Visor’s alternative credit-scoring helps businesses get loans in Mexico, Brazil

The problem… Less than 10% of small businesses in Mexico have access to traditional bank loans.
Mexico City-based IGNIA... led Visor’s financing round, with participation from AMEX Ventures and ALLVP.

8IP opens impact fund to retail investors

The fund... scores companies against the UN Sustainable Development
Why it matters... It's another example of broadening access to impact investments

Investor Readiness: How asset owners can prepare for effective impact investing

Impact Voices is an occasional series sharing the opinions of impact investing practitioners and leaders with ImpactAlpha readers. The views expressed in Impact Voices are the writers’ own, not ImpactAlpha’s. By Christina Leijonhufvud and Fran Seegull “Enterprise readiness” is commonly recognized as a precondition for an effective impact investment. It turns out investors as well could

Pacific Life commits $30 million to Swell

The life insurance company last year helped launch Swell, an impact platform for everyday investors and retirement savings plans. The $30 million capital infusion is meant to help Swell grow its product line and attract more customers, currently numbering 3,000. The company manages $16 million in assets. Swell will use $15 million of the new funding to

Aspiration raises $47 million for “conscious banking”

Most banks profit from overdraft, ATM and other fees, or from financial products ill-suited to their customers. Los Angeles-based Aspiration lets customers themselves choose how much to pay in fees. It also provides them with a “sustainability” score on their spending choices. “If we can start driving people to [put] ethics at the core of

Impact Shares, YWCA, NAACP develop publicly traded social justice investments

The Dallas-based non-profit investment manager Impact Shares is partnering with YWCA Metropolitan Chicago and the NAACP on two social-justice exchange-traded funds, bundles of stocks listed on a stock exchange. The Impact Shares YWCA Women’s Empowerment ETF will focus on public companies committed to women’s empowerment through health or workplace advancement. The Impact Shares NAACP Minority

Comparing online impact advisors, maternal health impact bond, West Africa’s startup landscape…

Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: Impact Voices Eleven online platforms that let you — yes, you — make socially responsible investments right now. ImpactAlpha spills a lot of digital ink on private-market impact investing. Most of that is inaccessible to “unaccredited” investors who don’t already have considerable assets. Now, a growing number of public-market offerings are allowing smaller, retail investors to