Impact Investing News

Sourcing fresh, high-quality fish with reliability is P.T. Bali Seafood International’s business and the fish business isn’t easy in Indonesia. So processing fish closer to where fish is caught makes sense. Access to better fish and use of better technology means Bali Seafood can pay fishermen more. And more money lets the fishermen improve their fishing gear and […]

R. Buckminster Fuller was a founding father of systems thinking. You can look it up. And you can look up an index of ideas that honor such thinking in the roster of winners of the annual Fuller Challenge, the $100,000 award given by The Buckminster Fuller Institute, which is seeking to extend the vision of the 20th-century inventor […]

This week: The investment winds are blowing for both small- and large-scale wind deals; the Kresge Foundation pledges $20 million to early childhood education in Detroit early education; and mom-and-pop shops in Peru and Venezuela may have more access to working capital to expand their businesses. Big Investment in Small-Scale Wind. United Wind has received […]

Knock, knock, knock. That’s the sound of impact investing at the door of mainstream financial markets after a banner year in which the impact investing marketplace grew to $60 billion, new firms entered the arena and important policies changes removed perceived barriers to impact investment practices. Look for impact investing to accelerate in 2016. Here’s a roundup of […]

Quick quiz: Do you know what “REDD+” stands for? You will soon. Conservation finance is sure to be one of 2016’s hot topics. Already, reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (or REDD+) is gaining momentum as a result of the Paris climate accords, at which forests were an unexpected centerpiece. As our friends at […]

Climate-change deniers seem to be shifting from “It’s not real,” to “It’s too late,” as suggested by a recent Wall Street Journal editorial. But even the Journal allowed “What will help is human invention and the entrepreneurial spirit.” So can’t we all just get on with meeting the trillion-dollar challenge and seizing the opportunities for a […]

This week: “Sapphire” invests first $10 million in LatAm financial services; Leapfrog’s assets leap over $1 billion with OPIC investment; and the Calvert Foundation backs Medical Credit Fund’s strategy for financing developing-world health clinics. “Sapphire” Fund invests $10 million in LatAm financial inclusion. The new SFRE fund has made its first investments, committing just under $10 million in […]

To meet the SDGs, the industry needs to establish lasting metrics Three of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 include: (1) ensuring availability and the sustainable management of water and sanitation; (2) ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy; and (3) promoting sustainable agriculture. But what is the role of the microfinance industry in […]

(3BL Media/Justmeans) – Social enterprises are usually more inclined to innovate and experiment than conventional business models because they are typically designed to fill a gap in existing services not likely to be addressed by private sector companies. A key challenge for early-stage social ventures is how to find relevant investors quickly and cost-effectively. This […]

A couple announcing the creation of a new legal structure a week after the birth of their first child usually does not draw global headlines. But the launch of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, LLC, continues to reverberate. In this week’s Returns on Investment Podcast*, I am joined by Imogen Rose-Smith, senior writer at Institutional Investor, […]

Ben Kneppers paused as he strolled around a music festival in Santiago, Chile. In front of him was a booth where local kids could repair damaged skateboards, making them ride-able again rather than throwing them away. Kneppers, an environmental consultant originally from Massachusetts, was impressed by the project. And as an avid boarder himself, he admired […]

This week: Omidyar’s alternative to bitcoin, ImpactAssets’ new notes and a $15 million boost for a UK social enterprise that provides transit services in disadvantaged areas of London. Omidyar Backs Banks’ Alternative to Bitcom. Secure digital currency could dramatically lower the costs of financial services for the poor, making eCurrency Mint an impact investment for Omidyar Network, the […]

It’s time to start tallying up the billions that major institutional investors are betting on the low-carbon economy. New York State’s $183.5 billion Common Retirement Fund will double its $1.5 billion sustainable investment program and commit $2 billion to a new index “that will exclude or reduce investments in companies that are large contributors to […]

When Nancy Pfund‘s DBL Partners recently closed its $400 million third fund, ImpactAlpha wrote, “Want to spot the next Tesla? Watch DBL Partners.” In her podcast interview with ImpactAlpha, Pfund discusses new investments from Tanzania (Off Grid Electric) to San Francisco (Advanced Microgrid Solutions). Hint: Advanced Microgrid is the largest customer of Tesla’s new PowerPack […]

Celebrity Investors Back Pay-As-You-G0 Solar in Africa. The Kenyan pay-as-you-go solar energy venture M-Kopa has pulled in $19 million in new financing from celebrity investors. The investment was led by Generation Investment Management, an investment firm founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and his partner David Blood. Sir Richard Branson and the Case Foundation […]

Bill Gates and 30 other innovators have signed up to support the Breakthrough Energy Coalition to fill a very important gap in clean energy – early commercialization. The challenge with Gates’s announcement is that while he and other are filling a real need, it is not the most pressing need and certainly not all that […]

A new crop of billionaire activists are signaling that they’re going to use all the tools at their disposal to tackle challenges from climate change to income inequality. Those tools include not only grants and advocacy, but high-impact private investments in companies, funds and high-leverage mechanisms such as loan guarantees and first-loss protections for commercial investors. The […]

Bill Gates is raising the stakes at this week’s global climate conference in Paris, with an expected announcement of a multi-billion dollar fund for clean energy research and development. According to ClimateWire, Gates and other billionaires will make the pledge as part of an effort to secure a commitment from India to carbon-reduction goals. That is a […]

The tipping point toward sustainability as a truly compelling investment thesis won’t come until pension funds and other institutional investors start to write checks of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. That day may already have come, says Dave Chen, CEO of Equilibrium Capital in Portland, Ore., which counts pension funds as investors […]

Social enterprise is flourishing throughout the Commonwealth. To document the entrepreneurs and investors who are fueling this growth, the British Council has commissioned a set of social enterprise landscape maps of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Ghana The Council’s Global Social Enterprise Programme has tapped Ennovent and ANDE to map the size and scale of the social enterprise sector in India. […]

Purchasing power. Portfolio power. Philanthropic power. Political power. and ‘preneur power. Geri Stengel, president of Ventureneer, a digital media and market research company, has a good piece on Forbes.com rounding up the many ways consumers, investors, philanthropists, citizens and, yes, entrepreneurs can both harness and help the growing power of women and girls. Finance can impact issues as […]

(3BL Media/Justmeans) – The environmental footprint of global companies has an economic cost that affects their valuations and competitiveness. The risk of environmental damage increases when these companies have a substantial presence in emerging markets. Even institutional investors with significant exposure to emerging markets may have liabilities for unsustainable operations in the developing world. The […]

Mid-November seems to be season for new impact funds. TOMS launches social enterprise fund. “Buy one-get one” poster child TOMS has started its own fund for social start ups. The popular canvas shoe maker seeded the fund with capital it raised by selling 50 percent of company to Bain Capital last year. Bain answered some of the […]

Impact investing talent is in demand as family offices and wealth advisors build teams to respond to their clients’ demand for impactful investment opportunities. The latest hire:  Stephanie Cohn Rupp, who will become director of impact investing for Threshold Group, a $3 billion multi-family office with offices in Seattle, Philadelphia and Gig Harbor, Wash. Rupp is […]

Erika Karp is an accidental “sustainability” investor. As managing director and head of global sector research at UBS Investment Bank, she already was used to asking executives questions about supply chains, political risk and financial controls. Those kind of questions are at the core of ESG — for environmental, social and governance –investing. “It is […]

The Bertha Centre for Social Innovation an Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Town has released the third edition of its African Investing for Impact Barometer, a compelling snapshot of strategies deployed in Kenya, South Africa, and (for the first time) Nigeria, to combine financial returns with positive impact on society and the environment. These […]

Green Money Journal’s November 2015 Issue   Investing With Her By Gloria Nelund, Chairman & CEO of TriLinc Global, LLC Fixing a Flaw in the Financial Sector by Geeta Aiyer, president & founder of Boston Common Asset Mgmt Why Investing in Women Pays Off By Leslie Samuelrich, President of Green Century Capital Management Responsible Investing Provides […]

There is an old Portuguese saying that you cannot expect the sun to shine on the threshing floor while it rains in the turnip fields. Some would apply the saying to impact investing to argue investments can’t simultaneously deliver market-rate returns and measurable social impact. The harder investors pursue social goals in sectors where commercial […]