ImpactAlpha

The world is awash in money for sustainable development. Not the relatively few billions in public-sector foreign aid or philanthropy — the $218 trillion private capital market.  A new matchmaking platform aims to help leverage the former to get at the latter by facilitating so-called “blended” capital structures to increase the flow of development capital to developing countries. The […]

Bamboo Finance is moving to fill the financing gap for small- and mid-sized African agribusinesses. The Luxembourg-based private equity firm has raised the first $10 million for its planned $50 million “Nisaba” impact fund from Louis Dreyfus Holding, a major global agriculture conglomerates. Bamboo expects to achieve a first close and begin making investments by mid-2016. Bamboo […]

Are sustainability factors material to the company? There’s now a credential for the financial professionals charged with analyzing such issues. The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), a non-profit organization, has established a credential to help professionals identify the issues that can impact the financial performance of a company. The  Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA) Credential consists of a two-part test: a Level I exam, […]

As more foundations start to deploy impact investments to accomplish their philanthropic goals, some pioneers in the field of mission investing are sharing their hard-earned lessons to perhaps boost the confidence of recent adopters. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, for example, with a $180 million mandate for impact investments, has released an outside analysis,“Mission […]

A new index of public equities is designed to reward “climate leaders” and punish “climate laggards” while perhaps delivering outperformance for investors as well. Etho Capital‘s Climate Leadership Index (ECLI) is designed to meet the criteria of the fossil-fuel divestment movement by screening out oil, coal and natural gas companies. It also screens out companies with generally […]

Investors who backed a  pay-for-success program in London have been alerted that the “success” part has panned out. The “social impact bond,” or SIB, raised £900,000 ($1.4 million) to boost at-risk youth employment. It was backed by UK’s Department for Work and Pensions. Now that the program has met its outcomes targets required, the agency […]

At Sonen Capital, we believe that capital markets can and should help solve the world’s pressing environmental and social issues, while at the same time delivering market-based financial performance. For foundations in particular, impact-oriented investment portfolios have enormous potential to amplify philanthropic programming and grant making. Too frequently foundations invest at cross-purposes by investing their corpus […]

A basket of impact investment funds measured solely for their impressive social and environmental returns would justifiably prompt the question, “How did they perform financially?” So it is with two reports this year that analyzed data from investment funds and found that, at least in some categories, they matched or outperformed a comparable set of ‘normal’ […]

Equity gets the glory, but sometimes it’s debt that gets the job done. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation this week committed $15 million to Simpa Networks, SunFunder, and Off-Grid Electric, which each finance access to clean energy “beyond the grid” in east Africa, India and other emerging markets. The so-called program-related investments will be […]

The signal may be as important as the substance. New guidance from the Department of Labor gives a green light to pension fund managers to consider environmental and social benefits in their investment decisions. Proponents of the change have been looking for that signal to unlock billions, or even trillions of dollars for investment in […]

Where was the fish fillet on my dinner plate caught? Was it mishandled? Is this species endangered? Consumers increasingly want to know the story of their seafood. That has been a market barrier for small-scale fishermen and women, who make up 90 percent of the world’s fishing workforce. The data gaps begin as soon as a […]

Impact is in the eye of the beholder, or at least in the eye of the fund manager. A new study on the financial performance of private equity impact investments provides fresh data that suggests at least some segments are indeed delivering “market-rate” returns. Moreover, the report, “Great Expectations: Mission Preservation and Financial Performance in Impact Investments,” from the […]

Brazil’s cattle industry has been targeted as a major contributor to deforestation and climate change. A project to restore the Amazon rainforest through new cattle ranching techniques aims to provide a counter-example. The Althelia Climate Fund, based in Luxembourg, has committed €11.5 million to Novo Campo, a pilot cattle ranching project in the Brazilian state of Mato […]

We’re digging out after four busy days at last week’s SOCAP, the Social Capital Markets conference and found a few more highlight: Manufactured fertilizers, animal feedlots and industrial agriculture drive carbon. Industrial agriculture degrades the oceans through excessive runoff of topsoil from fields and the associated chemical pollution from petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides. Carbon-sequestration warriors like Estancia Grass […]

Apparel is a trillion-dollar industry with complex global linkages for supplies, production and distribution, employing tens of millions worldwide. It’s also a source of chemical pollution of water and land, human rights abuses and untraceable supplies. Case in point, the Rana Plaza disaster of 2013. Consumers are waking up. Consumers know that the products they consume or wear do […]

The Blue Angels “disrupted” the SOCAP, the Social Capital Markets conference, but not enough to chill the animated conversations and discussions. A few highlights: “Impact Inventing” is a thing. The term is what the Lemelson Foundation uses to describe using invention to solve the world’s toughest problems. But invention-based enterprises face unique challenges including lack of […]

Deep in thought around bringing money into markets that matter at this year’s SOCAP conference in Ft Mason, San Francisco, impact investors were joined by special guests, the Blue Angels. I caught up with these hotshots to hear their thoughts on emerging fields and get their perspective on the conference. IA – Thank you for agreeing […]

ImpactAlpha reporters are fanning out across SOCAP, the Social Capital Markets conference, to catch conversations on sustainability in the supply chain for apparel, healthy food financing, fintech, conservation finance, and yes, the state of impact investing. Here’s some of what they  have picked up: Mainstream investors are beginning to see impact investing as a diversification strategy. […]

Collaboration is in the air. Public, philanthropic, and private investors are coming together to finance new inventions, the early stages of a social enterprise, the new set of global development goals and much more. How best to blend capital to meet the needs of social startups and new markets is a hot topic at the annual Social Capital […]

A remarkable consensus has emerged: Women’s leadership and inclusion is essential for meeting not only UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 5 — gender equality — but the 16 other global goals as well. The women’s agenda is becoming the global agenda. Women and girls were center stage at last week’s Clinton Global Initiative and this week’s Social Capital […]

Two blueprints for investments in Chile’s struggling fishing industry suggest ways to restore depleted fishing stocks, improve local livelihoods and turn a profit for impact investors. Investing in Sustainable Global Fisheries outlines approaches for small-scale and industrial-scale fisheries in Chile as example of broader opportunities. Encourage Capital, an impact asset management firm, developed the strategies  to create economic incentives […]

A new data exchange for the emerging social capital market is connecting isolated pockets of information about social enterprises and impact investments. SODA, the SOcial DAta Commons, is either a geeky piece of infrastructure, or a step toward the kind of market liquidity that can unlock private capital for companies that aim to generate positive social and environmental […]

Media Development Investment Fund took another step in its shift toward digital media, naming Mohamed Nanabhay, former head of Al Jazeera English online, as deputy to CEO Harlan Mandel. Nanabhay will lead the non-profit media fund’s digital investment strategy in emerging and frontier markets. From his base in South Africa, he hopes to expand the firm’s African and […]

I recently sat around a table of investors charged with finalizing the structure of a global impact fund. I couldn’t help but hear the contradictions that laced the discussion. One public investor had a mandate to “catalyze private capital” but was unable to accept any terms considered subordinate to other investors. Another investor wouldn’t be able […]

The broadsheets and social media are currently rife with commentary about the dramatic fall from grace of one of the world’s largest and most trustworthy automotive brands: Volkswagen. The fallout is massive. This means billions in losses for the company. The CEO has resigned and it remains to be seen what the legal and long-term […]

The ImpactSpace Fellowship is celebrating its second year! Applications for next year’s cohorts are now open. The fellowship, which lasts three to six months, is designed to help fellows explore the latest developments and trends in impact investing, with an eye to study or research specific topics. Material produced may also be published on our website. We offer […]

Experts say that we are running out of food for the fish that we eat every day. What should we feed the fish? Can the aquaculture industry, the engine of a growing fish farm industry and its pantry, respond to the demand? After all, costs are rising, weather is irregular, and supply is limited. Absolutely, […]

The Colorado River, which supplies water to 35 million people and four million acres of irrigated agriculture across seven states (plus two in Mexico), is running dry after 15 years of drought. That’s both a problem and an opportunity for impact investors. A new report lays out a menu of approaches through which private capital […]

The Obama administration has removed an obstacle that had blocked private foundations seeking to use their full range of capital to pursue their missions. The new guidance from the Internal Revenue Service could help unlock for so-called “mission-related investments” some of the $650 billion in assets warehoused in the endowments of U.S.-based private foundations. “This guidance is not about telling […]

This year’s Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP15) consists of three days of powerful dialogue with leading impact investors, entrepreneurs, and practitioners. Held October 6-9 in San Francisco, the days will be chock full of networking and engaging content addressing the intersection of money and meaning. This year’s themes include panels on the following: Impact Investing, Meaning, Divest/Invest, Financial Inclusion, Neighborhood […]

Israel is a global leader in entrepreneurship, with total of 70 exits and IPOs worth $15 billion in 2014, according to PwC. Its innovative technologies — often developed due to a lack of natural resources such as water — are changing the game in agriculture, energy, healthcare and education. Impressive, but can Israeli innovation spread and […]

Here’s the latest trillion dollar question: How to finance the new Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations on Friday? The new set of 17 goals for 2030, known as the SDGs, build on the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, that were adopted in 2000 and ran through this year. The 169 specific targets […]

Paperwork and bureaucracy aren’t just pains in the backside of everyone working at every small business or smaller nonprofit. They’re also barriers to entry — for new people, new ideas and even new sources of capital. Crowdfunding might help level the playing field, but even that has a new set of challenges and limitations. When […]

A growing number of Catholic institutions are putting their money where Pope Francis’s mouth is. Francis last year explicitly endorsed impact investments that respond to social and environmental challenges. In encyclicals, speeches and meetings with heads of state, Pope Francis has broadly emphasized society’s collective responsibility to tackle inequality, make markets work for the poor, and address human-induced climate change. […]

Can the tech industry must the capacity to saves the oceans from overfishing, habitat destruction and acidification? “Oceans are essential, they are our pharmacy and pantry and a primary source of protein for billions,” said Wendy Schmidt, founder and vice president of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, during a panel on ocean innovation during Dreamforce, the annual conference […]

Backers of startups worldwide are looking for the next “disruptive trend” that can overturn industries. Ironically, the venture capital industry has begun to resemble markets that investors themselves are looking to disrupt. Speculation about the “next dot-com bubble” abounds weekly; entrepreneurship champion the Kauffman Foundation reflected upon two decades of investing venture capital by saying, […]

The seafood industry has the ability to trace the journey of a fish from ocean to dinner plate. But does it have the stomach to make the necessary changes? A Sustainable Seafood Industry Lab in San Francisco this week explored ways to trace the path of the fish we eat. Hardware and software developers are building traceability […]

The ocean’s problems are well known. Solutions, not so much. And opportunities to invest in those solutions have been even harder to find. That’s changing, in no small part thanks to Monica Jain and her Fish 2.0 business competition, which has just announced the 37 seafood and aquaculture companies that will compete for prizes and attention […]

The Global Ethical Finance Forum in Scotland earlier this month was animated by mutual enlightenment and the spirit of Edinburg’s native son, Adam Smith, whose Wealth of Nations provided some of the philosophical and psychological underpinning of the conference. Smith’s writing is often misinterpreted, and so too is Islamic finance. Under the theme ‘convergence and collaboration,’ the […]

First-time fund managers have a hard time raising capital in any area of private equity. Add in low-income customers, challenging frontier markets and a requirement for demonstrable social impact and first-time social-impact fund managers face even greater obstacles. Yet without the ability to raise their first funds, even the sharpest impact fund managers won’t be […]

The editor’s note introducing our Financing Fish Briefing No. 3: Among the glimpses I got of the changing seafood industry this month on a family visit to Deer Isle, Maine: working waterfronts, fish farms and climate change. Maine’s waters are among the fastest-warming in the world. The impact on fisheries is dramatic, including the closure […]

A t-shirt can send a message about sex trafficking. Drew Oxley thinks he can send an even stronger message by creating jobs and economic opportunity for former sex workers. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the Cincinnatti entrepreneur will source The Parative Project’s t-shirts, tote bags and banners from India via the Aruna Project, which supports women rescued from India’s […]

I’m an activist and a financial advisor. That’s not traditional, but it’s typical for us millennials. The millennial generation (born between 1980 and 2000) is the largest generation in America and is about to receive one of the largest transfers of wealth in modern history. A projected $30 trillion in financial and non-financial assets will pass from Baby […]

Has illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing met its match in Big Data? So-called IUU fishing thwarts marine restoration initiatives, degrades natural resources, abets human rights violations and leaks billions of dollars from the global economy. Pirate fishers have largely acted fearlessly because there was no way to track them or enforce law in remote, international […]

There’s a term emerging for the investment risks and opportunities ushered in by a changing climate: climate exposure. A new report from the Climate Policy Initiative, a nonprofit thinktank founded in 2009 with support from financier George Soros, and Stanford’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, backed by California billionaire Tom Steyer, surveys the landscape of […]

The multifaceted event known as Catapulta has grown organically from a loose gathering of creatives in the capital of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. This summer’s third convening, held in the spacious art and cultural space known as La Calera and a downtown cultural center, showed it has stayed true to its roots. The “Festival […]

When I first heard people making generalizations about “millennials,” I realized that I was, indeed, in that category. I embraced what I had learned as a philosophy major . “Know thyself” – or, myself as the case may be. What I learned was spot-on. Millennials, are intrigued and motivated by the potential and the power […]

From The Mint: Mumbai–Financial inclusion service provider IFMR Holdings Pvt Ltd. said on Thursday it has raised $25 million in equity from Accion International, LeapFrog Investments and impact investment fund Lok Capital. Accion is investing $12.5 million of the total, LeapFrog Investments $9 million and Lok Capital $3.5 million. The company provides access to finance […]