Private equity firms seek piece of the impact investment action
The sector is attracting big inflows — but with them come fiercer competition and closer regulatory scrutiny
To solve our greatest social and environmental challenges, we need to make more capital impact capital, and more stakeholders impact stakeholders. We teamed up with Financial Times to show that all investors can be impact investors.
FT’s special report looks at funds that put social pay-offs first — from greener energy in Nigeria to new jobs in the UK. Plus: pharma’s funding gap, biodiversity credits, and faith-based finance.
----
Impact investors seek to do good while doing well — to deploy their wealth in a way that benefits society and also generates a profit. And, though some observers question whether “social returns” can be rigorously quantified, money has still flooded in. Industry body the Global Impact Investing Network calculates that the market is now worth $1.2tn.
This growth has — in effect — turned impact investing into its own asset class, capable of attracting interest from some of the world’s largest private equity investors. In 2021, TPG, the Texas-based private equity firm, said it had raised $7.3bn for a climate-focused impact fund from backers including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and insurance company Axa.
