The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG), which is an independent global steering group trying to catalyze impact investment , hosted its 4th annual Impact Summit in New Delhi, bringing together hundreds of impact leaders from more than 50 countries to mobilize the power of impact. Social and environmental impact are becoming an integral part of decision-making at businesses, governments and even individual consumers.
The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice.
The current global impact capital base of $230 billion is growing rapidly, but the world needs an estimated $2.5 trillion annually to attain the SDGs by 2030. The summit explored the role that impact investing can play in helping the world achieve this. The summit brought together close to 900 attendees from 54 countries with some prominent thought leaders like Ratan Tata and Al Gore to urge the investment community to take into account our impact on the planet. It also saw the addition of countries like Chile, Bangladesh, New Zealand and South Africa as members thereby taking the total number of countries to 21.
“When it comes to how we invest, there is an exciting shift underway, one that takes the current thinking about financial risk and return and adds a third dimension—impact—that measures positive outcomes for society and the environment. Under this new financial model, social impact matters just as much as a company’s bottom line,” said Sir Ronald Cohen, GSG founder and chair.
“One of the biggest gaps in the impact investment ecosystem was that bulk of this existing investment coming into India is all equity. There is very little debt. We thought that to truly galvanize India impact investing ecosystem, we need to make sure there is a long-term affordable debt in all stages, from venture debt, to growth debt, that can further catalyze the economy,” said Amit Bhatia, GSG CEO.
The summit also saw the launch of two wholesale impact funds - India Impact Fund of Funds and the India Education Outcomes Fund along with the launch of Social Finance India (SF-IND) and first three of its Directors- Rajiv Lall, Ashish Dhawan, and, Vikram Gandhi. Rajiv Lall will Chair the initiative. SF- IND will be a new Section 8 nonprofit intermediary which will galvanize the Indian impact investment space.
The India Education Outcomes Fund (IEOF) is looking to attract $700m - $1- billion of investment to improve educational outcomes by supporting initiatives across India. it is the first fund of its kind in education., while the IIFF will be a $1-billion pool of equity and debt funds to finance impact enterprises focused on social and environmental impact. The IIFF will align itself with India's own social and environmental goals and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and will be incubated by Social Finance India, GSG and UNSIF.
Next year’s Impact Summit will be in Santiago, Chile on 7-9 November 2019. The 2020 Impact Summit will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa
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This is great news for us at Strat!gos. It opens up a plethora of exciting opportunities related to impact investing, results based financing and achieving the SDGs across the globe. Interested to know more? Write to us, and follow us on social media.
