The sector spans multiple investment vehicles (microfinance, venture capital, loans and guarantees in social enterprises - used individually or in conjunction with each other), economic sectors and geographical areas.

Impact Investing is a relatively new segment of the financial market that has emerged from an increasing convergence of:

• the social investing sphere, which seeks to combine social impact with profit generation in order to become itself more self-sustainable, and
• an increased awareness in the traditional for-profit asset classes that long-term value creation can only occur in respect of sustainability requirements of our society.

The European Impact Investing Luxembourg group commissioned the AlphaMundi Group to conduct an international Impact Finance Survey to identify the opportunities and constraints to this nascent sector's growth. 60 Impact Finance institutions accepted to take part in the survey, which will shed more light on the current status and development trends in impact investing.