Global impact investing, estimated to be valued at $715 billion, is on an upward trend as more and more private equity and venture capital firms commit to backing companies that can deliver positive social impact in addition to promising business models.
Impact investing often gets mixed up with ESG [environment, social, and government] principles. Both aim for sustainable business and investments, but with a slight distinction.
“ESG is how you operate [a business]. For example, a garment manufacturer that has good labour and environmental policies. Meanwhile, impact investing is more than that; it’s what you sell,” said Ivan Kwong, principal at KKR & Co, during a panel discussion at the Asia PE-VC Summit 2022 titled “Values vs value: Scaling impact through private capital”.
“An example of impact investing is an education service provider targeting low-middle class in emerging economies,” Kwong continued. KKR has been integrating ESG into its investment over the past decade and has even created a dedicated role for that in 2019.
KKR’s Kwong was joined by Mahesh Joshi, head of private equity investment Asia at BlueOrchard Finance; Chik Wai Chiew, CEO and executive director, Heritas Capital; and Utari Octavianty, co-founder and chief sustainability officer of Indonesia-based fishery startup Aruna at the panel discussion.
Highlighting the various components of impact investing, Joshi said, it needs essentially three things – intent or goals, contribution, and measurements. “When you combine these three aspects, you can call yourself an impact investor,” said Joshi.
BlueOrchard offers impact investment solutions through the channel of debt and equity financing to institutions operating in emerging markets.
Measurement is an integral part of impact investing, which can be broken down into three parts. “First, you measure the target, then you measure financial return, and finally you’ll have a balanced scorecard where you’re measuring various outcomes, whether the product is effective or not,” Joshi explained.
The returns dilemma
When it comes to impact investing, investors see beyond a company’s financial metrics. They analyse how much impact a company can make on society. Businesses that can perform well in both measures will ideally create greater values for their backers in the long run, according to investors.
Nonetheless, there’s a continuous debate about whether impact investors should prioritise impact over returns. “I talked to various social enterprise stakeholders such as DBS foundation, philanthropic family offices, and we realised that we need to focus on ‘impact’ first in order to capitalise the entire impact investment ecosystem,” said Heritas Capital’s Chik Wai Chiew.
In August, the firm launched a $50-million impact fund, seeking to back 10-15 innovative and high-growth social enterprises across Asia. “Sometimes, you will reduce returns, but we want to make sure that we’re supporting the companies that have really good DNA,” Chik continued.
On the other hand, KKR’s Kwong argued that investing in commercialised mid-market companies using a private equity approach can generate very attractive returns. “We have long-term themes around climate, education, and sustainability, and we believe these [investments] will power us through and give us resiliency through pandemics, inflation periods, and even tech downturns because we’re supporting solutions that customers are willing to pay,” he said.
Get on the same page
For entrepreneurs building a business with social impact, alignment with investors is important to help them accomplish their sustainable goals and ESG metrics. At the same time, having investors with the same mindset will allow founders to sharpen their business model so they can scale up and generate good returns.
“Most of the time, the challenge for us is how can we measure an impact,” said Aruna’s Utari Octavianty. The company works with small-scale fishermen in the coastal village and connects them with global B2B markets such as US and China.
“It is crucial to have investors who act as partners so we can focus on creating a sustainable future for fishermen while still creating profit,” Octavianty added.
For founders of early-stage startups, growth is everything, but this can go hand in hand with sustainability goals. “If we see ESG as a compliance, it can be very stressful in the process [of applying ESG], but if we see it as an aspect that supports our business operations, ESG or sustainability metrics can help us grow quickly,” said Octavianty.
She cited an example of Aruna who works directly with the community through its “local heroes” or field team who help fishermen to leverage the startup’s technology and supply chain capabilities to improve their operations and product quality.
“Based on our research, fishermen who have joined our ecosystem have been able to generate higher incomes. We also provide training for women in the community so they can help with quality control and get income as well. It’s about creating social impact for the entire society,” she continued.
Ample opportunity
In SE Asia and India, there are about three million social enterprises and 40% of them are profitable, according to internal research conducted by Heritas Capital. “However, many of them are very sub-scale. “In Singapore, 90% of social enterprises earn revenue less than $1 billion,” Chik said. This translates into a huge opportunity and a large number of investable projects.
“We target a select group of social enterprises who are the emerging champions [in this segment]. If we can bring these guys to the next level, we also help communities behind the companies,” Chik continued.
While finding an opportunity in a niche sector like climate tech can be challenging, BlueOrchard’s Joshi said that there’s an advantage in doing that. “If you focus on a niche segment, it helps you to the entire investment lifecycle, from sourcing to selecting the right opportunities, portfolio management, and to the exit strategy. So while the product is difficult to find those opportunities, there is a lot more value added to that,” said Joshi.
When it comes to risk, impact investing doesn’t pose significantly different threats compared to regular investments, the panel experts added. “How we assess risks in the impact fund is the same playbook that we have employed in our private equity. Of course, we’re always mindful of the authenticity of the impact [created],” said KKR’s Kwong.
However, Chik argued that there are indeed additional risks, especially if the fund makes an investment in early-stage social enterprises. “We have to study the business risk, then we implement new technology or new business models. There are added risks related to a small size or the stage of the [business] maturity, but it does make impact investing a lot more interesting,” Chik said.