The ACC Health, Safety and Wellbeing Impact Fund was launched in September 2020 aiming to invest in companies making an impact on the health and wellbeing of Kiwis. In this article, the team at ACC Investments discuss the growing opportunity in safety and wellbeing solutions, and when in a company’s journey they look to invest.
Injuries are a preventable public health challenge globally. Reducing the incidence and severity of injury is core to ACC’s purpose – it has positive economic, social and personal impacts and reduces the cost of injuries funded by levy payers and government.
ACC believes there are significant opportunities for businesses within the health and safety sector. A recent report by UK Lloyds Register Foundation estimates the global revenue of safety solutions as US$860 billion (NZ$1.3 trillion) per annum by 2023 (ref).
ACC launched its Health, Safety and Wellbeing Impact Fund in September 2020. It combines ACC’s investment management expertise and injury prevention focus. We are actively investing in companies that are making a measurable impact on the health and wellbeing of Kiwis while generating strong returns to support the ACC scheme.
In New Zealand, the cost of compensation, rehabilitation and treatment was $5.4 billion in 2022 so there is huge potential for investment in injury prevention to make a difference.
For example, injuries in the home account for more than half of all new ACC claims and one third of total claim costs at $1.7 billion in 2022 (ref). Common injuries involve falls, as well as lifting, carrying and straining.
In the workplace, more injury-prevention solutions are needed in high-claim sectors including construction, manufacturing, forestry, agriculture, healthcare and social assistance. We won’t limit our search just to these areas, though.
Our investments to date via the impact fund show the breadth of potentially investable solutions. For example, we invested in Robotics Plus, whose technology is designed to keep forestry, agriculture, and transport workers safe, and Groov, a digital mental wellbeing platform that helps employers embed a wellbeing-first culture across their organisation.
ACC’s Health, Safety and Wellbeing Impact Fund sits within ACC’s Private Markets team and has a notional size of $50 million, although we don’t have a specific investment size. For an appropriate risk-adjusted return, we’re looking for companies that have: a referenceable customer base; a demonstrated product market fit; a scalable business model; established management team and governance; capital for growth and expansion of the business.
The fund is uniquely placed in New Zealand, being part of the accident insurance scheme.
We want to talk to companies and businesses that are seeking to develop and implement effective prevention solutions across our most common injury categories.
You can find out more about ACC’s impact fund approach and processes here: https://www.acc.co.nz/about-us/our-investments/impact-funds-what-were-looking-for/
You can also email PrivateMarkets@acc.co.nz to connect with us and find out more. We welcome interest from companies, organisations, and investment funds looking to partner with ACC.
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