AVPN January Webinar: Lessons learnt about Impact Investing

Interest in the impact investment market is growing rapidly and has gained traction among a wide range of investors, including large-scale financial institutions, pension funds, family offices, private wealth managers, foundations, and individuals.

There is a diverse range of impact investment funds available from impact first, mostly impact, blended, all the way to finance first. What are the main things to take into consideration when setting up an impact investment fund? How do you present a compelling investment opportunity with ample impact and sufficient financial returns? What are some of the biggest challenges? How do you measure impact?

Join us in the first AVPN webinar for 2017 to learn more about the journey of setting up the first Impact Investment Fund in Taiwan and the first impact investment fund accelerator.

About the Speakers

Ray Chen President, B Current Impact Investment, Inc. Prior to joining the social enterprise sector Mr. Ray Chen engaged in the management consulting industry for nearly 15 years. In Spring 2007, Ray founded the first-ever Research Initiative on Social Entrepreneurship in Taiwan at Fu-Jen Catholic University. He then joined Flow, Inc., the first social venture capital firm in Taiwan. In the last few years, he has been working closely with nearly 10 social businesses to facilitate their corporate governance, business development, people development, and fundraising programs. In 2014, he co-started B Current Impact Investment, Inc. with other 41 angel investors. Ray holds an MBA degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Jack Knellinger Visionary Entrepreneur, Social Innovator, Co-Founder of Capria Jack Knellinger is an entrepreneur with a lifelong commitment to impact. Following his time funding and supporting more than 30 youth-led enterprises at Ashoka, Jack led the expansion of Microsoft’s Employee Engagement program. After leaving Microsoft in 2012, he helped set up an early stage fund that has been investing in early-stage impact enterprises in Seattle over the past five years and he led expansion efforts in India for a Social Venture Partners, a venture philanthropy organization. In 2015, he co-founded Capria which provides acceleration and advisory services, capital, and access to a global network to impact fund managers in emerging markets.

About the Organisations

B Current Impact Investment B Current Impact Investment Inc. (BCI2) is the first impact investment fund in Taiwan. BCI2 was founded in April 2014 by 42 angel investors with profound entrepreneurial and professional background from various industries and across regions from Silicon Valley to Asia. BCI2 aims at developing impact investment opportunities, which are sustainable and scalable, and at being a trustful partner in the emerging eco-system to grow social entrepreneurship. By connecting potential social entrepreneurs with impact investors and mainstream businesses as well as other venture capitalists, BCI2 is able to develop investable or investment-ready social business models with and for them to maximize sustainable social impacts. Learn more at  www.bci2.asia.

Capria Capria is a global impact investing firm that manages three pioneering ventures: Unitus Seed Fund, Capria Accelerator, and Capria Emerging Managers Fund. Unitus Seed Fund is the most active impact investor in India, investing in sectors including healthcare, education, mobile, consumer, fintech, and agriculture. Capria Accelerator is the first global business accelerator for impact fund managers, operating in markets including Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Learn more at http://capria.vc