Impact Investing Summit 2017
26 October 2017 at 8:00 am
The 2017 Impact Investment Summit in Sydney in November is the peak gathering of Asia Pacific’s impact investment community, convening active investors and those exploring the development of an impact investment strategy.
Over the course of three days the summit is designed to foster knowledge sharing, build relationships and inspire greater commitment to deploying capital for social and environmental impact.
This year our focus is on activating and accelerating. Bringing the investor community together, to learn from international luminaries, each other and to share knowledge we aim to activate new players, deals, and product, and accelerate the leading edge work in the region.
Australia’s Treasurer, Scott Morrison, and Foreign Affairs Minister, Julie Bishop, will both address the summit, in addition to the twenty international speakers and forty local panelists featuring in the stellar line-up.
It’s been a shared problem between Impact Investment Summit Asia Pacific attendees for the last two years: a problem of connecting – to the right people, product and deals at the right time.
How do investors find the opportunities they are looking for to advance their impact goals, to deliver the social and environmental outcomes they seek? Where do you start, what if you’re new to impact investing, who can you trust and how do you learn from fellow investor activity in the space?
The impact investment landscape in Australia is still relatively small. In recent years we’ve seen a growing interest and engagement by both federal and state governments, diverse new players and a growing base of not-for-profits, social enterprises, NGOs and social businesses interested in becoming impact investment ready.
Despite this burgeoning activity, many investors and investees have struggled to learn about deals, identify opportunities, resource themselves to make better decisions around entering the impact investment market or to extend their footprint.
Following the success of the 2016 Impact Investment Summit we dedicated funds to supporting the Social Impact Hub to develop the Impact Investing Hub, a digital platform that aims to connect potential investors, investees, and intermediaries in the Australian impact investing ecosystem.
The Hub is a centralised repository of investor, investee and deal information, importantly mapping the key players in the ecosystem, the deals that have taken place to date and now contains a dynamic current deals platform that is now live!
The aim is simple: to support the growth of the Australian impact investing community by providing a platform to educate, inspire, and connect players that either exist in the space or wish to learn more about the sector. By offering the opportunity for investors to connect with investment opportunities and stimulating awareness of the sector, the Hub hopes to encourage the movement of capital towards social impact and help finance solutions to some of our most challenging social issues.
The Live Deals Platform is a valuable tool to search and find product and collaborative opportunities. It is a first in the Australian impact investing sector, we are so proud to be a supporter of this incredible initiative.
If you are an investor, visit the library to view the large variety of equity and debt investments that are seeking investment. If you are aware of additional deals open for investment, please spread the word, especially in the next week before the site is officially launched. Issuers can submit deals here.
The Past Deals Map is a great discovery tool, highlighting investees, the type of capital invested (debt, equity or a hybrid), and the investors for each deal.
If you don’t know much about impact investing, here’s a great illustrated explanation produced by Digital Storytellers, you’ll find this and other wonderful resources at impactinvestinghub.com.au.
Among many players, the Impact Investing Hub initiative and the annual gathering at the Impact Investment Summit Asia Pacific indicates we have made very fertile ground for a movement to take flight.
If you want to meet the people behind these initiatives, and become part of a transformational groundswell then don’t miss the next Summit – there will be enough transactional know-how and opportunity to satisfy and most importantly, the transformational nature of the experience is what will really put fire in your belly, and collectively inspire us on toward greater outcomes.
The 2017 Impact Investing Summit will take place on 13th and 14th November with a third optional Workshop Day on 15th November and proudly hosted by Macquarie Group.
