ImpactAlpha

ImpactAlpha, May 31 – The Global Impact Investing Network’s Amit Bouri dropped the figure in an interview with Business Insider ahead of the release of GIIN’s annual investor survey next week. The new figure, which tallies actual responses to the survey, represents the new “floor” for the industry and a year-over-year doubling of impact assets under […]

Pushing impact investing beyond neoliberalism. Just what is impact investing’s “theory of change”? “If you think the market economy needs to be changed, and I do, this is not the way to do that,” the Hewlett Foundation’s Larry Kramer told other foundation leaders last week. In this week’s column, ImpactAlpha’s David Bank writes, “I’m no […]

Impact investors rediscover the power of ‘place.’ Invest in where you know. From downtown Detroit and Chicago to communities across Central Appalachia and the Navajo Nation, “place-based investing” is taking off. Private investors are tapping civic leaders, community foundations and local nonprofits to find opportunities to finance small businesses, schools, health clinics and urban infrastructure. A […]

Opportunity Collaboration reckons with a #MeToo moment in impact investing. Powerbrokers have become pariahs in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Washington, Wall Street and beyond. Claims of sexual harassment have roiled the social-impact world as well, leading to resignations at the nonprofit Defy Ventures and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. At this week’s Opportunity Collaboration gathering in Florida, […]

ImpactAlpha, April 26 – Not all investors are hip to impact as an investment thesis. They need a nudge to make the leap. Blended finance practitioners structure investments that use philanthropic and development funding to reduce risks and boost returns for private investors. With a bit of financial engineering, blended finance proponents hope to mobilize […]

Happy Friday, ImpactAlpha readers! There’s a reason ImpactAlpha has been publishing so many stories on Philadelphia, even beyond the fact that our own Dennis Price and his family moved back last year.  We’ve been tracking locally-driven economic revivalacross the U.S.; Philly is testing approaches also taking hold elsewhere. Can local institutions and impact investors effectively direct capital to entrepreneurs and other […]

ImpactAlpha, April 17 – Impact investing is no longer just a passion at business schools around the world. It’s a smart career move for the next generation of grads that want to become leaders of the finance industry. Take climate finance. The winner and runner-up of last week’s Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge in London both […]

  Featured: The Impact Alpha The impact opportunity in the mispriced risk of lending to the underserved. Techies are used to making the impossible possible. Bankers, not so much. But I’ve been struck by a common theme in many of the deals ImpactAlpha has rounded up in our Dealflow column, and in conversations with financiers. Things that were […]

Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers!  The theme of the week, not surprisingly, was “impact alpha.” A new network of impact fund managers staked out high-impact, high-returns investing. There’s an “institutional shift” toward impact, driven by risk reduction, big pension funds and others, as we explored in our Returns on Investment podcast. How much is impact alpha worth? […]

The Brief The Brief’s Big 10: Impact roadmaps, B Corp benefits, Opportunity Zone challenges, sustainable seafood, decarceration startups, green bonds March 23, 2018 Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! We hope your impact investments provided a non-correlated refuge from the volatility of the stock markets this week. The Brief is taking a spring break next week. We hope you’ll miss […]

The Brief March 16, 2018 Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: The Brief’s Big Ten 1. The continuing fallout from the dispute over the Abraaj Group’s finances. It started with questions from investors, including the Gates Foundation, about accounting in the Dubai-based firm’s $1 billion Growth Markets Health Fund. Now, the controversy has engulfed the $13 billion firm and […]

The Brief The Brief’s Big Ten: Revolution in finance, impact at SXSW, gender portfolio risk, badass revivalists March 9, 2018 Photo by Tucker Good on Unsplash Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! Another week, another revolution in finance. International Women’s Day has become International Women’s week. We knew the impact investing ecosystem would produce a bounty of research and reports, […]

Smarter money Investors and funds flex their muscles on mass shootings and school carnage (Editor’s note: Add all updates in comments or in a note to TheBrief@impactalpha.com and I’ll add them in — db) Guns are the new carbon…or cigarettes…or South Africa. The $70 billion State of Michigan Retirement System sold its holdings in Olin Corp., maker of Winchester […]

The Brief March 2, 2018 Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! Investors flex their muscles on guns. Guns are the new carbon…or cigarettes…or South Africa. The $70 billion State of Michigan Retirement System sold its holdings in Olin Corp., maker of Winchester ammunition. New Jersey legislators will vote on a bill to ban guns from the portfolios of state […]

Climate Finance Political urgency on climate action, emerging tech and new business models are converging to unlock business opportunities in restoring forests and agricultural lands Photo credit: Sebastian Engler More than three dozen governments around the world have committed to restoring more than 150 million hectares of land by 2020. That’s an area bigger than […]

Inclusive Economy The Impact Enterprise Fund claims to be the first domestically-focused impact fund in New Zealand PC: New Ground Capital The Impact Enterprise Fund, a partnership between Ākina Foundation, New Ground Capital and Impact Ventures, has raised NZ$8 million ($5.8 million) to invest in local startups tackling issues in sustainable food production, agriculture, healthcare, clean energy, […]

Farmer Finance For example, food corporations Cargill, Tyson Foods, PHW, and even fast-food chain McDonalds, are investing in alternative proteins Photo credit: Ben Koorengevel A 2015 report cast the opportunity to secure the world’s food supply by 2030 as a $2.3 trillion annual opportunity that could create 80 million jobs, 90% of them in developing […]

Smarter Money The fund is being built to capitalize on the rapid growth of Canadian impact investing Montreal, Canada The Montreal-based investment firm is building an impact fund made up of public debt, commercial mortgages and other types of loans in the areas of community development, climate change, health and education. Addenda says it’s the […]

The Brief Jan. 12, 2018 Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: The Brief’s Big Ten Inclusion generates opportunities. Impact investors are letting President Trump know. Building homes in Haiti. Leapfrogging energy grids in El Salvador and across Central America. Creating models on the African continent for 21st century skills and education, food and agriculture and financial inclusion. Countries overcoming […]

The Brief Jan. 5, 2018 Photo credit: Ryan Johns Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! Here’s a short roundup from a short week. #Featured: The Brief’s Big Five 1. A bipartisan morsel in the Republican tax bill (yes, we found one). We’re waiting for the fine print, but the “Investing for Opportunities Act” that is part of the bill could draw significant […]

The Brief Jan 2, 2018 Old Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi, India l Photo credit: Dewang Gupta Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! We hope you had relaxing and refreshing New Year’s break. ImpactAlpha is ready for an impactful 2018. Stay tuned to The Brief for in-depth coverage of impact investing. (And please add editor@impactalpha.com to your email contacts to ensure […]

The Brief Dec. 20, 2017 “Focus” l Lake View, Chicago l Photo credit: Mikaala Shackelford Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! Year in Review: Inclusive Economy Middle America is an engine of innovation. Low-income communities are investable. Immigrants are assets, not liabilities. Inclusive prosperity is a pro-growth strategy. In cities and towns across the U.S. and around the world, […]

The Brief Dec. 15, 2017 Good Friday evening, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: The Brief’s Big Ten 1. Introducing 2030 Finance, where ImpactAlpha tracks the global shift of capital. The tagline for our new sub-site, 2030 Finance: “Investors meet the global goals.” That’s both a description, as more investors find the Sustainable Development Goals and the global climate agreement […]

New Jersey has the U.S.’s fifth-highest solar installed-capacity, but only 5% of the state’s power comes from renewables Even many Jersey voters might not know that Governor-elect Phil Murphy’s clean-energy platform aims to put the Garden State on a path to 100% clean energy by 2050. New Jersey has the U.S.’s fifth-highest solar installed-capacity, but only […]

Own Your Impact edition: Steve Case’s impact argument, gender lens culture shift, beyond complicity, bottom-up revival Dec. 7, 2017 Good Friday evening, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: The Brief’s Big Eight: Own Your Impact Edition 1. SteveCase walks back his comments to The New York Times — onImpactAlpha. “I wanted to set the record straight: I absolutely believe that impact investing […]

Aavishkaar’s five previous funds have cultivated early-stage social startups in India PC: Aavishkaar Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group reached the first close in its planned $200 million Bharat Fund, Livemint reports. Bharat Fund could double Aavishkaar’s fundraising to date. Aavishkaar’s five previous funds have cultivated early-stage social startups in India; half of the Bharat Fund will back later-stage companies. Aavishkaar […]

The Brief Brain gain in Latin America + LatAm’s women VCs, Zurich boosts climate-investment pledge, Bamboo backs First Access, small biz for big goals Nov. 27, 2017 Valparaíso, Chile l Photo credit: Olivier Chatel Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: Impact Voices Brain Gain: Impact investing in Latin America’s new wave of startups. Here’s a provocative impact thesis: Supporting almost any […]

Women Rising The tally of public- and private-equity assets invested with a gender lens now tops $2.2 billion Nearly two-dozen public gender-lens investment vehicles hold more than $910 million. That’s up 41% from $645 million in 19 vehicles last year, according to a new analysis from Veris Wealth Partners and gender-lens investing expert, Suzanne Biegel. The public […]

Expanding the universe of potential investments and other benefits of assessing and managing impact Photo credit: Hooverstrategicsolutions.com A vocal minority of impact investing practitioners have long espoused that impact measurement is a waste of time and resources because it distracts investors from their primary objective: to support the growth of businesses tackling real social and environmental […]

The Brief Climate markets beyond renewables, microfinance exit, driving inclusive growth, banking on climate resilience Nov. 6, 2017 Hubbard Glacier Geological Area, United States l Photo credit: Jesse Orrico Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: ImpactAlpha Original Climate investors look beyond renewables as Bonn gets down to business. There’s a buzz on as world leaders gather in Bonn this […]

The Brief Oct. 27, 2017 World Games, El Salvador l Photo credit: Krissia Cruz Happy Friday, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: The Brief’s Big Ten 1. Five-dozen venture capital funds are betting on women around the world. The team at Wharton Social Impact Initiative found funds that have raised $1.3 billion to invest with a “gender lens” — including 21 funds launched […]

The Brief 58 gender-lens funds and 25 responsible universal owners, Standard Life’s SDG fund, China’s climate rhetoric Oct. 25, 2017 Photo credit: Ross Findon Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: ImpactAlpha Original Meet 58 venture capital funds that are betting on women around the world. The rising social and economic power of women is a global mega-trend that venture capital […]

The Brief ‘Impact-rated’ mutual fund, Tiedemann acquires Threshold, `impact investing’ turns 10, closing the racial wealth gap Oct. 12, 2017 Photo credit: Scott Webb Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: ImpactAlpha Original First ever ‘impact rating’ issued for a publicly traded mutual fund. Just as third-party ratings have become essential for judging financial risk of an investment, third-party verification of […]

The Brief Oct. 10, 2017 Meow Wolf, Santa Fe, New Mexico Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: ImpactAlpha Roundup At SOCAP17, looking ahead to 2030. Today’s brief comes to you from the main hall at Ft. Mason in San Francisco, where the 10th annual Social Capital Markets conference is underway. ImpactAlpha is a media sponsor of the event, the […]

Smarter Money After four years and two business models, founder Philip Berber is shutting down impact-investment matchmaking site After four years and two business models, founder Philip Berber is shutting down Enable Impact. Berber, who earlier sold his online brokerage startup CyBerCorp to Charles Schwab, initially sought to build a matchmaking site to connect impact entrepreneurs […]

The Brief Social-change economics, Rise Fund hits $2B, JP Morgan in DC, environmental impact investors, future cars Oct. 4, 2017 Guanajuato, Mexico l Jezar Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: Returns on Investment Real Impact: Morgan Simon on bringing communities into impact investing. The longtime leader in the field bridges two worlds with her new book, “Real Impact: The New […]

Smarter Money The Swiss bank was early mover in supporting other impact investment firms PC: WSJ The Swiss bank, an early mover in supporting other impact investment firms, is opening its own impact investing division, called Impact Advisory and Finance. It will be headed by Marisa Drew, who has served as co-head of Europe, Middle East […]

The Brief Impact storytelling, disaster recovery capital, where community-development finance goes, beating the killer heat Sept. 27, 2017 Kauai Coffee Company, Kalaheo, United States l Photo credit: Christian Joudrey Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: Impact Voices Telling the impact investing story. In the spirit of full transparency, we should disclose that ImpactAlpha receives a fair number of pitches from […]

Smarter Money Getting past the alphabet soup and embracing the skeptics London, United Kingdom l Photo credit: Volkan Olmez Impact investing is riding a wave of powerful forces, including a large generational wealth transfer, the inclination of millennials to invest with their values and the offer of solutions that appeal to people of all regions, generations and […]

Smarter Money The platform adds new issuers PC: ImpactUs The platform has added four new issuers to connect institutions and individuals with impact investing opportunities. The new issuers include Coastal Enterprises, a Maine-based organization that focuses on rural business development in the U.S.; Enterprise Community Investment, part of the supportive housing group Enterprise Community Partners; Iroquois […]