Different interpretations of new data on UK social impact investment market sizing tell a range of different stories. This week's view from the Pioneers Post newsroom.
From farm data that's easier to trace, to more efficient 'smart contracts', to using tokens to raise funds from a range of investors – blockchain can help overcome some of the barriers to growth in impact investing.
Research initiative will look to bring market to “next level of sophistication” to get “better and better” at allocating capital where it matters most.
OPINION: Social investors are way ahead of the curve when it comes to understanding the potential of private capital to ‘level up’ the UK. Sarah Forster argues that now is the time to scale by sharing their place-based lens with institutional investors.
Research identifies £16bn in local government pension funds which could immediately switch into “place-based impact investments” to transform local economies.
Impact investment in Latin America should accelerate with speed and forcefulness, says Mexico’s Rodrigo Villar. The region’s social entrepreneurs have enormous potential, but urgent social and environmental problems to solve.
Covid-19 has highlighted the fact that many common forms of social investment are inflexible and have failed the social enterprises they seek to support, says Ben Smith, head of social investment at Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. But being patient and flexible is not without its challenges.
Where are the angels? Equity and ‘equity-like’ investment is a key growth tool for many social ventures but the impact investing community has failed to build trust, demand or the right products, new research suggests.
At the EVPA annual conference in The Hague, attended by the Queen of the Netherlands, the membership organisation marked its 15th anniversary with a call to "investors for impact" to commit to 10 principles guiding their actions.
