI). With a business-integrated approach to DEI we support with initiatives designed to strengthen leadership capabilities, decision-making, and long-term value creation by unlocking the full potential of high-performing and diverse teams. Through our active ownership model, we work closely with portfolio company leadership teams and boards on inclusive leadership practices, reducing biases in people processes, and building organizational structures that enable successful execution and support sustainable growth. Our support includes:
All portfolio companies are given access to Kinnevik’s DEI and People & Culture Toolkit, which provide practical frameworks, tools, templates, case studies, and relevant research to support implementation. This is complemented by Kinnevik’s internal resources and DEI expertise as well as providing access to our curated network of external partners, enabling companies to scale initiatives efficiently and access tailored expertise when needed. Through this active and structured ownership approach, Kinnevik supports its companies in building inclusive, high-performing organizations with leadership teams equipped to attract, develop, and retain diverse talent.
The first step towards a more diverse and inclusive organisation is understanding the benefits of D&I. When you have done your research and know why D&I matters to your business, communicate your commitment to the team - being explicit with your ambitions and transparent with shortcomings removes confusion and supports buy-in.
What gets measured, gets managed - like any other strategic area of business, you cannot make informed decisions about D&I without understanding the underlying data and where you are currently.
When you have created a baseline and communicated the results to your team, the next step is to agree on focus areas and actions for improvement – including clear and ambitious KPIs and targets.
*It is important to consider anonymity and legal restrictions when collecting D&I data. You should always inform the team of the data collection and make participation voluntary.
Example KPIs to measure -
Progress on D&I is unlikely to happen without the influence and support of senior managers and the board. By having management show active support for D&I and a genuine appreciation of difference, you will foster a culture of inclusion.
Practice amplification -
Amplification is the practice of noticing when someone from a minority in a group discussion makes a good point, repeating it to give it greater emphasis and finally crediting the person who originally made it. If this is done systematically, it can help counter inherent group and social biases.
Managers can practice amplification by –
D&I efforts should be measured with the same scrutiny as any other business objectives. By setting clear expectations on your D&I ambitions through KPIs, organisations can ensure they stay focused on making progress and creating accountability.
The organisaton’s D&I expectations and KPIs need to be clearly communicated and easily accessible, not only to the affected teams but to everyone.
Further, progress on your D&I targets and KPIs should be linked to the remuneration of the management team and relevant team members. If you don’t hold key decision-makers accountable, you are in practice signaling that D&I is not a business priority.
Make sure your policies and processes are not unconsciously discriminatory against certain groups. Instead use them to highlight and showcase your commitment to D&I.
Take a look at your flexible working, benefits and parental leave policies – are they unconsciously disadvantaging a certain group of employees?
Creating a sense of belonging in the workplace has been proven to significantly improve performance. There are concrete initiatives and actions you as an organisation can take to create an inclusive culture – encourage ERGs, offer voluntary training on D&I related topics, review your branding profile or start a D&I taskforce to facilitate the discussion.
A D&I Taskforce is a voluntary employee group representative of the entire organization which focuses on implementing and driving the business’ D&I initiatives. It runs as a think tank and support network for management as well as holding them accountable to the organisation’s D&I commitment and targets. It also promotes social accountability within the team and facilitates an ongoing discussion on D&I within the business.
Being serious about improving the diversity of your team means that you need to make it intentional in the hiring process.
A common misconception is that reaching a more diverse talent pool also requires reducing your standards. However, the question ”how do we hire more diversity, without lowering the bar?” places the blame for performance (or missing the “bar”) on the individual without taking into account that the ”bar” is likely biased against the candidates. Data shows that race and gender do not have any correlation with performance, meaning that the idea that gender or race has an effect on performance is itself a form of bias. You do not have to lower your standards but you cannot hire the most easily available candidate. Instead, you need to invest the time necessary to find the best candidate.
When hiring for more diversity, the main priority needs to be to ensure that the pool of candidates is varied and diverse from the start - if there is only one black person in your candidate pool, there is statistically only a very small chance he or she will be hired.
You do not have to lower your standards but you cannot hire the most easily available candidate. Instead, you need to invest the time necessary to find the best candidate.
When hiring for more diversity, the main priority needs to be to ensure that the pool of candidates is varied and diverse from the start - if there is only one black person in your candidate pool, there is statistically only a very small chance he or she will be hired.
When you have created a more inclusive recruiting process and invested in creating a diverse team, the next challenge is fixing the “leaky pipeline”, i.e. the failure to keep diverse talent through to the senior levels of leadership
A first step towards sealing the leaky pipeline is measuring and monitoring aggregate level diversity data on promotions to better understand if they are proportional to available diverse talent. This data can be used to benchmark how departments are performing in terms of diversity and analyse if and how biases might be creeping in, e.g. how part-time or flexible working may be affecting promotions.
