Tag: ROI

Doing Well While Doing Good: Impact investing in the Startup Nation

Doing Well While Doing Good: Impact investing in the Startup Nation

Aug 5, 2015 | , ,

Everyone dreams of making a difference in the world, but how many people have the means to do so? The rising trend of Impact Investing makes that worthy aspiration a very promising reality. By investing in companies offering products and services geared towards global impact, this niche sector combines social responsibility with financial returns. It’s Good to Invest in Good A Financial Times survey of 143 big investors indicates overall satisfaction with both financial and social returns on impact investments. Promisingly, these investors expressed intent to raise their investments by 16%. Another measurement of success is the Impact Investing Benchmark, a joint venture between Cambridge Associates and the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). The IIB is a “comprehensive analysis of the financial performance of market rate private equity and venture capital impact investing funds,” which has proven instrumental in indicating the benefits of this field. An analysis of 68 Impact Investment funds between 1998–2010 indicated a 6.9% return to investors, with small funds returning 9.5% and Africa-focused funds returning 9.7%. This benchmark has even outperformed comparative conventional PI funds....

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Impact Investing 101: How to generate social and environmental impact alongside financial return

Impact Investing 101: How to generate social and environmental impact alongside financial return

May 17, 2015 | , ,

What is impact investing, anyway? It is becoming increasingly apparent that private enterprise can play an important role in solving critical social and environmental challenges. Investors realize that these companies can have a meaningful impact on the world while delivering financial returns at the same time, enabling investors to “do good while doing well.” This has given rise to a large, growing movement known as impact investing. Impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Impact investments provide capital to support companies aiming to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges. Typical sector targets for impact investment are: sustainable agriculture and development, affordable housing, affordable and accessible healthcare, education, microfinance and financial inclusion, and clean technology. My interest in impact investing stems from a variety of personal and professional experiences over the past couple of years. The initial spark was lit when I heard Sir Ronald Cohen speak about the subject around two years ago at an event in Israel (he believes social impact investing will be the...

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Cashing In: How to Make Money Investing in Startups

Cashing In: How to Make Money Investing in Startups

May 14, 2014 |

OurCrowd launched a new webinar series called ‘Teach-In Tuesdays’. In this series, we’ll explore investing in early-stage Israeli companies, identify and explain influential tech trends, stay up-to-date with the crowdfunding industry, and examine actionable insights from our own experience running OurCrowd’s investment platform. Yesterday, we held a webinar as part of the OurCrowd Teach-In Tuesdays series on the investment strategies necessary to build and maintain a successful startup portfolio. By nature, startup investments are a high risk/high reward asset class. Knowledge, therefore, is key in maximizing your profit potential when investing in startups. Additional topics covered in the webinar: The startup math that investors use to profit from their investments Understanding how companies’ valuations change over time and what that means for your investments How OurCrowd and other startup investors see an eventual return on their investment and how those returns are calculated As promised on the webinar, here is a link to download the excel sheets we used to discuss the various methodologies behind startup valuations. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Be on the lookout for our next webinar: Shopping for Security: Why Investors Are Excited About the Cyber Security Market...

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