Can you build wealth while investing in a better future without sacrificing financial returns?
Welcome back to another episode of Inspired To Invest! This week, Claire Smith is here for Episode 164
In this episode of Inspired To Invest, Serena Holmes sits down with Claire Smith, a climate fund manager, fintech entrepreneur and impact investor with 40 years of experience in finance and investment.
Claire is the founder of Beyond Investing, a humane investment platform that designs cruelty-free investment programs in public equity markets, as well as its venture capital arm, Beyond Impact.
After decades in traditional finance, Claire reached a turning point.
She realized there was a disconnect between the causes she personally cared about — including sustainability, climate and animal welfare — and the industries that conventional finance helped fund.
So she decided to bring her personal values and professional expertise together.
Today, Claire is helping reshape the conversation around sustainable investing, ethical investing and impact investing.
In this episode, we explore:
✅ Why Claire walked away from traditional finance to pursue sustainable investing
✅ Whether investors really need to sacrifice returns to invest according to their values
✅ Why Claire believes some traditional ESG investing doesn’t go far enough
✅ Why her investment screens eliminate roughly 50% of companies in typical market benchmarks
✅ How Beyond Investing approaches ethical and sustainable portfolio construction
✅ Why venture capital could play an important role in creating a more sustainable economy
✅ Emerging opportunities in biotech, nutrition, pharmaceuticals, materials and animal-free technologies
✅ Why cost and product quality — not simply ethics — could accelerate adoption of sustainable alternatives
✅ What launching an investment product really costs behind the scenes
✅ Why resilience has been one of Claire’s greatest lessons as an entrepreneur and investor
✅ How family offices, foundations, charities and individual investors are approaching impact investing
✅ Why resource constraints could reshape industries ranging from energy to agriculture
✅ Why Claire believes food could experience a transformation similar to the adoption of electric vehicles
Claire’s story also challenges a common assumption: that investing according to your values automatically means giving up financial performance.
As of early September 2026, Claire shared that her ETF was outperforming its market benchmark over the lifetime of the fund.
This conversation isn’t simply about sustainable investing.
It’s about understanding where our money goes, what businesses it supports, and whether financial capital can become a tool for creating the future we actually want to live in.
Whether you’re interested in sustainable investing, ESG investing, ethical investing, venture capital, climate investing, emerging technologies or building wealth with greater intention, this episode will give you plenty to think about.
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