Impact Investing | March 14, 2023

The ImpactAssets 50 – er, 163 – is the biggest and most diverse ever

Amy Cortese
ImpactAlpha Editor

Amy Cortese

ImpactAlpha, March 14 – This year’s showcase of impact investment fund managers highlights bigger funds and increasing diversity as well as a focus on climate tech, and market-beating returns. The 12th annual list features 163 fund managers with a total of $122 billion in assets under management (for a sampling of impact funds currently raising capital, check out ImpactAlpha’s monthly Liist).

Alvarium Tiedemann’s Jed Emerson, who chaired the review committee, points to new funds bringing “new perspectives and pursuing new opportunities, challenging each of us to raise our game.”

The annual list is intended to provide a representative sampling of the field to help orient new impact investors.

New kids on the block

Amazonia Impact Ventures, a European fund, makes private debt investments in enterprises to protect and regenerate the Amazon rainforest. Climate Capital Bio is a pre-seed venture fund backing biotech climate solutions in the U.S. and Canada. Kairos Investment Management invests in affordable housing in the U.S. 

Diverse funds

The fund managers in the sample are notably more diverse than the broader asset management field. Nearly half of IA 50 firms have investment teams with people of color representing 50% or more of staff; 43% are 50% or more women. Climate tech is the biggest impact theme, representing one-quarter of the funds. Some 18 funds on the list this year clock in at $1 billion or more, up from 15 billion-dollar babies last year.

“It makes you humbled to be a part of this changing community,” Emerson told ImpactAlpha. “The theme is a growing community of practice and the trend is deeper!”