Investors plan to increase the capital committed to impact investments in 2016 to $17.7 billion, a 16% increase from commitments in 2015, found a survey by the Global Impact Investing Network.
In its sixth Annual Impact Investor Survey, the GIIN said impact investors responding to its survey committed capital across 7,551 deals in 2015, and plan to increase the number of deals to 11,722 this year.
Separately, money managers plan to raise $12.4 billion in 2016, vs. $6.7 billion raised last year for impact investment. Money managers made up more than half of the 158 respondents.
Pension fund and insurance company respondents represented just three of the 158 participants. They said they plan to commit collectively $600 million of capital for impact investment, vs. the $264 million committed in 2015.
Foundations also plan to commit more this year than in 2015, at $291 million vs. last year’s $260 million of committed capital.
Almost 90% of all the respondents said the investment performance of the impact investments was either in line with, or above, expectations. Outperformance of these assets was reported by 19% of respondents.
In terms of the targets for impact investment, renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean technology were the most targeted environmental focuses; while finance, employment generation and health improvement were the top social impact themes targeted by this capital.
Of the 158 respondents, 110 are active in private equity; 89 are active in private debt markets; 55 in equity-like debt; and 27 in real assets. Some 59% were fund managers; 13%, foundations; 2% pension funds and insurance companies; and the rest were banks or other financial institutions, family offices and other investors.
The survey was supported by the U.K. government through the Department for International Development’s impact program. The report is available on the GIIN’s website.
