Collaborating to deliver superior returns
Impact investing can be defined as “investments made into companies, organizations, vehicles and funds with the intent to contribute to measurable positive social, economic and environmental impact alongside financial returns.”
Impact investing adds a second objective to managing an investment portfolio. In addition to aiming for financial returns, the impact investor also aims to achieve positive impact on targeted social, economic, or environmental goals.
IFC’s Operating Principles for Impact Management describe the essential features of managing investment funds with the intent to contribute to measurable positive social or environmental impact, alongside financial returns. This goes beyond asset selection that aligns investment portfolios with impact goals (for example, the SDGs), to requiring a robust investment thesis of how the investment contributes to the achievement of impact.
Capria has been practicing impact management since its inception in 2015 and now has joined 59 other investors to adopt the Operating Principles for Impact Management – a newly built market standard for investors who aim to generate positive impact along with strong financial returns in a disciplined and transparent way.
“As investors in emerging market venture capital and private equity funds, we apply global best practices of impact and ESG management in order to increase the resilience and scaled impact of our portfolio. This mainly involves end-to-end impact management and evaluation led by our proprietary tool, Capria Quantum.”
Capria Quantum is a comprehensive capabilities evaluation tool that benchmarks impact investors across eight categories and nearly 100 sub-categories. The findings can be used to develop a plan with corresponding actions that will accelerate an investment firm’s growth and overall capability. The tool is based on Capria Partners’ 40+ years of experience in investing both in Silicon Valley and in global emerging markets. It further integrates the learnings from Capria’s continuous evaluation of more than 600 fund managers from around the world.
Early stage venture fund Unitus Ventures said its 24 portfolio companies impacted over 12.2 million bottom-of-the-pyramid lives in 2020 – an increase of 34 per cent from 8.9 million in 2019. The cumulative revenue of the portfolio companies improved by
Angel Ventures will focus on addressing gaps in financial inclusion, food security and access to education and information in the Pacific Alliance region
Global investment firm Capria Ventures makes first investment into the MENA region
The pandemic has affected the financial sector as well. Fund managers are finding it hard to raise money for a first or final close; those who have dry powder face the challenge of allocating it wisely, and investors in funds have to decide if they will look into new teams or go with the ones known pre-Covid-19.
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