The origination of place-based impact investment opportunities is highly complex, making it difficult to connect institutional investors seeking to adopt place-based strategies with the fund managers and enterprises who meet their needs. This report tests the hypothesis that this issue can be addressed through a ‘platform’ solution. It explores existing kinds of origination platforms and considers how information intermediation – including but not limited to such web-based platforms – can help facilitate increased place-based impact investing.
Based on the analysis in this report, we conclude that there is a gap in information intermediation in place-based impact investing, but that a web-based origination platform alone is unlikely to mobilise private capital into this area. This is due to the bespoke nature of place-based investment opportunities, and the difficulties a web-based platform would face in effectively capturing the social and political nuances of each opportunity.
Instead of focusing on a single, web-based solution, this report makes 3 recommendations on how better to support the place-based impact investing market:
- Create market conditions in which place-based impact investing opportunities can be co-created by improving awareness and strengthening capacity across the ecosystem
- Encourage and support local authorities to develop the capacity to create and articulate their visions for their places in ways that attract and enable private investment
- Reduce due-diligence costs through enabling these to be shared and/or subsidies to be secured where appropriate
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