Quiet Moves, Loud Signals

Small Steps Vol. 115: From sovereign wealth tracking nature risk 🍃 to AI in classrooms 🎓 and femtech pushing back 👩🏻‍⚕️ – what this week’s quiet shifts tell us about the future.

Apr 03, 2025

This week has been a big one across health, tech, climate and capital, with signs of shifts – both subtle and seismic – bubbling under the surface. Let’s dive in.

What we’re thinking about

🌱 The biggest repricing event in history. Norges Bank, which manages the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, has placed 96% of its portfolio under natural capital risk assessment. This is a quiet, but enormous, acknowledgement: nature and climate risk stand to fundamentally reshape our financial systems and can no longer be ignored. Impact One breaks it down.

🩺 Hinge Health breaks the digital health IPO drought. Hinge Health has filed to go public, the first digital health company to do so in nearly three years. With an estimated raise of US$500m, this could be a sign of a long-awaited reawakening for healthtech in public markets. Read more in TechCrunch.

🍎 AI a day keeps the doctor away. New legislation tabled in the US House of Representatives could allow AI to autonomously prescribe FDA-approved drugs. It raises questions about safety, ethics, and the definition of a clinician, but signals the continued integration of AI into all aspects of the medical system. Read more here.

🤝 Climate-conscious consumerism isn’t as partisan as you may think. According to Northwind Climate’s new research, climate-conscious consumers aren’t just clustered on one end of the political spectrum. A reminder that values-led purchasing is more widespread and nuanced than we might assume, and that regardless of political alignment, brands can expect to be punished by consumers for overstating their climate credentials. TechCrunch has the story.

🚗💨 EV charging at speed. Chinese EV manufacturer BYD is working on making EV charging as fast as topping up a petrol tank, as part of its broader rethinking of charging infrastructure. While details remain vague, it claims its new Han L sedan could add as much as 248 miles, or ~400 km, in just 5 minutes. More here.

🎓 AI in the classroom, at scale. The London School of Economics has partnered with Anthropic to bring Claude to all of its students. The new ‘Claude for Education’ includes a ‘learning mode’ that focuses on guiding student reasoning instead of handing out answers. This could be the start of a huge wave of tertiary institutions going with, rather than resisting, the flowing tide of AI. Read the LSE announcement and Anthropic’s update.

💪 Femtech takes on Big Tech. Six leading European women’s health startups are taking on Big Tech, filing complaints with the EU over digital censorship of women’s health content. A bold collective action pushing for more equitable digital ecosystems. More via Tech.eu.

💊 Plan B, move over for Plan A. NEXT Life Sciences has launched clinical trials in Australia for 'Plan A' – a hormone-free, long-lasting and reversible-on-demand male contraceptive. While there’s still a long path to market, it’s a promising step towards shifting the primary burden of contraception away from women. More here.

In the news

🔋 Your EV could save you $30k. Vehicle-to-grid tech is getting real. According to the AFR, EV owners could save up to $30,000 over 10 years by feeding excess battery power back into the grid by using Amber Electric’s new bidirectional charging software. It’s not just good for your wallet, but a crucial piece in solving the broader energy crisis. Full piece in the AFR.

💡 APAC’s most innovative companies of 2025. Fast Company’s 2025 list of most innovative companies is out – and our portfolio company Who Gives A Crap made the cut. Read the list here.

👩🏻‍🍼 Startups and small humans. What’s it like running a company while raising little kids? Neala Fulia, CEO of More Good Days, shares her honest take, alongside Michelle Battersby (Sunroom) and Freya Berwick (Sense of Self). Read the article from Blackbird here.

💵 Tech and the 2025 Budget. Giant Leap’s Managing Partner Will Richardson shares his thoughts on what the federal budget means for tech – with policies like the Front Door for investors and efforts to streamline M&A processes being welcome changes. StartupDaily article here.

🎙 Funded Futures: Founders, students and scale. In this great episode of Funded Futures, Jeanette Chea, CEO and co-founder of HEX, dives into the student-to-founder journey, bootstrapping, sustainable growth and more. Worth a listen.