Impact Investing
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QUESTION: what does “impact investing” mean?
ANSWER: “impact investments” are investments made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.
Introduction
Exploiting investments solely with the intention of maximising returns is no longer the model to follow. Today it is mainly social and environmental projects and activities that are receiving more attention; after all, it is the transition to a zero-impact economy that is profoundly influencing companies’ business models.
Therefore, for investors and banks, supporting businesses that not only create value for investors but also, and above all, generate positive impacts on society and environment has become the preferred choice: businesses that invest and focus on sustainability are now not only more competitive but also more attractive to potential investors and investors.
Networking
Economic growth has always gone hand in hand with growth in energy demand: the development of new technologies and new means of production capable of reducing emissions has become today’s entrepreneurial challenge, and one of the most promising ways of combining market needs and environmental sustainability is represented by the “green” startup, a company with a “sustainable nature and footprint” that is particularly attentive to “environmental impacts”, a reality that aims not only to reduce pollution but also to improve energy efficiency and the production chain model.
Especially in their early stages, start-ups are looking for investors and liquidity, which are essential to establish themselves in the market and make their business model replicable. They are constantly evolving entities that only meet their challenge once they have achieved a solid market presence with significant economic stability: startups that transform into scaleups and become enterprises.
But for start-ups meeting the challenge is not so easy: the lack of a well-defined business model, the myriad of technological challenges to be overcome and the competition with less innovative but already well-established companies from an industrial and marketing point of view make it extremely difficult for start-ups to achieve their objectives. Not even excessive confidence in one’s own entrepreneurial idea is enough: the lack of real consideration by investors and customers of the capabilities of the new entrepreneurial reality heavily undermines the survival of the initiative itself.
This is why incubators and accelerators often operate alongside start-ups, programmes that follow the start-up from the very early stages or in the immediate aftermath: incubators are tools that help in the search for initial funds obtained through targeted investments, while accelerators also provide valuable support to make the most of the funds obtained. We therefore take the liberty of providing an initial outline from which to carry out more in-depth research and create fundamental networking, a simple but very useful tool for quickly identifying funds and obtaining specific advice.
Following, we also point out two other very effective tools for those undertaking this type of research: the first one concerns a programme, at European level, which proposes obtaining funding through participation in competitions, while the second tool, acting as a real “measurer”, allows any user or start-up, totally free of charge and in an easy and quickly way, to submit a very short description of their idea or business model in order to verify not only the feasibility of the project itself but also to identify compatible funding available and quantify the probability of obtaining it.
We are convinced that different opinions and points of view, accompanied by good ideas and initiatives, favour the identification of the best solutions to old problems that need convincing and quick answers. That’s why Planet Health Check seeks to encourage, in this section, all those people and companies who are convinced that they have ideas that can make a difference and lead us towards the innovation needed to create a better future for all of us, planet included. In this regard, here is what we want to highlight:
Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN)
GEN provides entrepreneurs with all the support they need to reach the next level: an international platform that manages a multitude of projects and programmes in more than 180 countries around the world. Its goal is to make it as easy as possible for anyone, anywhere, the start and the scale up a business by promoting, supporting and, at the same time, enhancing cross-border collaborations and initiatives between entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, policy makers and entrepreneurial nature and support organisations.
Ecosummit Venture is, in all likelihood, one of the most important if not the most important European accelerator dedicated to supporting exclusively green startups. In order to launch a startup business, Ecosummit offers three different solutions: economic, financial (with initial investments from 300,000 to 3 million euros) and counselling.
SEUA is a very interesting initiative at European level that not only promotes collaborations and partnerships between the public (incubators, accelerators, universities, business angels) and the private sector (entrepreneurs and inventors), but also proposes a “prize” system (competitions) dedicated to innovative start-ups. In addition, SUEA is working to create a network of contacts capable of providing global visibility for the services and products of all participating start-ups: a true financial support networking service.
22 is the total number of categories reported by SEUA that benefit from the opportunity to participate in the “prize competitions”. Below we list 14 categories related to climate investing: by clicking on the corresponding category you can find the contents, objectives and eligibility criteria concerning the project you are interested in.
Generally, the search for funding compatible with the own business model is long and complex. Fortunately, there are various forms of public funding proposed by important supranational bodies (such as, for example, the European Commission) which undertake not to cancel or postpone the proposed available rounds. However, it is necessary to know where and how to look and, above all, how to prepare the dossiers, collect the necessary documents and fill out the applications correctly. Templates and guidelines are often incomprehensible and the risk of not even being able to upload and send an application (even before it has been assessed and accepted) because it may be incorrect or incomplete, significantly discourages the applicant from completing the funding application procedure.
To avoid wasting time and patience, we recommend a free platform that allows the user to easily upload the required information and documents to get quick answers on funding. Typewiser provides valuable advice and examples from former evaluators of large incubators and accelerators such as EIC Accelerator. On this platform, documents to be sent do not need to be reformatted: files can be uploaded using basic and intuitive graphic templates. Visit Typewiser because, to date, it has helped numerous start-ups to obtain major funding of up to several million euros.
FURTHER RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENTS
How much do the effects of climate change impact our economy?
The impact of climate change is of great importance for all countries of the world, but for developing countries it is even more so; their poor capacity to adapt to the ever-increasing temperatures is not only due to the lack of an effective early warning system but also to the lack of financial resources to be used to expand and improve these fundamental prevention tools.
Inevitably, climate change will have an impact on the global economy. It already affects economies whose activities are sensitive to natural resources, such as agriculture. Some of the papers and reports in our LIBRARY attempt to describe and understand these impacts: evidence suggests that a more extreme climate has the potential to weaken economic growth through damage to the capital stock and labour supply.
As the world economy adjusts to higher temperatures, labour productivity will weaken. Similarly, inflation will rise due to the rising cost of food and energy, just as monetary policy will be constrained in an attempt to combat the seasonal pressures of climate change. The general consensus suggests that economies should act sooner rather than later to avoid potential future costs; unfortunately, this is supported by a growing body of documentary evidence.
We therefore invite users to browse through the documents of authoritative official sources (e.g. IPCC, WWF, OECD, UN, NATO, WEF….) collected in our MULTIMEDIA LIBRARY (with special focus on the 2024 documents). These are research, reports and working papers of a scientific and economic/financial nature that provide useful material not only to describe the current situation but also the future situation to anticipate and imagine possible scenarios.