€2.1tn investor coalition forms to tackle digital harm 

July 14, 2023

A coalition of investment firms representing €2.1tn in AUM has launched to tackle digital harm, focusing on the largest companies in the media, Internet and gaming sectors.

Sycomore AM and AXA IM initiated the collaborative engagement on tech, mental health & wellbeing and it has since expanded to 27 members.

The coalition has four goals:

1. Understanding the impact of technology on mental health and wellbeing, and to what extent companies are mapping and monitoring these impacts;
2. Understanding what the best practices are today in terms of user wellbeing in the tech space;
3. Sharing and promoting best practices and transparency, reaffirming the importance it attaches to this topic as an investor; and
4. Identifying the least advanced companies and engage with them actively over time.

The coalition is focusing on 15 companies across hardware, media, internet, gaming, software, edtech and telecommunications. In each sector, there will be one lead or two co-lead investors per company responsible for engagement and maintaining relationships.

The coalition partners were motivated by recent research suggesting certain areas of the tech sector can have a negative impact on mental health, particularly young people including children.

The coalition stated: “The increased use of Internet, smartphone and media (as video games, social media and streaming services) raises the question of addiction, which symptoms include mood modification, conflict, withdrawal and relapse.”

It also cited research from UK Royal Society for Public Health, which found social media can contribute to increased stress and low self-esteem, and studies into the impact of TV and video games on children’s development, which found watching television delays language development.

The launch follows the news in May that a separate coalition of investors are calling on the consumer goods and grocery retail sector to take urgent action to address the plastic crisis.