ImpactAlpha, November 26 – Big Issue, a London-based poverty alleviation organization, is partnering with asset managers Aberdeen Standard, Columbia Threadneedle, Alliance Beinstein and Alquity to develop an impact investing platform for everyday investors in the U.K.
The platform, called The Big Exchange, aims to “make finance more inclusive,” by giving anyone with savings or a pension access to impact funds from asset managers like Aberdeen Standard, Columbia Threadneedle and others. The investment products listed on the exchange will be aligned with the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals. Users can then track their investments’ impact via the platform’s blockchain-based “social passport”.
The Big Exchange is the latest initiative of The Big Issue group, which started nearly 30 years ago with a mission of helping people, especially the homeless, out of poverty, though micro-entrepreneurship. Big Issue has since expanded into impact investing via Big Issue Invest, whose initiatives include a partnership with Columbia Threadneedle on a £100 million fund for U.K.-based social impact bonds.
The Big Exchange is in the test phase and is expected to launch in 2019.
