“My eyes light up when I talk about it,” says Ana Popova, of Globant’s new Be Kind Tech Fund. Vice President of Delivery at a digital technology company, Popova is the co-head of the fund, which is tasked with supporting business with a very different type of understanding of innovation and digital transformation. “We hear a lot of stories about the positive impact of technology on society, and that is very real,” says Popova. “But not enough has been said about the other side of the coin.
She talks about growing concerns about the damage caused by technological change, through issues ranging from an increase in online harassment to the potential for bias in artificial intelligence systems that perpetuates prejudice and discrimination. It is not about innovators striving for these potentially negative impacts; rather, they occur as side effects as technology evolves. But if someone does not entertain them, the damage continues to grow.
Join the Be Kind Tech Fund, which Globant believes is the only risk fund specifically focused on supporting start-ups that develop solutions to mitigate the abuse and misuse of technology. The fund will focus on companies that offer positive developments in five areas, Popova explains. These are online harassment, data privacy and security, misuse of time in front of the screen, bias of artificial intelligence and information bubbles and polarization.
“We are looking for companies that can have a positive and measurable impact,” Popova added. “We are trying to create a technological ecosystem that is capable of providing a more sustainable impact.
The fund has yet to announce its first investments, but Popova says that it is attracting significant interest from potential companies in which it is investing, with more than 500 start-ups already being inquired. “This can be more than a fund - it can be a movement,” she said.
Certainly, the issues the fund is focused on are very real. The Center for Human Technology has cataloged a number of invisible harms to society as a result of the growing influence of technology platforms. This points to research with worrying findings including:
- Children who have been abused online are three times more likely to think about suicide than their peers; every fourth child had online sexual contact with adults through social media.
- The 10 most popular Facebook sites with misinformation about Covid-19 generated four times more views than content from 10 leading international health institutions.
- Within three months of starting to use a smartphone, users experience a significant reduction in their mental arithmetic results, which indicates a reduction in their attention capacity and a significant increase in social conformity.
- A study in which 3,000 voters showed fake stories saw that many of these voters not only “remember” these fake stories as if they were real events, but also increase their memories with rich new details about how and when the events took place.
The list goes on and on. Popova argues that companies such as Globant, built to support clients with technological innovation and transformation, have a special responsibility to address these issues. “We got to the point where we just felt like we couldn’t do something,” she said. In any case, Popova adds, start-ups that are successful in dealing with these problems will have a bright future. The fund expects many of its portfolio components to yield 10 times or more.
Ana Popova from Globant claims that the damage to technology can be solved
Globant
Globant’s vision is that the fund will invest between $ 100,000 and $ 1 million in the companies it supports, taking minority stakes to support companies as they develop new products and services.
The technology company also sees itself as a driver of change and will work with several partners to manage the fund. These include George Washington University, the Center for Human Technology and investors including Riverwood Capital, IDB Lab and Nazca. “Let’s hope we make a difference,” says Popova.
It is a very personal undertaking for Popova, who joined Globant after two decades of career in consulting and investments. She argues that companies in the sector have a duty to lead by example on key issues; indeed, the Be Kind Tech Fund is a key element of Globant’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy, which is also titled Be Kind.
One particularly important aspect of this ESG program for Popova is the company’s public commitment that by 2025, 50% of management positions will be held by women. As she points out, the technology sector is not doing well in advancing women to higher positions, but tackling this will require leaders to focus on every level of business. “For many technology companies, this is a talent flow crisis,” she said. “It starts with your input - too few women get into technology jobs - but then it continues with what happens after employment.”
Solving such problems will take time, but leaders must be ready to face the challenge above all, Popova argues - just as it is important to support these start-up companies with promising solutions to the negative aspects of technological change.