Impact investment is an investment strategy which explicitly combines the dual objectives of financial returns as well as social good, with the underlying idea that there need not be trade offs between the two. Dedicated impact funds still represent a small minority of total private equity investors today. The still open questions in impact investment are firstly, how to measure social returns; and secondly, whether it is really possible to achieve dual returns without trade offs.
Key learning objectives:
How impact investments are structured
The context of and players in impact investment
The intersection between private equity and impact investment