Are impact investors really after impact?

Impact investment is a buzzword these days because of the free funds looking for meaningful investments. There are economies looking to improve women’s access to finance, like what the G20 just announced.

The United States said it had committed $50 million for this fund and became the first one to drum it up on YouTube and other media outfits.

It is not just G20.

We also know that Australia as a single country has committed funds in the big initiative called Investing In Women Initiative (IWI).

It has even coupled it with funds for making gender parity indices for corporations, particularly in the Philippines and Indonesia.

In our country, we also have private NGOs like Peace and Equity Holdings Inc. (www.pef.ph) whose main thrust is to fund social enterprises in their early growth stage.

Then we have impact investors in technology that have funds for ideas that can become the next Grab, Uber, or the next Facebook. We know of Ideaspace (supported by PLDT and Smart) and Kickstart (supported by Globe and Singtel).

Then there are angel investors, or high net worth individuals who have excess funds but want to make social impact by funding entrepreneurs who have a good business idea.

These are also assorted funds managed by investment bankers who have turned “social investors” but still have the same expectations as ordinary investment bankers.

The number of options out there is also one reason why entrepreneurs have become wary of impact investors. While they come with good intentions to power up small businesses, they may also cause these businesses to lose their soul, then convert them to the ordinary business which is just after profit, not social impact and not even environmental impact.

With Asean integration, the consumer will understand the cooperation if we talked less about policy and more about friendly business tie-ups.

Asean entrepreneurs can come together to make a better product and be part of a network. It’s collaboration, not competition.

The Asean Women Entrepreneurs Network (AWEN), for instance, is a network of business women in the region operating to exchange knowledge and experience, develop and propose initiatives to promote economic and trade activities in order to enhance gender equality, empower and strengthen entrepreneurships skills for women in the Asean community; create favorable environment for female-led enterprises and support for women entrepreneurship in the region. Women in business contribute a significant part of GDP, and women are known to make 80 percent of purchase decisions here and globally.

The inclusion of women in the economy constitutes a major part of a country’s achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

So who is the real impact investor? Is it the World Bank now that G20 has made the statement to form a women’s fund worth $1 billion? Will they be Asean member-states who can create a fund for MSMEs?

Who can create the social impact through a real realistic investment package that considers the risk taken by entrepreneurs?

I personally am still looking for the real impact investors. If countries and economies are looking for impact, then we must get funds with higher risk appetites, if we want to achieve the effect we desire.

If we want to optimize the ideas of our youth and MSMEs (who are the idea generators), then we must walk the talk and put our money where our mouth is.

Who will come forward to bring about this change?