"This document describes our development of an impact management approach, which we define as the management of assets in order to meet explicit impact goals (alongside financial goals). It is primarily intended for existing or prospective impact investors – although we hope the logic can also be relevant for other practitioners engaged in philanthropy and sustainability, in the interests of coordinating the various approaches to creating societal impact."
"This report outlines impact investors' approaches to achieving responsible exits, drawing insights from interviews with more than 30 investors and entrepreneurs and a review of existing resources on the topic. Four case studies of various exit methods as applied to investments in a natural gas conversion company, a microfinance institution, land conservation, and a microinsurance provider highlight the various effective practices and lessons that investors have discovered when working with investees and co-investors to align capital structures, buyers, and business models to ensure continued impact post-exit."
"Entrepreneurs are key actors in the transformation of low-income societies characterized by low productivity and often subsistence self-employment into dynamic economies characterized by innovation and a rising number of well-remunerated workers. To the extent that causal links from entrepreneurship to productivity growth are at work, there is room for using policy levers to quicken the development process by improving the incentives and supportive institutions that facilitate innovation by entrepreneurs. These analytical and policy issues motivate this report, which explores the challenges faced by potential high-growth, transformational entrepreneurs in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)."
"The start-ups with the most potential to innovate and generate employment are the ones most likely to rely on capital provided by outside investors. Several institutional developments including the rise of business accelerators, angel groups, and startup competitions, have meant that founders seeking this type of capital increasingly pitch their business ideas to investors in group settings, raising the question of whether the order in which ideas are pitched affects outcomes. Research on order effects in other competitive environments indicates that judges often have high expectations and calibrate their evaluations to the lower average performance of competitors at the beginning of competition, making it difficult for those going early to do as well as those performing later. We test empirically whether this calibration effect is also present for efforts by founders to pitch investors by conducting a field experiment. Entrepreneurs participating in elevator pitch competitions were randomly assigned the position in which they pitched. We find evidence of this calibration effect: investor-judges expressed substantially lesser interest in pursuing investment in the first and second ventures pitched to them."
"In this study, we evaluate the effect of innovation promotion programs administrated by the Colombian Innovation Agency (COLCIENCIAS). The evaluation focuses on programs that provide financial incentives for research and development (R&D)-matching grants and contingent loans-and encourage the formation of linkages among firms, universities, and other public research organizations. We use longitudinal firm-level data and adopt a fixed effects identification strategy to control for potential selection biases. The findings show that COLCIENCIAS financial incentives have increased labor productivity as a result of gains in total factor productivity (TFP) due to product diversification and, to a lesser extent, of capital intensification."
"This report is part of a wider study that aims to unpack the contribution of Gender Lens Investing in women’s economic empowerment, and builds on the existing literature on the understanding of the finance gap for women-owned enterprises in developing countries. It is based on insights gathered from 200+ women entrepreneurs across Kenya, Rwanda, India and Indonesia. While analysing the factors affecting access to finance for women entrepreneurs, the report touches upon its effect on their lives in terms of impact on their agency, bargaining power, ability to challenge patriarchal attitudes, and financial independence, through examples. The report posits a segmentation framework to bring out the differentiated characteristics, needs and challenges of women-owned businesses businesses."
"Nos últimos 10 anos do investimento de impacto no Brasil, temos observado um desenvolvimento significativo do tema. Este estudo do setor no Brasil revela um significativo crescimento do mercado. Dezenove dos maiores investidores de impacto brasileiros pesquisados, incluindo gestores de fundos, bancos, fundações, empresas familiares e outros, esperam dedicar 40% a 50% mais capital ao investimento de impacto em 2014, em comparação com 2013."
"During the past 10 years of impact investing in Brazil, we have observed a significant development in the impact investing space.
This market study of the impact investing sector in Brazil reveals significant market growth. Nineteen of Brazil's largest impact investors, including fund managers, banks, foundations, family offices and others surveyed expect to commit 40% to 50% more capital to impact investments in 2014 compared to 2013."
"En septiembre de 2020, la Red Aspen de Emprendedores para el Desarrollo (ANDE por sus siglas en inglés) publicó un estudio titulado “Inversión de Impacto en América Latina”, que examina las tendencias en la región durante 2018 -2019. A continuación se muestra un enfoque sobre América Central, que utiliza datos del informe completo para resaltar tendencias clave en países centroamericanos, durante este período de dos años."
"Este informe pretende captar las peculiaridades del sector de inversión de impacto en América Latina durante los dos últimos años, basándose en una muestra de los inversionistas en la región. Mediante información a nivel institucional y a nivel transacción de estos inversionistas, se ofrece un retrato de dónde y cómo se está asignando capital, e identifica los retos que enfrenta el ecosistema. Si bien abarca la región entera, el informe se enfoca en los tres mercados principales de la región: Brasil, México y Colombia."