Impact Investing 2.0: The Way Forward

Impact investing continues to capture the world’s imagination. In the past few years, we’ve seen the industry endorsed by some of our biggest financial institutions, taken up by G8 leaders, and receive repeated coverage in major newspapers.

But for every pioneer blazing a path forward in impact investing, there are many others waiting at the sidelines.They have indicated they need more robust data about the field’s track record. Equally if not more important, they are waiting for a clear vision of what success looks like. What reasonable combinations of social and financial returns can be expected in diverse segments of the industry?

It is for this reason that Impact Investing 2.0 represents a major step forward for the industry. The twelve funds profiled herein work in vastly different sectors, from microfinance in India to sustainable property in the UK, and have accordingly pursued very different investment strategies and approaches to social impact.Their success across such a broad set of parameters offers many lessons for the industry and beyond.