presents
INDIA IMPACT
INVESTMENT
CONCLAVE
15-17 Nov, 2016
Fostering a stronger
LP-GP Engagement
SESSIONS GUIDE
CAPITAL FOR IMPACT
15-17 Nov, 2016
Platinum Partners
Gold Sponsors:
Silver Sponsors:
Associate Sponsors:
Outreach Partners:
Venue Partners
Contents
Chapter I: Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 3
Chapter II: Tour to Social Enterprises.................................................................................................... 4
North India Tour ................................................................................................................................ 4
Profile of the Companies ................................................................................................................ 5
West India Tour.................................................................................................................................. 6
Profile of the companies ................................................................................................................. 7
South India Tour ................................................................................................................................. 9
Profile of the companies: .............................................................................................................. 10
Chapter III: Fireside Chats ................................................................................................................... 12
New Delhi ......................................................................................................................................... 12
Mumbai .............................................................................................................................................. 12
Bangalore........................................................................................................................................... 12
Chapter IV: Plenary Sessions ................................................................................................................ 13
Chapter V: Break Out Sessions ............................................................................................................ 17
Break Out Session I : Fund Performance , the return conundrum .................................................. 18
Break Out Session II : How much Patience, the risk return trade off ............................................ 19
Break Out Session III: Catalysing the impact investing ecosystem ................................................... 21
Chapter I: Introduction
It is our pleasure to welcome to Impact Investors Council and our first global LP-GP
Conference from 15-17 November 2016.
Impact Investors Council (IIC) is the industry association of Impact Investors in India. Impact
Investors are financial investors who invest in social enterprises to deliver social (and
environmental) impact to the poor in sectors such as Agriculture, Financial Inclusion,
Affordable Education & Healthcare, Water & Sanitation, Clean Energy, Livelihoods, etc.
Impact Investors use the power of both financial markets and social entrepreneurship to
deliver such impact. Impact investing shows us that it’s possible to build companies that
provide both social and financial returns.
IIC is hosting this 3-day, 3-city conference to allow you to have a first-hand, immersive
grassroots experience of social impact at work. The conference allows you to choose one
of three tours in North, West and South India and then join all other investors at the Grand
Finale in Gurgaon, NCR.
One and a quarter day grassroots, immersive tours to select Social Enterprises
(including meeting with Beneficiaries & Founders). There is a choice of 3 tours to
select from in North, West & South India. The social enterprises on each tour
will be announced soon (these have been nominated by IIC members and
selected by IIC to ensure fair sectoral, investor, and, stage of growth
representation)
One and a quarter day intimate, conclave in Gurgaon, NCR (TERI RETREAT)
with 3 Break-Out and 7 Plenary Sessions
A half day multi-lateral dialogue for participants from Germany, Japan, India, UK
and US (chaired by Ministers from each nation)
IIC is hosting the first of its annual India Impact Investment Conclaves, envisaged as an LPGP forum. The convention will seek to identify and debate issues that concern and impact
LPs and GPs so as to help them forge a stronger working relationship and bring a greater,
shared understanding of risk-return tradeoffs, fund performance, social impact
measurement, and other relevant issues. The first inaugural edition is therefore titled,
“Forging a stronger LP-GP relationship”.
We look forward to welcoming you and engage you in truly immersive visits and candid
dialogue like never before.
Chapter II: Tour to Social Enterprises
North India Tour
India Impact Investing Conclave
15th November 2016
NORTH INDIA
SEED
EARLY
MIDGROWTH
PREPUBLIC
TOUR
STAGE** STAGE STAGE
STAGE
LISTING
S.NO. SECTOR
I
Looking For
Series A
Series B
Series C
Series D
Listing
PE
Completed
Seed
Funding or
Angel
Round
Series A
Series B
Series C
Series D
Listing
Affordable
Education
II
Affordable
HealthCare
III
Affordable
Housing
IV
Agriculture/AgriBusiness
V
Clean Energy
VI
Financial
Inclusion
VII
VIII
IX
Avanti
Learning
Sewa
Grih Rin
Skymet
Boond
Sanitation
Skills
Development
(or Livelihoods)
Labournet
Water
The Tour guide for the North India Tour is the Asha Impact Team.
Profile of the Companies
Sewa Grih Rin (SGR): SGR was promoted by Sewa Mutual Benefit Trust in 2011 with a
purpose to convert it into housing finance company (HFC). The company aims to provide
funding to women working in informal sectors and fall in the income category of Rs 10,00020,000. The Group has raised equity funding of Rs 13.5 crore ($2.15million) from a
consortium of investors, including Acumen, AHI Capital Gateway, HDFC, HUDCO, Lok
Capital and National Housing Bank and has become operational in 2015. Though the group
has been operating in the Social sector for a long time, this entity is a recent starter.
BOOND Engineering & Development Pvt. Ltd. (Boond): Boond Engineering &
Development Pvt. Ltd. operates as a social enterprise that works for affordable clean energy
access. Boond designs solar power centres and products for rural markets such as solar
light systems, solar light bulbs, biomass gas stoves, solar AC inverter systems and solar
water pumps. Currently it has six energy hubs across districts in Rajasthan and UP, enabling
10 million people to access customised solar solutions. Incorporated in 2010, Boond was
seed funded by IIM Ahmadabad- CIIE. In 2014, the company raised Series A Investments
from OPES, Rianta and individual investors. By the end of FY 2015 Boond had implemented
projects in various sectors with installed capacity of over 1500 KW, impacting more than
100,000 individuals and many small-scale enterprises.
Avanti Learning: Founded in March 2010 by Akshay Saxena and Krishna Ramkumar as a
non- profit entity, Avanti Learning helps prepare students from low-income families for their
college entrance tests. The firm uses blended-learning content (videos, classroom activities
and testing) and classroom technology to provide IIT JEE coaching at low cost across India.
Since 2013, the enterprise has grown from a small batch of hundred odd students to close
to 3000 registrations across all learning centres. The social impact of Avanti’s work has been
recognized by multiple reputed organisations and foundations. Its investors include the
Pearson Affordable Learning Fund, The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, the Draper
Kaplan Richards Foundation and Ted Dintersmith from Charles River Ventures.
Skymet: Skymet was founded in 2003 by Jatin Singh. Skymet Weather Services is the first
private sector company in India with its own prediction models for weather forecasting. It
works to achieve its specific goal of providing easily accessible weather information to Indian
farmers to improve their livelihood possibilities. In its early stages, Skymet received funding
from IIC member, Omnivore Partners. Currently, Skymet’s numerical prediction models are
used to create forecasts for 7,000 locations in 13 states across India.
Labournet started in 2006 as an initiative of Movement for Alternatives for Youth
Awareness (MAYA), a non-governmental organization based in Bangalore. In 2011, it
metamorphosed in to LabourNet as a national livelihood enabling social enterprise. In the
last eight years, it has trained more than 100,000 trainees, added 23 livelihood centers, 71
schools and provided more than 185 on-site training programmes across 25 states. Michael
& Susan Dell Foundation and Acumen, IIC Executive Council members, have invested in
LabourNet. Ansar Alam, a construction worker trained at LabourNet, says “I have become
more confident and certainly improved my livelihood as well with which I am able to take
care of my family in a better way
West India Tour
India Impact Investing Conclave
15th November 2016
SEED
STAGE*
*
EARLY
STAGE
MIDSTAGE
GROW
TH
STAGE
PRELISTIN
G
PUBLI
C
Looking For
Series A
Series B
Series C
Series D
Listing
PE
Completed
Seed
Funding or
Angel
Round
Series A
Series B
Series C
Series D
Listing
WEST INDIA
TOUR
S.N
O.
I
II
SECTOR
Affordable
Education
Affordable
HealthCare
III
Affordable
Housing
IV
Agriculture/A
gri-Business
V
Clean Energy
VI
Financial
Inclusion
VII
VIII
IX
Sanitation
Skills
Development
(or
Livelihoods)
Water
Micro
Housing
Finance
Corp. Ltd
Greenway
Appliances
Svasti
Sampurn
(E) arth
Environme
nt
Solutions
P Ltd.
Suryoday
MicroFin
ance
Profile of the companies
Sampurn (E) arth Environment Solutions P Ltd.: Sampurn(e)arth Environment
Solutions Pvt. Ltd. envisions a world where waste is transformed into utilizable resources
without exploitation of people or the planet. It is working towards breaking the non-cyclic
process of waste management, which currently involves extraction, production,
consumption and dumping or landfilling, resulting in green house gas emissions, ground
water pollution and an ever-increasing strain on natural resource. It provides end-to-end
decentralized waste management solutions for housing societies, corporate houses,
townships, school and college campuses, etc. A decentralized system saves considerable
transportation costs and eliminates the related emissions. The services of the company
include a. Waste Audit b. designing a customized Waste Management System c. installing
the Waste Management System. d. Operation and Maintenance of the system e. Enhancing
environmental awareness f. Consultancy related to above services.
Micro Housing Finance Corporation Limited: Micro Housing Finance Corporation
was established by Madhusudhan Menon, Rajnish Dhall and Nachiket Shelgikar in 2009, as
the country’s first micro mortgage provider with a focus on the informal segment. Today, it
has enabled more than 5,000 low-income families and approved 200 low cost housing
projects realizing a long standing dream and the security of owning a home. Caspian and
Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, IIC members, have invested in MHFC. They have
provided active strategic guidance and governance oversight to the company in the years
since.
Greenway Appliances: Founded in 2011, Greenway Appliances offers two types of
biomass cooking stoves—Greenway Smart Stove and Greenway Jumbo Stove. The smart
stove has a loading capacity of 25 kg and is priced at Rs 1,499 while the jumbo stove has
loading capacity of 40 kg and is priced at Rs 2,499. Acumen, a global non-profit investment
organisation focused on poverty issues, has partnered with Vikram Gandhi, founder of Asha
Impact platform to address India's developmental challenges, and Pramod Bhasin, former
CEO of Genpact, to invest $2.5 million in biomass cooking stove maker Greenway
Appliances.
Svasti Microfinance Private Limited: Svasti is an urban microfinance operation started
in October 2008 to cater to the financial needs of the low income segment of society in
Mumbai. Svasti started its operations by providing loans to Women Joint Liability Groups. It
currently offers customised loan, savings and insurance products. It aims to become a
comprehensive financial service provider to the people in the target segment. The venture
was started in August, 2008 as Svasti Foundation and later transitioned to a NBFC, Svasti
Microfinance Private Limited in October, 2010. Founded with incubation support from the
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Kotak Mahindra Investments Limited (a subsidiary of
Kotak Mahindra Bank), Svasti transformed its operations into a non-banking finance
company in September 2010 by raising Rs. 5.45 crores in its first round of equity funding
from several investors including a few members of the Mumbai Angels, India’s leading group
of angel investors. The company raised second round of capital in 2011, through its
subsidiary in Mauritius, Blue Orchard Private Equity Fund has invested INR 4.5 Crores.
Suryoday Microfinance: Headquartered in Mumbai, Suryoday is a pan-India MFI focused
on urban poor with 75 branches in 6 states across India. Suryoday Micro Finance Private
Limited is an NBFC-MFI registered with the RBI and received their NBFC-MFI license on
9th December 2013. Suryoday promoted by Mr. Baskar Babu was set up in October 2008
and started microfinance operations in April 2009 in Pune (Maharashtra). Suryoday operates
in 7 states namely in Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh
and Tamil Nadu through 145 branches with a portfolio size of INR 5,800 million as of 31st
March 2015. Key shareholders in Suryoday are Aavishkar Goodwell, Lok Capital,
International Finance Corporation (IFC), Developing World Markets (DWM), Mr. Surendra
Pai and Promoters. Promoter holds 4.5% stake in Suryoday.
South India Tour
India Impact Investing Conclave
15th November 2016
SEED
STAGE**
EARLY
STAGE
MIDSTAGE
GROWT
H STAGE
PRELISTIN
G
PUBLIC
Looking For
Series A
Series B
Series C
Series D
Listing
PE
Completed
Seed
Funding or
Angel
Round
Series A
Series B
Series C
Series D
Listing
SOUTH INDIA
TOUR
S.NO. SECTOR
I
II
Affordable
Education
Affordable
HealthCare
III
Affordable
Housing
IV
Agriculture/
Agri-Business
V
Clean Energy
VI
VII
VIII
IX
Varthana
Drishti
Eye care
Narayan
Healthcare
Barrix
Financial
Inclusion
Sanitation
Skills
Development
(or
Livelihoods)
Water
Ujjivan
Microfinance
Ruralshores
Profile of the companies:
Barrix: Barrix Agro Sciences is a venture backed by Omnivore Partners - venture capitalists
and CIIE – incubator. With a humble start in 2011, Barrix Agro Sciences Private Limited, an
innovative establishment, made its foray into the Agricultural sector to touch and
profoundly influence human lives. Eco-friendly crop protection methods are adopted and
developed by Barrix with the latest technologies after performing in-depth study and
research on products to support organic farming. This way Barrix has been able to provide
innovative and effective products to farms. With positive reviews and wide acceptance
emerging from the customers, Barrix looks at transforming pest control methodology. With
a strong supply chain and dedicated personnel the company is marching towards impacting
the society and ecology in a positive way. Besides developing products to protect fruits and
vegetables, Barrix has moved up the value chain by making plant-based organic products that
protect crops from fungi and bacteria. Besides expansion in domestic markets, it is now also
planning to tap foreign markets like the US and Europe. It expects to achieve revenue of Rs
200 crore in next five years.
Drishti Eye care: Based out of Bangalore, Drishti is a rural eye care chain with vision
centers and district hospitals in the outskirts of Bangalore and adjoining areas. Drishti offers
quality, affordable eye care services covering primary and secondary eye care in
underserved markets with an operating model that is designed to cover distributed
populations. Founded in 2011 by Kiran Anandampillai, the company currently has operations
in Devanahalli (~35 kms from Bengaluru city) and adjoining areas. With the support of Lok
Capital, a member of IIC, it has reached out to 24,800 patients, out of which 10,100 are
women. Drishti also provides its services through mobile camps in rural villages. About 88%
of the surgeries are free of cost while paid surgeries are affordably priced at INR 6000.
Drishti also runs one-year ophthalmic assistant training program that provides training to
the local population.
Varthana: Launched by Brajesh Mishra and Steve Hardgrave in 2013, Varthana provides
loans and additional support to low cost private schools and educational institutions that
serve India’s more than 400 million student-age population. Loans are typically used to
improve and expand school infrastructure, and to invest in solutions that help improve
student learning outcomes. Varthana currently serves more than 1,800 schools in 50 cities,
and has plan to extend its successful model to more than 20,000 schools throughout the
country over the next four years. The company currently operates in the states of
Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Varthana also partners with third party educational service providers to help schools access
products and services that have a beneficial impact on learning outcomes for students. It
has recently raised Rs 93 cr ($14 million) in its Series B round of financing led by new
investors, Kaizen Private Equity and Zephyr Peacock India. The existing investors,
Elevar Equity, LGT Venture Philanthropy and Omidyar Network have also
participated in the current round.
Rural Shores: Headquartered in Bangalore, Rural Shores is the largest chain of Rural
Business Process Outsourcing Centers in India. It was founded by Murali Vullangati, who
often dreamt of integrating rural India, into the mainstream knowledge economy. He setup
Rural Shores as a rural BPO in October 2008. Lok Capital, an IIC member, was an early
investor in RuralShores (2009) and supported the growth of the company through follow-on
investments and provided operational and strategic support. RuralShores now offers rural
BPO and KPO services with 2500 employees in 17 centres, 10 states, across 45 processes
and more than 30 blue chip clients.
Ujjivan Microfinance: Founded by Samit Ghosh in 2005, Ujjivan is headquartered in
Bangalore with offices in New Delhi, Kolkata and Pune. It has gross managed assets of more
than Rs 3,100 crore. It follows joint liability group lending and individual lending models
and has a network of 423 branches across the country in 21 states and three union
territories. In 2015, the firm had raised Rs 265 crore ($40 million) from a bunch of anchor
investors including Edelweiss-controlled hedge fund Forefront Capital at the upper end of
the Rs 207-210 price band. The firm also roped in a number of mutual fund and asset
management arms of insurers as anchor investors. Ujjivan becomes the second microfinance
institution, after Equitas, with in-principle approval to launch a small finance bank to go
public. The firm came out with an Initial Public Offering in April 2016.
Narayan Healthcare: Narayana Healthcare operates a chain of multispecialty, tertiary and
primary healthcare facilities. It has a strong presence in Karnataka and eastern India as well
as an emerging presence in western and central India. Its first facility was established in
Bengaluru wuth 225 operational beds and has since grown to 23 hospitals, 7 heart centers,
and a network of primary care facilities across India and 1 hospital in Cayman Islands
totalling to 5347 beds. The entity came out with an Initial Public Offering in December 2015.
The INR 613-crore IPO was oversubscribed at least around eight times on the bourses
by the final day.
Chapter III: Fireside Chats
India Impact Investing Conclave
15th November 2016
Time : 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm
New Delhi
Venue :
Vivanta by Taj,
Gurgaon
Featured Speaker
TBA
Mumbai
Venue :
Taj Santa Cruz,
Mumbai
Featured Speaker
TBA
Bangalore
Venue :
Taj Vivanta
MG Road , Bangalore
Featured Speaker
Rohini Nilekani interviewed by Anuja Master Bose
Chapter IV: Plenary Sessions
India Impact Investing Conclave
16th -17th November 2016
Plenary Sessions
November 16, 2016
1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Panel 1
Introductory Session
November 16, 2016
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Host Perspective- India: An Impact Nation
November 16, 2016
8:00 pm – 9:00 pm
The LP Dilemma: To allocate or not to allocate
November 16, 2016
9:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Return vs. Impact: A false choice
November 17, 2016
8:00 am – 9:00 am
An Asset Class? What’s unique?
November 17, 2016
9:00 am – 10:00 am
Market Return vs Muted Return: To each his own
Panel 2
Panel 3
Panel 4
Panel 5
Panel 6
November 17, 2016
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Panel 7
November 17, 2016
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Philanthropy to impact investing: A Billionaires Tale
The future of Impact Investing
Panel 1
India an impact nation
India has over five decade’s history in Impact Investing, much before the word was coined.
Dr. Kurien’s Amul (1945), Ela Bhatt’s SEWA Bank (1972), Dr. V’s Aravind Eye Care (YEAR),
John Bisell’s Fab India (YEAR) are all early examples which show that India was the original
home of modern social enterprises. With world’s most scaled social enterprises- 3 listed
companies in Financial Inclusion (Ujjivan, Equitas, SKS), a listed hospital chain in affordable
health care (Narayan Health), India is well on its way on becoming an Impact Nation. Across
all our Priority Sectors, the profit with purpose businesses are using markets to solve
problems of access and choice for the poor. So what defines an Impact Nation?
• Big Underserved Market
• Affordable Product/Service Business Models
• Inspired Social Entrepreneurs
• Access to Impact Capital
• Favourable Regulatory Environment
• Vibrant Social Entrepreneurial Eco-System
Panel 2
The LP Dilemma: To allocate or not to allocate
Impact investment' - an embryonic market in which investors aim to achieve positive social
or environmental gains - is beginning to emerge as a separate asset class. The most
comprehensive look to date at the way philanthropic foundations, private individuals and
more traditional investors are seeking to do social good with their investments rather than
merely ensure a financial return. Defining impact investing as a separate asset class is most
likely to lead to the growth of assets, as observed in the cases of hedge funds, private equity
and commodities. It is a nascent industry and the fund sizes are small as compared to the
traditional investing. The perception in private equity is that larger funds perform better and
whether the same holds true in impact investing. But as the industry evolves over time, the
impact funds are expected to get more allocations from the investors. The LP dilemma of
whether to allocate the funds for impact funds or not is expected to swing in favour of
impact funds.
Panel 3
Return vs. Impact: A false choice
It often feels like a choice: Use investments to seek outsized market returns or to drive
positive social impact. But impact investing has brought these two worlds together. The
three recent Indian social enterprise IPOs (Narayan Health, Equitas and Ujjivan)
resoundingly prove the Impact Investing thesis that we can build scalable social businesses
which can deliver financial returns along with social impact and attract mainstream capital.
So we hope that the Hype vs Reality discussion can now be put to rest and leading LPs can
hold GPs to similar high standards of finding and supporting world class social
entrepreneurs. But there is sufficient data now to prove that impact and return are not
mutually exclusive and these could be achieved at the same time.
Panel 4
An Asset Class? What’s unique?
Impact investments have begun to carve out a niche within the investment portfolios of a
wide range of investor types, but does that make them an asset class? Some believe it does.
Defining impact investing as an asset class within the alternative investments space is most
likely to lead to the growth of assets, as observed in the cases of hedge funds, private equity
and commodities. It certainly requires a different set of investment/risk management skills.
Just as impact investments combine financial and social aims, the impact investor must be
skilled in both investment management and the management of socially/environmentallydriven endeavors. The best impact investors will have a deep understanding of the social and
political dynamics that will influence investment outcomes, especially for investments into
companies that provide basic goods and services to underserved market segments. But
despite all this, do we still need to classify it as a separate asset class. Opinion diverges on
whether impact investments are a separate asset class or an investment approach.
Investment in different asset classes could thus be considered impact investing if, as part of
its mission, the investing entity intentionally attempts to create positive social and/or
environmental change as well as financial returns as its primary business.
Panel 5
Market Return vs Muted Return: To each his own
Impact investment has brought two very divergent worlds together – return on investment
and social impact. But different funds might have different expectations from the
investments. It seems clear the term impact investing not only resonates with an important
segment of the investor community, but is developing a real track record of successful
performance— both financially and in creating advancements in addressing critical “off
balance sheet” issues of concern to investors. But in the process of achieving the impact,
are the returns getting muted. Some would argue that if returns are the only criteria, some
of the social causes would never get any funding.
Panel 6
Philanthropy to impact investing: A Billionaires Tale:
For many years philanthropy and investing have been thought of as separate disciplines, one
championing social change, the other financial gain. The idea that the two approaches could
be integrated in the same deals in essence, delivering a financial return while doing good
struck most philanthropists and most investors as far-fetched till a few years back. But this is
not the thought any more. In today’s context philanthropy appears to be a limited form of
giving because it can-not sustain itself. Philanthropy also doesn’t do a very good job of
measuring the actual impact of all those hard-earned money. But if we apply market-like
logic to the philanthropic donations, the return generated can be reused over and over
again to compound the impact. It allows donors greater freedom and flexibility. They can
test innovative ways to achieve a financial return as they seek impact. Both nonprofit and
for-profit organizations can be supported.
Panel 7
The future of impact investing
Impact Investing is transitioning from its initial phase of proving the concept through deals to
a more mature phase in which we will have to muster a social movement to build new
systems. These include new regulations and policies, new approaches to leadership, that
celebrate collaboration and execution – not just vision and charisma, new philanthropic
leadership that puts all foundation assets to work for mission, and new capital market
products and services . We also have to overcome the stubbornness of the bifurcated mind.
Apart from the above systemic challenges, impact investing in the coming years will
collaborate effectively with government for credit enhancement and with donors for
substantial grant support. No one piece can work alone, each one is essential in the value
chain. Innovative products like Impact Bonds can help unify the industry.
Chapter V: Break Out Sessions
India Impact Investing Conclave
16th -17th November 2016
November 16, 2017
•
03.30 pm – 05.00 pm
Rooms
Theme
Topics
•
Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
Fund Performance , the return conundrum
Is it Time and
Do return
Optimum size of Can we attach a
there enough data expectations build
impact funds in
Monetary Value
for impact fund
in adequate
relation to cost
to the nonreturns to be
cushion for
and return
monetary impact
benchmarked?
emerging market
expectations
created by the
Locally or Globally
challenges
fund? Is it worth
exploring?
05.30 pm – 07.00 pm
Rooms
Theme
Topics
Breakout I
Breakout II
Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
How much Patience- the Risk Return trade-off
Experience on
What
Are impact
Impact Investors
Optimum
constitutes a
Investors more
tend to be early
Holding Period, responsible exit?
conservative on
stage investors, is
By Industry
both entry & exit
this likely to change
valuations? Is that
in future.
Counter Intuitive
November 17, 2016
•
11.00 am – 01.00 pm
Rooms
Topics
Option A
Breakout III
Option B
Option C
Option D
Catalysing the impact investing ecosystem
Standardising Social Demystifying the
Role of
Use of technology
Impact
impact investment
Government
to measure
MeasurementLegally
impact in a
Lessons from
significantly
Microfinance
better way?
Break Out Session I : Fund Performance , the return conundrum
Does impact investing necessarily entails a financial sacrifice or the social impact created
needs to be monetised to capture the real return? Is it too ambitious to expect both the
social and the financial return?
Parallel Session 1: Is it Time and is there enough Data for impact fund returns
to be benchmarked? Locally or Globally
While the impact investing industry is in an early stage of development, it is poised for
growth. One of the chief barriers to industry advancement remains a paucity of robust
research on financial performance. Credible data on risk and return can help both existing
and future impact investors better identify strategies that best suit their desired social,
environmental, and financial criteria. Some of the questions which we need addressing are is
it the right time for establishing benchmarks for the industry or should be wait for some
more years? Is the data available enough for setting up the benchmarks? Is it representative
of the entire gamut of investments?
Parallel Session II: Do return expectations build in adequate cushion for
emerging market challenges
Impact investors are increasingly turning to emerging economies because this is where the
majority of social problems exist. But emerging economies come with their own set of
challenges. Are the return expectations higher, from these markets considering the
challenges and therefore risks are also high.
Parallel Session III: Optimum size of impact funds in relation to cost and return
expectations
Is there an optimum size for the impact funds in relation to cost and return expectations? Is
bigger always better because it leads to diversification and investments therefore can be split
in different industries and different stages of growth.
Parallel Session IV: Can we attach a Monetary Value to the non-monetary
impact created by the fund? Is it worth exploring?
When we talk in context of impact investing, the thought of measuring the impact comes to
the mind immediately. A further challenge to the industry lies in quantifying the actual
impact of the investments? If the industry wants to distinguish itself from the regular venture
capital or private equity investments, the measurement of this impact is a key differentiator.
Is impact measurable in monetary terms? How can we attach a monetary value to the
impact created? Does this vary from industry to Industry?
Break Out Session II : How much Patience, the risk return trade off
Impact investing provides investors opportunities to generate social and environmental value
through their investable assets. Over the past decade, limited partners have increased
capital allocations to socially driven private equity funds. In turn, these funds have increased
investment in mission-driven portfolio companies with the goal of increasing the size of their
revenues and assets, and the scope of their impact. As funds mature, the general partners
(GPs) who manage them must find liquidity in their portfolio(s) in order to provide returns
to their limited partner (LPs) investors. For impact fund managers, the pressure to find
liquidity may be particularly pronounced since the impact industry remains nascent and
relatively unproven. In fact, the field is so new that critics and supporters see every exit as a
proof point. Given the pressure to find liquidity, GPs may face trade-offs between
maximizing financial returns and ensuring the preservation of portfolio companies’ missions,
and therefore, many wonder if fund managers will sacrifice mission in exchange for financial
returns
Parallel Session I: Experience on Optimum Holding Period, By Industry:
While this may vary from industry to industry and company to company, but are there any
benchmarks to be achieved before we can say that the optimum holding period has been
achieved. Each institution, and thus each exit transaction, has its own unique dynamics.
Starting point for us are the interests of the investee. Is the time ripe for the financial
institution to bring in a new strategic investor?
Parallel Session II: What constitutes a responsible exit?
As impact investing attracts interest from a growing array of active and potential investors,
it’s a good time to ask what happens at the time of exiting an impact transaction – not just
what happens at entry. If impact investors decide to deploy their capital with the intention
of generating positive development, social, environmental outcomes alongside financial
returns, how do they ensure they are meeting these objectives on the way out? And are
they being responsible at the time of exiting when they are?
Parallel Session III: Are impact Investors more conservative on both entry &
exit valuations? Is that Counter Intuitive
Investing for impact does not necessarily lead to lower financial returns. But some investors
while expecting a double bottom –line necessarily look at a lower financial return. Is it ok to
be conservative in keeping valuations low both at entry and exit or is it counter –intuitive
and hampers the achievement of the full potential.
Parallel Session IV: Impact Investors tend to be early stage investors, is this
likely to change in future.
In most businesses, the early stage is considered the more risky because the business model
is not established and the success of the venture is not known. More so in the case of
impact investing because the business idea might or might not fetch the social and financial
returns envisaged. Impact investing so far is seen as an early stage investment because once
the business model is established, it attracts other investors too.
Break Out Session III: Catalysing the impact investing ecosystem
Parallel Session I: Standardising Social Impact Measurement- Lessons from
Microfinance
Social performance management (SPM) is the process of managing an organization to
achieve a social mission. It is a management style that puts customers at the center of all
strategic and operational decisions. SPM begins with a clear social strategy, which is then
carried out by the board, management, and employees. SPM has been instrumental in
measuring impact for the microfinance industry. But we need to learn from the key takeaways this philosophy had for the microfinance industry. Some of the lessons learnt are
secure management and board buy-in, take employees and clients feedback, Talk about the
SPM horizontally and vertically in the organisation etc.
Parallel Session II: Demystifying the impact investment legally
Since impact investing is in nascent stages, the industry terminology is loosely defined and
not consistent across geographies and impact sectors. The debate onwhat constitutes an
impact investment and how social entrepreneurs are different from business entrepreneurs
is open, and the industry vocabulary is still evolving. As the industry matures and consensus
starts to emerge amongst different ecosystem players, the existing legal frameworks will
have to be re-examined and modified to ensure that impact investors and enterprises are
appropriately represented and the legal framework facilitates the development of the
industry
Parallel Session III: Role of Government
Governments, through various welfare schemes and programmes, have been the largest
funders of social development projects across the globe. The potential of social enterprises
can, therefore, be fully explored only with active participation of government in various
capacities: as the facilitator, consumer, investor, regulator etc .It is important to examine the
best practices from across the globe and discuss the different ways in which governments
can support the development of impact investing industry.
Parallel Session IV: Use of technology to measure impact in a significantly better
way?
The Impact investing industry is now poised for growth. But to attract more interest the
industry should be able to demonstrate that the investments are creating social impact at
the bottom of the pyramid. Can technology be used to measure this impact in a significantly
better way?
IIC or Impact Investors Council is a memberbased industry body for development of the
impact investing sector in India, focused on impact
measurement and standardisation, research and
policy support and self-regulation.
Anchors
Members
Partners
The Impact Investors Council
The Impact Investors Council (IIC) is an industry body
that was established in 2014 to build a compelling and
comprehensive India Impact story and strengthen the
significance of impact investing in India. It additionally
responds to the growing sentiment among stakeholders in the impact investing community for a memberbased
industry
body.IIC
operates
through
democratically-elected member committees which
include
an
Executive
Council,
Advocacy
Sub-Committee, Research Sub-Committee, and, Membership Sub-Committee. IIC collaborates with other
industry bodies such as GIIN, IVCA, MFIN, TiE, IAN,
etc. Its secretariat is based in Delhi NCR and IIC is
headed by a full-time CEO, Amit Bhatia, who can be
reached at [email protected].
Contacts
Amit Bhatia, CEO-IIC • +91 98189 00400 • [email protected]
Ranjna Khanna, Manager-IIC • +91 98991 81810 • [email protected]
Neha Bhatnagar, Manager-IIC • +91 97160 66067 • neha.bhatnagar @iiic.in
Sugandhi Luthra, Associate-IIC • +91 85888 30840 • [email protected]
Registered Office
2B Ramkishore Road • Civil Lines • New Delhi 1100054 • India