Читать книгу Impact Investment - Allman Keith А. - Страница 13

Investors are in an exceptional position in that they have to do very little beyond saying that they have money to invest in order to get the attention of entrepreneurs. They will receive pitch after pitch for investment opportunities. However, for most investors, resources such as funding and employee's time are limited, and the repercussions of focusing on and choosing too many bad investments are severe. A well-planned sourcing and screening process can avert time- and resource-draining mistakes. Passive sourcing may work for seasoned investment houses whose reputations attract the best and most desirable entrepreneurs. However, for individual investors, advisers, or new funds, an active sourcing strategy is necessary to find enterprises that excel beyond their peers.

Sourcing strategies generally focus on three critical aspects: geography, industry sector, and impact. Although the first two are common for mainstream investing, the third aspect, impact, is unique to impact investing. Impact investors seek an assurance that the investment fits their criteria and is likely to have a positive societal impact. Active sourcing can be done by trying to connect with local or foreign entrepreneurs; however, time and resources can easily be drained if the country of domicile or business operations is too risky for the investor, if the sector is outside of the investor's expertise, or if the impact is insubstantial. Of these sourcing elements, geographic appropriateness is unique in that it does not require dialogue with a prospective company to properly assess. Top-level analyses can be done to expose problems with investing in certain countries and prevent drained resources from pursuing investments that ultimately are too precarious due to sovereign risk.

Sector appropriateness requires less analysis, but often requires at least some type of information from the prospective company and blends into the screening phase. Usually, an investment teaser or pitch is available and initial dialog is initiated with the target company. Asking the right questions at this time is essential to quickly screen away investments that are inconsistent with an investor's strategy.

An effective screening phase focuses on key components of an investment's sector, stage, business, strategy, finances, and social impact. Deal-breaking issues should be revealed as early as possible, while primary strengths and weaknesses must be weighed carefully before moving the investment along to the next phase of investment process.