NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, August 30, 2012

It looks as though The Impact Exchange Board, or the iX, a ground-breaking publicly regulated social stock exchange, has been making steady progress since it launched about a year ago.

Formed by a partnership between the Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM), which is a member of the World Federation of Exchanges, and NeXii, a social enterprise aimed at fostering impact investing, the exchange is the brainchild of Tamzin Ractliffe, a South African pioneer in the area of impact investing marketplaces. What’s particularly ambitious is that, from the word go, it’s been conceived of as a public retail marketplace, open to any investor, not only accredited ones. (I wrote about one such a social stock exchange recently. Investment Exchange Asia, based in Singapore, at least initially, is aimed at accredited investors, although that’s likely to change over time).

So far, six social enterprises have gone through the listing process and, according to Ractliffe, she’s hoping to be able to start operations in the third quarter of next year with that first group of companies, all of which are going public for the first time. ( The exchange will be able to list debt, equity and impact investment funds.) To list, companies need a clear social or environmental mission and have in place a reporting system for non-financial impact.