Category: Investing

The Alpha in Impact

1/17/2019

Foodshed Investors friend Amy Bell co-authored this report, which "offers a new way of thinking about the relationship between financial returns and social and environmental impact. Instead of debating whether impact objectives detract from the financial performance of a fund, it identifies the ways in which impact objectives enhance financial performance, based on transactions in the portfolios of market-rate investment managers. This concept is known as “impact alpha".

Read the full report here.

Capital Evolving: Alternative Investment Strategies to Drive Inclusive Innovation

1/16/2019

2018 report from Village Capital details gaps in equity and geographical distribution of innovation capital, with suggested solutions including Revenue Share Structures, Place-Based Multi-Asset-Class Funds, and Peer-Based Decision Making.

Says author and VilCap President Ross Baird: "Our current capital structures – particularly the most well-publicized options of venture capital and bank loans – reward the few and leave the many on the sidelines. Billion-dollar tech “unicorns” distort our view of a successful startup economy. Most startup capital goes to just a few people, in a few places, and a few industries. Half of the world’s venture capital goes to just three US states...

Local Farms Fund - Inspiration in New York City

11/18/2015

There is a terrific organization in New York City called the Local Farms Fund, a high-impact, socially responsible farmland access venture...

Women: The Next Wave of Angel Investors?

10/22/2015

Forbes recently ran a piece by Alicia Robb, who is a senior fellow with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. She was moved to address the issue of female representation in angel investing, a topic that was prevalent at the Angel Capital Association's (which gets photo credit here) annual summit.

No Unicorns in Central Texas

9/2/2015

A "unicorn" is venture capital slang for a company with a valuation of at least $1B. Conventional wisdom says that one "unicorn" can "make" a fund, or a VC's reputation. One can argue that the majority of the VC industry is built around searching for, and swinging for the fences in hope of, that unicorn.

Crowdfunding to Overtake Angel & VC

6/25/2015

Crowdfunder.com CEO Chance Barnett opines eloquently on the relative merits of crowdfunding, angel investing, and venture capital in this Forbes piece. $34B is expected to be crowdfunded in 2015, just over (hey, what's a couple billion dollars here and there) VC's $32B.

What is Sustainability?

5/20/2015

From Vanderbilt University, a nice graphic and description of what is entailed in the widely used term "sustainability".

Foundations Increase Impact Investing

5/4/2015

Hazel Bradford writes for Pensions & Investments magazine about the upswing in interest in impact investing from philanthropic foundations.

Move over Tech Startups: Food Startups are the Ones to Watch

4/30/2015

Social entrepreneur & writer Lisa Curtis writes for Huff Post about five key trends for 2015 positioning food startups, and their investors, well...

Don’t Sacrifice Returns, Take On More Risk

4/20/2015

Cleantech investor Rob Day argues in greentechmedia that impact investors who seek less than market returns actually hurt the overall proliferation of impact investing by refusing to demand replicable, attractive returns.

Finding the 84% of Stock Market Value that Most Investors Ignore

4/17/2015

Equity research firm Ocean Tomo recently released data on "intangible market value", that is, the value of assets within the S&P 500 that are NOT captured on the balance sheet as tangible assets: cash, property, plant, equipment, inventory, and the like. And the number is astounding: 84%!

The Hacker's Guide to Investors

4/16/2015

From graphic designer Anna Vital based on an essay by Paul Graham, 23 things an entrepreneur should know about Investors... Now some of these might not exactly describe AFI investors, but, eh, maybe somewhere in the ballpark?

'Locavesting' Gets Its Own Web Site

4/15/2015

Forbes reports on local investing author and advocate Amy Cortese's new website, www.Locavesting.com.

"There’s a whole revolution going on under the radar," says Ms. Cortese...

Webinar: Money is Local, Impact is Global

4/8/2015

One hour recorded webinar from the Angel Capital Association hosted by with panelists Bonny Moellenbrock, Executive Director of Investors' Circle; Kenneth Merritt, Managing Director of North Country Angels; and Michael "Luni" Libes, Founder of Fledge LLC.

Retail Impact Investors Rejoice: Here's Where You Can Actually Invest !

3/31/2015

Writing the AFI blog, and working on AFI in general has been strange these last many months because of the lack of frustration one would normally expect from that four letter word "w-o-r-k".

Morgan Stanley Finds Sustainable Investing Poised for Growth

2/27/2015

"NEW YORK, Feb. 27 /CSRwire/ - Over seventy percent of active individual investors (71%) describe themselves as interested in sustainable investing, and nearly two in three (65%) believe sustainable investing will become more prevalent over the next five years, according to a new survey published today by the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing. The new Sustainable Signals report examines the attitudes and perceptions of individual investors towards sustainable investing and considers the broader implications for investors, corporations and governments."

What Every ENTREPRENEUR Should Know About Pitching

2/26/2015

Oh woe is the typical pitch deck! General, confusing, buzzwordy. Pascale Finette (Managing Director of Singularity University's Startup Lab, writing on Unreasonable.is), lays out, slide by slide, what to show and tell - and not. He starts: "Your pitch deck MUST start with a description of what it is that you're doing."

The Pitch Deck Slide that can make you look like a Moron...

2/17/2015

Not so good, says Paul O'Brien

Austin's Paul O'Brien says the typical "Competition" slide in a pitch deck usually essentially says "...we actually do everything! And our competitors (those morons) are overlooking something obvious", to which he replies: "Really? That doesn’t even pass the sniff test."

Is Impact Investing Finally Going Mainstream?

1/31/2015

Forbes Contributor Esha Chhabra chimes in on David Brooks' recent New York Times column on impact investing, and claims that 23.8% of the total investment deals conducted by angels centers around social impact.

All economic activity needs a moral compass

1/24/2015

Saker Nusseibeh asks, in The Guardian, "what is the purpose of investment?", then goes on to suggest "that in employing our resources we hope for some personal gain but also some wider societal benefit. The purpose of investment then must be to act as a pipe that links a nation’s savings (personal savings, pensions savings, insurance monies and so on) to its future economic growth and wellbeing."

JPMorgan Embraces 'The World's Dumbest Idea'

12/26/2014

If you're reading this blog, there is a possibility that you're not the biggest fan of Wall Street. Forbes contributor Steve Denning uses a recent JPMorgan pronouncement as the basis for a scathing review of the whole idea of "maximizing shareholder value" as the supposed single-minded pursuit of business - and, says Jack Welch, "the dumbest idea in the world." Enjoy!

Tech Investors Cut Venture Risk with Real Assets

10/13/2014

Bay Area Angel Investor Scott Banister tells Institutional Investor "If I'm investing in technological change, I would like to have part of my portfolio invested in things that are resistant to value erosion due to technological change..."

5 Successful Angel Investors Spill Their Secrets

9/18/2014

Sandi MacPherson, founder of Quibb, a professional network for sharing tech news, asked 5 angel investors to weigh in on their biggest lessons learned.

Three reasons to be optimistic about impact investing

9/16/2014

The World Economic Forum's Abigail Nobel writes that the G7, the White House, and the Pope care about impact investing; that millennials - who also care - will inherit $30-$40 trillion from their baby boomer parents; and that there is actually something called the "lifestyles of health and sustainability" (LOHAS) market, and its $300B size has been growing 10% a year since the early 2000's.

Food Startup Fundraising Frenzy

7/8/2014

$177M was invested in food startups in early 2014, reports Food Tech Connect, including several high profile delivery services.

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