$9bn will be committed to impact investment in 2013

11 Jan 2013 News

Investors plan to commit $9bn to impact investments in 2013, according to J.P. Morgan’s third annual survey on the impact investment market.

Investors plan to commit $9bn to impact investments in 2013, according to J.P. Morgan’s third annual survey on the impact investment market.

The survey quizzed 99 organisations which manage $10m or more of impact investment capital and found they committed $8bn to impact investments in 2012, and planned to commit $9bn in 2013.

Over half of respondents (65 per cent) targeted “market rate returns”. Of those (35 per cent) that targeted “below market rate returns”, two-thirds qualified their targets as being “closer to market rate” and one-third qualified their target returns as “closer to capital preservation”.

The survey also looked at what stage of company development they preferred to invest. The majority (78 per cent) wanted to invest at the growth-stage of businesses, followed by venture stage (51 per cent). Only 18 per cent preferred investing at start-up stage.

Respondents identified the top challenges to the growth of the impact investment industry as being a “lack of appropriate capital across the risk/return spectrum” and “shortage of high quality investment opportunities with track record”.