We believe our employees should enable more people share and reap the rewards of a growing economy. We strongly believe reducing inequality, eradicating poverty and helping refugees and as an organization we work hard towards achieving this. We understand that our contribution might be just a drop in a vast ocean but we believe that every good and generous act however small or large goes miles when it comes to helping the less privileged. A substantial portion of the S&L shareholder dividends have been pledged to not for profit causes across the globe, focussed on Children and Education across Asia, Africa, Central America and the US.

As an organization, we look at tapping our internal talent and resources to make investments and work with charities across three main themes: Children, their education and Africa.  Major investments have gone into helping child refugees from violent and war stricken regions such as Syria, Honduras, Malawi and East Africa. We look at children being our world’s future and as a responsible organization we believe in ensuring our future is looked after. Our focus has been on upliftment of children from some of the poorest parts across the world, helping them get proper food, shelter, protection and education. Our key success stories lie in identifying these pockets of need and investing in people who execute them well to benefit the children.

Some of the key success stories of our work have been in providing stable continous education for children from broken homes in India, food and shelter to civil war refugees in Africa and education and livelihood to drug war affected children in Central America.  Over the last several years we have worked closely with Bishop Aelen home for Children in Chennai, India and have adopted over 25 girl children living and studying here from broken homes. We have also partnered with Shabnam resources to change the living conditions of street children.

A partial list of other charities that have benefitted from the S&L’s global philanthrophy include the following:

As part of its global corporate citizenship, Sett & Lucas has identified critical pockets of social responsibility and has continued to invest in them.

One of the key areas of focus has been refugees. When people are forced to flee the place they call home leaving everything behind, and start again in a new country, the effects can be devastating. Families are torn apart and left without means of support.

Quality of life, access to healthcare,  education and welfare services are often almost impossible to access. The situation of child refugees in particular is of concern.

S&L believes helping adult refugees gain globally recognizable vocational degrees will make them more employable, ultimately helping their children access a better quality of life.

To do this, the firm is creating a virtual business school to give refugees access to an accredited MBA programme.

S&L has seed funded the Westlake School of Business, offering MBA programmes that are free for refugees, with a minimal fee structure for disadvantaged students from around the world.

The school aims to match the best of business education, driven by a sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI)  learning platform designed to accelerate learning.

Westlake School of Business matches our values and vision for the types of companies we invest in. The main aim of the business school is to make MBA programs accessible to the learning community  from around the globe, by providing affordable programs for people coming from different walks of life.

Entrepreneurship is the cornerstone of the Sett & Lucas business. The fundamental goal of the fund management and investment banking businesses is to back entrepreneurial visions and channel them along the right path towards sustainability and growth.

Entrepreneurship levels vary across countries, and due to factors including progressive government with well-designed programs to enable entrepreneurship, support from family, friends and cultural factors, an investor friendly environment, efficient financial markets and a more transparent corporate taxation system.

Our goal has been to guide entrepreneurs by educating them on the pros and cons of each of the potential global markets.

With a fund management team that has driven transactions and facilitated investments across Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America and Australia, S&L is well positioned to guide entrepreneurs into newer markets with better strategies.

S&L works closely with some of the best accelerators and incubators in the world. The firm has partnered with marquee names like  Y Combinator and DreamIT Ventures, giving access to some of the brightest minds and most creative companies. S&L looks at companies that work towards the advancement of life and technology. Be it organic foods or health related tech, the focus is on companies that target the consumer.

In the past year S&L has partnered to invest in Y Combinator and DreamIT portfolio companies through its venture fund, Linus Ventures. S&L continues to mentor entrepreneurs across various industry segments, with a special focus on enterprise technology, consumer internet and business services.

Y Combinator

Y Combinator is a US seed accelerator, started in March 2005. In 2017 Forbes ranked YC one of the top two Platinum Plus Tier US Accelerators. Fast Company has called YC “the world’s most powerful start-up incubator”. Fortune says it’s “a spawning ground for emerging tech giants”.

The portfolio companies receive seed money, advice, and useful connections in exchange for equity. Y Combinator’s motto is Make Something People Want.

The program aims to focus founders on further developing their product, team and market, refining their business model, achieving product/market fit, and scaling the startup into a high growth business. The program culminates in Demo Day where startups present to a selected audience of investors.

As of 2017, Y Combinator has invested in around 1,450 companies including Dropbox, Airbnb, Coinbase, Stripe, Reddit, Zenefits, BuildZoom, Instacart, Twitch.tv, Machine Zone, Weebly, Paribus, and Chinese start-up Raven Tech. The combined market capitalization of YC companies is over $80 billion.

DreamIT Ventures

DreamIT Ventures, founded in 2007, is a venture capital and seed accelerator firm focusing on seed venture, early stage venture and late stage venture investing.

Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the firm operates four seed accelerators in the US: Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore and Austin, as well as an international accelerator in Tel Aviv.

The firm has launched over 200 companies that have raised $275 million at combined valuations of more than $1 billion. Notable investments include SeatGeek, social gaming company SCVNGR, MindSnacks, Take The Interview, Meerkat, Notehall, LearnBop and Headout.

DreamIt Ventures worked with Comcast Ventures on seed projects for Kwelia, Reactor Inc. and Toppermost Corp. The firm was listed on the Forbes Midas List of top startup incubators and accelerators.

Sett & Lucas believes in investing in the future. Our future is determined by the work that we do. The work that we do is achieved by the employees that we have. We as an organisation take great pride in developing our future teams.

The executive team of Sett & Lucas has billions of dollars of transaction experience across several years of banking and corporate finance and the deal experience across multiple continents. The next generation of MBAs and finance graduates can immensely benefit from interacting and getting mentored by these senior bankers at Sett & Lucas.

The investment banking team at Sett & Lucas to its credit has over 900 hours of mentoring students every year. Several students studying in universities in the US, UK, Hong Kong, Australia and India benefit from these mentoring sessions. The executive team has formal and informal mentoring relationships with students at universities across the globe. The team has a formal mentoring relationship with The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, to provide mentoring to the second year MBA students. Our senior partner works with second year MBA students and help guide them choose their career paths. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wharton was established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton and is the world’s first collegiate school of business in the USA.

In addition to the Wharton, our investment bankers work closely with students from several prestigious business schools and universities such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton University and Cambridge. S&L also believes that mentoring should not be limited to the Ivy league, but has to include students from socially under privileged backgrounds. It has in the past several years worked closely with students from several minority colleges in the US that includes Paul Quinn, Howard University, Spelman College, Florida A&M University, Delaware State University Jackson state University and Lincoln University.

If you are a student currently enrolled in a university and specializing in management or corporate finance, if you require mentoring from an investment banker, Investment analyst or a regulatory compliance specialist and if you are living in a country where Sett & Lucas has an established office, please feel free to email your details with a request to be mentored to r.paul@settlucas.com

The S&L philosophy of bettering society is  reflected not just in our own activities, but in the choices we make for our fund investments.

We work to invest, mentor and partner with firms that have a social impact. Our key areas of focus include life sciences and genetics research, improving communities impacted by drugs, child healthcare, healthy eating and organic food.

These include:

• DNAsimple  (www.dnasimple.org) is at the forefront of accelerating drug discovery in the life sciences space. DNAsimple pays donors for their DNA – building a database of samples so scientists can access the genetic material they need for research purposes.
• Hikae Steel  (www.hikaesteel.com) has set up one of the the first steel plants in Honduras. An important infrastructure project for a country that struggles to attract inward investment, it will create jobs in an area of high unemployment. The steel plant is in San Pedro Sula, once popularly referred to as the world’s most dangerous city to live in. It has the lowest levels of employment and highest consumption of drugs in Honduras.
• Mii Baby was was co-founded by a children’s environmental health advocate, initially to produce baby bottles, cups and teats that were free of Bisphenol A (BPA). BPA – an industrial chemical used in the production of plastics – is now banned in baby products in many developed world countries. The patent pending technology is now being brought to the developing world.
• Supr (www.supr.com) – is ensuring people in India get the freshest milk possible. Almost 70% of milk in India is adulterated with water, detergent or worse. By taking milk directly from the farm and delivering it to consumers, Supr is cutting out the middle men who tamper with the product.

• Eat Origin (www.eatorigin.com) is a San Francisco based company that ensures healthy eating habits are followed by the working population. Their organic smoothies and protein shakes promote a healthy lifestyle. The current focus of the firm is to be the go-to drink for those using gyms. The firm is also working with corporate customers to promote healthy living with onsite smoothie makers at offices.