Creative Economy | April 3, 2018

Special Agents, Impact Capital Managers, the new ImpactAlpha, readers react

ImpactAlpha
The team at

ImpactAlpha

Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers!

You’re an Agent of Impact, a mover and shaper of a new era of finance. You’re shifting capital toward the inclusive, regenerative future that is so palpably possible. What’s more, you’re a leader, a pioneer, an early-adopter, an influencer. You’re a Special Agent! Your next assignment: Subscribe to the new ImpactAlpha for news, insights and tools to amplify your impact. Tell your friends and colleagues to go all-in as well (at a discount). Details below.

Featured: ImpactAlpha Original

Private fund managers with over $5 billion stake a claim to high-impact, high-returns investing. More than two-dozen “market-rate” impact investment fund managers are staking a claim to a growing category: high-impact, high-returns investing. A new network of Impact Capital Managers will make the case at a two-day kickoff meeting in Chicago next month. Among the founding fund managers are DBL Partners, HCAP Partners, CityLight Capital, Arborview Capital, ReThink VC, Small Business Community Capital and Bronze Investments. Two new big private-equity impact funds, Bain’s Double Impact Fund and TPG Growth’s Rise Fund, are also on board.

Impact Capital Managers distinguish themselves from providers of “concessionary capital.” “We are intentionally saying, ‘There is a high-impact, high-return category.’ There is a category of return-maximizing strategies that also drive impact,” SJF Ventures’ Dave Kirkpatrick told ImpactAlpha. Likewise, they are distinguishing themselves from legacy fund managers who talk about positive benefits but fear the “impact” label may scare away investors, or that impact reporting is a burden. “We called it Impact Capital Managers very intentionally,” said Brian Trelstad of Bridges Fund Management. “We want to reinforce and make it clear that market-rate impact investing is possible.” As for fund managers who tout their good intentions, Telstad said they are welcome in the new network, “if they decide they want to report on impact.”

Read, “Managers of over $5 billion aim for high impact, high-returns investing,” by David Bank on the new ImpactAlpha.

Special: The New ImpactAlpha

ImpactAlpha launches premium package of subscriber benefits. In a note to readers, ImpactAlpha editor David Bank says the $399.00 introductory offer will keep readers connected all year “for less than the price of a single conference,” with:

  • Fresh, sharp deal news in a new early-morning Dealflow email;
  • Streamlined Brief –– original features, insightful signals, leading impact voices;
  • Conference calls with ImpactAlpha journalists and industry insiders;
  • Subscriber-only Slack channels to connect you with each other;
  • VIP invitations and discounts on events, dinners and breakfast roundtables;
  • Full access to the redesigned ImpactAlpha.com –– special reports, deals database and articles archived by sector and geography.

Signals: Ahead of the Curve

Subscriptions emerge as a viable media business model. It’s a simple formula for local news, says Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times: Hire good journalists. Cover stuff no one else is covering. Emphasize news that’s actionable and essential. “Package it all in a form that commands daily attention — probably a morning email newsletter — and sprinkle it with a sense of community, like offline and online networking events for readers,” Manjoo writes. How to pay for all that? “Ask readers to pay for it with real money.” ImpactAlpha is betting subscription revenues will likewise let us put more feet on the street to cover the impact beat. “As we add subscribers, we are investing in broader coverage, deeper reporting and better tools, raising the value of your subscription,” Bank says. With the new model, we’re taking a page from new publications like The Information, Stratechery and Sinocism, as well as from older outlets like The Economist, Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. For our top five suggestions on how to deal with the new subscription price, please see our FAQ.

ImpactAlpha readers react. “I’m totally stoked to support ImpactAlpha. Join me behind the paywall for the best impact investing reporting on the planet” (Matthew Weatherley-White, Caprock)…“Tideline is committed to supporting ImpactAlpha’s unique insights and important editorial voice” (Ben Thornley, Tideline)… “Y’all are the very best resource for impact news out there!” (Sarah Cone, Social Impact Capital)… “Mission-critical info for my work” (Brian Rajan Nagendra, Living Cities)… “I really love the work your team is doing keep it up!” (Kyle Westaway, Weekend Briefing)… “A daily industry habit” (SOCAP)… “Serious reporting that looks at changing the system. Great journalism that gets to the heart of the problem” (David Galipeau, UN SDG Impact Finance)… “Our staff loves ‘The Brief’ from ImpactAlpha” (Case Foundation)… “The work they are doing to cover and hold accountable the funds flowing into sustainable investing is very, very important…Check them out!” (Jessica Lessin, The Information)…”Awesome newsletter” (CB Insights).

Dealflow: Follow the Money

New morning Dealflow tracks financings and fund raises from startups to supertankers. Skeptics used to warn ImpactAlpha there wouldn’t be enough deals worth reporting. Now, our flow of impact deal news has outgrown the daily Brief. Starting tomorrow, Dealflow will serve up fresh, hot deals right to your inbox with a new morning dealsheet. We’ll dig deeper into the financing of impact with a Deal of the Day. We’ll highlight the day’s deals in the afternoon Brief. (Don’t worry: subscribers can manage which emails to receive). From catalytic seed rounds to institutional capital at scale, Dealflow will ask not only how much, but how much impact?