policy
Driving change and improving health, define both the role we want to play, and the goal Noaber wants to achieve. This ambition is more relevant than ever! We put everything we have towards enhancing the health span of society and of every person that is part of that society. We strive to make the world healthier and more sustainable through innovation and deliver on quadruple aim. Not only through the activities, programs and participations supported by Noaber, but also by taking an initiating and accelerating role to enable a system based collaborative approach that integrates stakeholder interests and perspectives that provides the foundation for a sustainable transition.
Improving health
Demographic, social, and economic trends put an increasing pressure on the healthcare sector’s sustainability. The recent pandemic was a stress test in this regard. These universal developments result in an ever-increasing percentage of our GDP being spent on healthcare. However, increasing expenditure on healthcare does not go hand-in-hand with increased health, whereby we see health as positive health as defined by the Institute for Positive Health.
Among other things, this is due to increased welfare and medical and technological advancements; we live longer, but in a relatively unhealthy way, which is causing an increasing gap between lifespan and health span. For people in underserved communities and with less advantageous social and economic conditions this is even more so the case.
At Noaber we believe that optimizing the health span enables people to fulfil their full potential and live their lives the way they desire. This is best served through a focus on health rather than sickness. That's why we put population health and lifestyle first in our programs. In these programs we develop, validate, and support solutions for living a healthier life. At scale, this will ultimately result in sustainable healthcare.
Driving change
A focus on improving health makes sense, but is not yet fully incorporated into the healthcare system at the moment. Regulation, reimbursement, workflows, among others, are focused on sickness rather than health. Whilst we can show efficacy and efficiency at an individual intervention level, change on a system level is required to make the transition towards a health focused approach. Such change is difficult as it requires people and organizations to alter their existing procedures, processes, and beliefs towards this new approach. This change is taking place in a scattered landscape where cooperation between stakeholders is imperative in order to be successful. Such cooperation is very difficult to kick start and requires leadership, commitment, dedication and resources. We want to create an environment in which new initiatives and approaches focused on enhancing healthspan are incubated, validated and accelerated. This provides the basis for an open innovation space that facilitates strategic collaboration between trusted partners in a flexible and entrepreneurial setting. Being an independent organization with an entrepreneurial mindset and impact as its main driver, Noaber is well positioned to initiate and facilitate such cooperation between stakeholders. We will use that position to drive change at a system level by aligning stakeholders on this common goal by utilizing our own resources, knowledge, experience, and networks, which are geared towards achieving that objective.
Pathfinder
We have adopted a programmatic approach to address the complex and interrelated elements of system change in clearly defined intervention fields. As a pathfinder Noaber initiates and accelerates such programs with the intent to enhance stakeholder involvement and ultimately hand over to system level players. We seek to remain engaged as long as our involvement results in a meaningful contribution towards system change.
In 2020 we started building programs focused on population health and lifestyle (medicine) as two main areas that require change and facilitate the transition towards an active and healthy life. Given the complexity we assume to remain focused and actively engaged in these programs for the years to come, while we strive to add an additional program that aligns with the role we want to play and the goal we seek to achieve.
On course
During the past few years, we have tested, refined, and validated our approach towards driving change and improving health. We are convinced that this focus creates the best possible outcome for our ‘Noabers’ and that we can play a meaningful role in facilitating the associated transition. There seems to be momentum for this paradigm shift. Whilst we can only facilitate others to put this change into motion, we have decided to put all our effort in terms of philanthropy, impact investments and mission related investments to ensure that we use this momentum. We keep course in improving health and driving change.
Our investment policy
The overriding principle of Noaber Ventures’ investment strategy is to invest with impact. Impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a meaningful contribution to the health of people and deliver upon quadruple aim alongside a financial return. Our attribution relates to the early stage focus in under institutionalized domains . Our active involvement is intended to support and influence the project or participation with a focus on outcome(s). Given the investment focus on companies with early stage ideas, pilot or start-up, established but scaling up the risk of the portfolio companies is considered as high.