Supporting Entrepreneurship Development, The Impact Investment Way

Abstract

The paper aims to explore the concept of impact investment and its viability in the present economic conditions across the globe. Business houses have been constantly battling for profits over cost to environment and society and often the environment and society lose in this conflict. Once the importance of sustainable development was realized, it became imperative that businesses must contribute to the sustainable development of the economies to integrate itself with the society and environment, thus creating ‘blended value.’ Over time investors have become more aware of the power they hold over businesses as investors and have started to refrain from investing in businesses or activities with socially and environmentally negative effects. This has led to socially responsible investment and created the concept of impact investment. Entrepreneurship development in emerging economies is need of the hour and first crowdfunding and now impact investing is paving the way for entrepreneurs to secure venture financing in non-traditional ways and aligning their businesses with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The paper will further draw a comparison between impact investment and crowd funding as a source of entrepreneurial finance (since crowdfunding also works on projects and ventures of social impact) while discussing the pros and cons of selecting either of the funding modes and which types of projects are best suited for crowdfunding and impact investing.