Analysis Firms Battling for Pole Position as Impact Investing Goes Big

Monday, January 6, 2014

“Not to mean to insult anyone,” says Paul Sanford of the private investment-management company TriLinc Global, “but it can a bit myopic.” TriLinc’s chief investment officer, he’s talking about choosing between serving financials-first and social-first impact investors. “But if you have bigger goals, and TriLinc’s goal is really to revolutionize how you invest… there’s room for all of it,” he says.

Big claims were a common theme at TBLI 2013, a sustainable finance conference held in Zurich, Switzerland, this past November. There’s a feeling that sustainable finance is on the cusp of going big, and small and large companies alike are lining up to join the race to be the one the industry will turn to for a variety of services, in areas ranging from metrics creation and impact evaluation to data collection.

Matthew Vitamente, founder of the startup Impact Venture, sees the fine line that participants draw between discussion and selling. “Everybody is pitching something,” he says. The question is, What do you have to offer?

Source: Huffington Post (link opens in a new window)

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