Despite surging interest in impact investing, the impact investment market remains fragmented. Impact Agora joined Building Bridges to discuss this phenomenon across the Swiss market. As part of the event, we were joined by Mariana Christen Jakob from SEIF and Marlene Hormes from AlphaMundi to highlight whether digital ecosystems could help to drive capital into the impact investing space.
What to consider
Information asymmetry: Knowing how to create a connection between impact projects, capital and investors is a continuous challenge.
Building trust: As many financial institutions are new to impact investing, their network of trusted partners is immature. For the sector to thrive, we need to move the needle on matching opportunities with capital, particularly from mainstream financial players.
Ensuring high standards: To ensure the quality of deal flow and reduce greenwashing, we cannot think of impact as simply ‘doing something good.’ It needs to be driven by due diligence, tangible measures, and accurate reporting.
“People are doing a great job in originating and getting companies investment-ready, but often finding that capital is difficult. Identifying family offices that are interested, knowing who would be interested in co-investing, those things become a challenge. This is where a digital ecosystem comes into play.”
- Damian Payiatakis, Head of Sustainable and Impact Investing at Barclays
Is technology enough?
Technology will play a key role in the sharing of opportunities with investors through better data and insight. However, it isn’t a solution on its own. As much as technology allows us to connect, that personal relationship needed to build trust between parties won’t disappear.
To connect new financial players and early adopters, community engagement is vital. It has played a pivotal role in brokering relationships between institutions beyond their traditional network.
About Building Bridges
Building Bridges is a collaborative effort for advancing sustainable finance in Switzerland and around the globe.
In 2021, they hosted Building Bridges Week, where more than 1400 Swiss and international participants from the finance sector, NGOs, academia, governments, and international organisations got together. Throughout the week, three key, cross-cutting themes were tackled:
Impact and Transparency
Supply-Demand Mismatch
Fintech for SDGs
Find out more about Building Bridges Week and download the 2021 Summary below.