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Impact Leaders - Sustainable & Impact Investment and Performance with Purpose

Impact Leaders - Sustainable & Impact Investment and Performance with Purpose

By: JP Dallmann
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 This podcast features Leaders focusing on Sustainable & Impact Investment and Performance with Purpose, supporting the companies that are solving the world’s biggest challenges.

Hosted by JP Dallmann, it shares their stories, messages and advice to increase awareness about impact leadership, investment and performance with purpose.

Impact Leaders is brought to you by ILA & Partners and Fast Forward 2030.

Visit fastforward2030.com to learn how to include the Global Goals into your business models, and ILAandPartners.com for advice on how to transition into Sustainable & Impact Investing.

Impact Leaders Podcast 2020 Economics Management Management & Leadership Personal Finance
Episodes
  • 60: Modern Banking for the Unbanked in Latin America

    60: Modern Banking for the Unbanked in Latin America
    Jan 21 2022
    Guest Bio Marcelo Rojas Decut is the Co-Founder & CEO of eCLUB a modern bank for the unbanked in Latin America.  Marcelo has a professional career with over 18 years of senior experience in the financial sector - in retail and corporate banking - as a board member and commercial director in large global banks such as BBVA and Citi Bank focusing on LatAm, particularly Argentina, Paraguay & Uruguay.  He is also an entrepreneur at heart and 10 years ago ventured into new areas including Agro business and the use of innovative technologies to improve the yield and performance of its investments. Since 2017 he is a member of the executive board of CREA - the regional Consortium of Agricultural Innovation. Marcelo is a chartered accountant, with an Executive Post-graduate from the University of Navarra (IESE), a post-graduate degree in Applied Business Management at the California State University, as well as a Masters in Strategic Management from the Universidad de Misiones (UNAM) eCLUB eCLUB is a FinTech company focused on democratizing impact by providing access to financial services in Latin America. eCLUB’s mission is to solve the financial inclusion problem in Latin America. The social mission is to empower the 270 million unbanked people to help unlock Latin America ́s growth potential by giving them access to financial services for the first time. The vision is to become the regional leader. The first target country is Paraguay, given the current opportunities and partnerships available for the faster and more successful delivery of the initial growth plans and impact. Summary How do you help people improve their lives? Research shows that Impact Economics is key, which is driven by financial inclusion and empowerment, since the opportunities for people increase exponentially as their income and financial situation improves. But for this, people first need to be able to access what only a small percentage of the population can - equality so people have the same available to them, but this begins with access.   During this insightful conversation you will have a window open for you … to show you the current situation in Latin America, what needs to be done, what can be done, and who is doing it, and the immense opportunity for Impact Investing. Key Points In the US almost 60% of transactions are done digitally, in Latin America almost 75% of transactions are done in cash.The unbanked are living in an unequal society where people who have the least access to cash have to pay a higher price for financial services.We can help to close the huge gap between those who have access to financial services and those who haven't.eCLUB’s mission is to solve the financial inclusion problem in Latin America. The main focus is to help people have a better life. That is the end goal.Consumers have very few alternatives, most of the banking sector is concentrated in very few banks. And you can see the same story in every country. The sector is dominated by 5 or 6 banks that concentrate 80% of deposits and 80% of the loans. Due to the lack of competition in the sector, the people have to pay some of the highest interest rates in the world, and some of the highest fees in the world. Yes, because they have no alternative. The worst is that this way of doing banking has created a big problem, where almost 50% of the middle class and lower-middle-class people don't have access to an account, over 70% of the people don't have access to credit.Banking the unbanked means that simplicity is key in the user experience.“We are not just providing financial services, we are also giving the unbanked tools to improve their financial knowledge to re functionalities that allow people to track their expenses, knowing what they are spending the money.”In Latin America, there is a high level of entrepreneurship. For small businesses the main barrier to growth is a lack of access to finance and credit. This sector creates 70% of employment in the whole of Latin America.eCLUB’s first market is Paraguay and to reach 1 million people in the next 4 years. They aim to launch in Brazil next! Time Stamp 2.30 Introduction - Marcelo Rojas Decut, CEO of eCLUB. Asunción, Paraguay 6:15 What is eCLUB 9:50 Living in a cash-based economy without credit history 14:13 Why Marcelo and his team are the right people 16:50 Banking sector in South America is concentrated in very few banks 21:37 What is the eCLUB user experience 26:45 How they made it work with compliance and regulations 30:20 Dealing with low-risk customers 32:08 How to make eCLUB financially sustainable 35::45 Measuring impact on society 40:36 Positive cycle of helping small businesses get credit 42:38 Paraguay, Brazil and other fintechs 46:00 Why Warren Buffet is investing in Latin America 48:18 Biggest challenge for Marcelo and the team 52:20 What makes an impact leader? Useful link: Marcelo Rojas Decut in Linkedin  eClub - https://eclub.com.py/ Reuters article: ...
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    56 mins
  • 59: The Economic Opportunity and Resilience Of Impact Investing

    59: The Economic Opportunity and Resilience Of Impact Investing
    Dec 26 2021
    Tameo Impact Fund Solutions Tameo is a spin-off from Symbiotics, including its market research, impact reporting, deal valuation and matchmaking solutions. Based on 15 years of experience built at Symbiotics, our aim is to promote the growth of the impact investing industry by increasing transparency and supporting evidence-based decision-making via independent solutions. Safeya Zeitoun, Head of Impact at Tameo During her 5 years at Symbiotics, Safeya has focused on assessing the social and environmental impact achieved by Symbiotics' investments. She has also contributed to industry initiatives on social performance management. Before that, she was a researcher at the Access to Knowledge for Development Center at the American University in Cairo. She holds a master's degree in International Economics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the American University in Cairo. Ramkumar Narayanan, Head of Research & Investments at Tameo Over 8 years, Ramkumar contributed to Symbiotics' research work in the areas of microfinance funds, markets, and social performance by developing reporting tools and co-authoring white papers and industry reports on these topics. Prior to his time at Symbiotics, he worked for over 3 years at the World Microfinance Forum Geneva, leading a working group aimed at raising awareness of the opportunities and challenges of private sector MF investments in China. Ramkumar holds a master’s degree in Public Management and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Geneva. Key points: Impact is a subset of sustainable investments. Impact pushes it further by looking at the measurements.At Symbiotics, historically focused has been on Microfinance and research and reportingTameo was created to provide more independence, to support impact investors and impact fund managers to make evidence based decision and data driven decisions for their investments, increase accountability and transparency in the market.Private Asset Impact Fund Report 2021 - for fund managers as benchmark175 impact funds participated in the stud. 300 data points per fund. There was a flat growth in AUM for impact funds in 2020. Average fund size of USD 140-150 million with fixed income funds are much larger compared to private equity funds.Microfinance - No clear statistics that show with confident that micro finance alleviates poverty, but there are very clear consistent positive impact from micro finance with tangible benefits e.g micro enterprises provides a stable source of income. They are able to capture business opportunities that otherwise would not be possible for them. They won’t be as strongly affected by shocks e.g if member of family dies or storm destroys your home. Micro finance creates Increased possibilities and opportunities. From survey, 90% of end borrowers say they believe quality of life has improved with access to micro finance.Blended finance works, there are a lot more innovation happening and  there is huge interest in it.Tameo is providing this market intelligence to the market as more investors still need more information.Regmifa -  Regional MSME Investment Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa and Loans for growth fundInvestors need to have a change in mindset and be open to new investable opportunities Time Stamp: [5.29] What is impact investing? [7:34] Symbiotics and Tameo, how Tameo got started [12:35] Private Asset Impact Fund Report 2021, top trends in 2020 [19:16] Breakdown of investments types in the funds [21:30] Safeya’s research of Micro loans [28:10] How Tameo was funded as a startup [31:00] Latest update from the space of blended finance [33:59] Regmifa fund for sub saharan Africa and loans for growth fund [36:35] Investors need more information to understand and be educated [38:18] People are still reluctant to invest, changing the mindset of investors. [42:00] Educating investors and coming together under a common language. Useful links: Tameo Solutions https://tameo.solutions/ Symbiotics Group https://symbioticsgroup.com/ Impact Fund Report 2021 https://tameo.solutions/research/ Regmifa https://regmifa.com/ Event: Building Bridges https://www.buildingbridges.org/ -------- Call-to-actions: The podcast is one of the catalytic initiatives to help deliver on Our mission to “Raise awareness to help transition capital into Sustainable & Impact Investing faster and at scale” 1- Become an IMPACT LEADER - Book your FREE STRATEGY CALL today! We are looking for 10 people interested to join our new IMPACT LEADERS programme. Book your FREE strategy call today. 2-Become a sponsor We’re looking for 3 founding sponsors to support the mission! Reach out today to work with us!  3-Become a Patreon if you would like to support it, you can become a patreon and also make one-off contributions.  4 - Get in touch Contact us to help you transition into ...
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    46 mins
  • 58: The Essence of Capital: Scaling Impact and Legacy

    58: The Essence of Capital: Scaling Impact and Legacy
    Nov 12 2021
    Guest Bio: Audrey Selian currently serves as Director of the Artha Initiative associated with Rianta Capital Zurich and is a team member/advisor to the Halloran Philanthropies. She has been active in the impact investing sector since 2006, and is founder of ArthaPlatform.com, an online impact investment platform that is designed to tackle the economics of due diligence around high impact, small scale SMEs/SGBs.  She has also been a wanna-be techie since 1997. She completed her PhD in technology policy and development and has been thinking about how to intertwine the two ever since. She is passionate about bringing good people together, and proving that investment in good business(es) is one of the keys to best serving the under-served on this planet.  Audrey has a background in management consulting from PricewaterhouseCoopers, and her entrepreneurial experience includes several years spent in business development, marketing and sales at an NSF-funded software start-up called Wireless Grids Corporation.  Artha Impact The Artha Impact team has been working since 2007 as the impact investing arm of Rianta Capital, which is a dedicated advisory to the Singh Family Trust. Through this initiative, they have been running a series of programs designed to invest, catalyze and convene around the promise of supporting meaningful business interventions for impact in India. Today Artha Impact holds a robust portfolio of direct early/growth stage investments and a small handful of impact funds in the country.  Sectors of focus include - but have not been limited to - agriculture, healthcare and livelihoods. Key Points: There is an incredible network of like minded family officesArtha Network platform help coordinate discovery and create more visibility.“The information about who's doing what and where should not be left to chance, because the opportunity costs are just too high in the event that things go wrong, and things don't happen the right way.” Partnership with Menterra, one of the oldest social enterprise incubator in India.Biosense - last mile health diagnostic serviceCollaborative learning and action is key to solving the last mile challengeTelecoms & Beer are succeeding in the last mile - the narrative must change to grease the wheels, otherwise we continue to propagate the same exact mentality that is contributing to hundreds of parallel silos. Something that gets people to see a carrot that changes the behaviour where we’re all competing against each other to develop on SDG X.Impact Measurement - we encourage folks that we work with to pick 2 or 3 things that are really tangible and possible to measureTaxonomies - we are trying to keep it simplePartnerships play a crucial role in due diligence - We had 40% of investors reported in the GIIN survey, express willingness to utilize other investor’s due diligence documentation, and that’s a sea change. Every player has a lot to contribute, technology is amplifying what each and every one of us can do.“Federation and King of the Hill strategies, domination strategies aren’t going to work today. There is too much empowerment at the end notes that is propelled by technology.”“None of us is as smart as all of us.” Time Stamp: [04:22] How do you define sustainable and impact investing? [06:28] How did Artha started? [09:38] How the Singh family articulated their values [10:24] Who is Tom Singh  [14:42] Impact for Breakfast Chapters, learning network and series [16:07] Words matter, Chi points [18:13] How Artha Network impact investment platform was created [24:35] Artha investment funds [27:40] Being the cornerstone investor of USD 80million Manterra fund 2 [29:35] Biosense health company [31:57] Challenge of different startup investees  [35:26] Collaborative action for last mile products  [39:46] The narrative must change [40:32] Artha Adventure Challenge [43:36] Impact measurement methodology  [47:54] Building tools to manage cost [54:43] Audrey Selian’s advise for others in impact [1:01:02] What makes an impact leader? Useful links: Audrey Selian Linkedin- https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-selian-097261/ Artha Networks https://www.arthanetworks.com/ Artha Entrepreneur discovery challenge https://arthaimpact.com/artha-entrepreneur-discovery-challenge/ Menterra Ventures https://www.menterra.com/ GIIN https://thegiin.org/ The GIIN Impact Investing in the COVID context survey report  Defi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_finance Mansur Olson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mancur_Olson BOOKs recommendations: > The business of building a better world, by Professor David Cooperrider and Audrey Selian https://www.amazon.com/Business-Building-Better-World-Leadership/dp/1523093641 >Purpose of Capital, by Jed Emerson https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42013267-the-purpose-of-capital -------- Call-to-actions: The podcast is one of the catalytic initiatives to help deliver on Our mission to “Raise awareness ...
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    1 hr and 6 mins
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