We believe that impact investment transactions are magic moments. At its core, a transaction occurs when sellers engage in exchange with buyers.  As we look around the impact investing ecosystem, a growing number of social enterprise incubators and accelerators have created more and more companies with value and impact to sell.  The emergence and popularity of crowd funding proves that these enterprises are looking for the capital resources they need to achieve scaled success.  And growing interest from traditional finance has increased both the number of buyers in the space as well as the amount of capital ready to be put to work.  It takes a marketplace to provide opportunities for these social enterprise sellers and impact investor buyers to come together and transact.  Investors’ Circle has been at the forefront of creating this impact investing...

By Steve Monti, IC North Carolina We’re pleased to announce the formation of a new IC local network in North Carolina. The IC NC Network held its inaugural meeting in December 2011 and now meets on the second Tuesday of eachmonth at the offices of sponsor Hutchison Law Group in Raleigh.  We have two institutional members (with another poised to join) and four individual members to date. The IC NC Network has greatly benefited from the experiences of the IC Philadelphia Network, members of which have kindly spent time with us on the phone and in person at the Fall Venture Fair in Philadelphia last October to help us launch our network  in a fast and streamlined manner.  SJF Institute Senior Director Anne Claire Broughton has also provided much-appreciatedstaff support and a link to IC...

An interview with Amanda Steinberg, DailyWorth Could you tell us what led to the birth of DailyWorth? I was an entrepreneur and web programmer in my 20s and - after buying too big of a house in my early 30s – was sent on a journey into finance media.  I found traditional sources like Kiplinger’s, Barron, Money, and Smart.  I started reading everything I could but I realized they could be really boring and none of them focused on women. About 10 years earlier, Daily Candy hit my inbox.  Daily Candy is a daily email about style and trends that grew to 2 million subscribers and sold for $125 million to Comcast.  I saw this as an ideal business model – so simple and scalable.  I’d realized that women really care about money, and in 2008, I combined that with my love for email business. Why is it exciting to be building a...

An interview with John Moore, IC Philadelphia and Robin Hood Ventures Can you describe your personal investment experience and what brought you to Robin Hood Ventures and Investors' Circle? Prior to getting involved in angel investing, I spent eight years in medical device development, in the cardio division of B. Braun Medical, Inc.  In the 90s, I moved from engineering into marketing and then into product development and launch.  At another company, I did strategic and finance work on an executive level, creating marketing, global strategy, and finance initiatives.  When I moved to Philadelphia, I wanted to switch gears and started consulting with start up companies.  Start ups don’t have much money, so they’d often offer equity instead of payment, and that led me into angel investing.  I started angel investing in 2005 and am now...

A closer look by Alexandra LaForge, Investors' Circle Founded in 2009 by serial entrepreneur Amanda Steinberg, DailyWorth offers women financial empowerment.  DailyWorth’s business model is based around email, reaching more than 250,000 email subscribers daily with practical finance advice, sponsored content, and subscriber stories.  DailyWorth earns revenue by providing highly targeted email sponsorships to financial services companies and has raised two rounds of funding with IC member investors. Raising capital can be “excruciatingly painful for entrepreneurs – it’s a full time job, in addition to running your company and showing ground breaking traction and performance,” according to Steinberg.  She maintains that what kept her going was that she believed there was a massive market opportunity and the model was...

How would you describe your business? Alter Eco is a values-based brand of specialty food products that brings sustainable, delicious, exotic, and healthy ingredients from around the world to people here in the United States and Canada while directly benefiting farming communities in the Global South. Directly from the farmers, Alter Eco brings food products that capture distinct attributes of various regions around the world including: ancient supergrain Royal Quinoa from the Bolivian Andes, heirloom Jasmine Rice from Northern and East Thailand, Amazon-grown and Swiss-made dark chocolate bars, and unrefined ground Mascobado cane sugar from The Philippines.  What impact do you hope to have with your company? Our company growth will benefit the 25,000+ farming families of the Global South from which we buy our delectable products.  We believe we can make can a...

How would you describe your business? Everyone Counts is the world's leading provider of state-of-the-art election administration and voting systems for government and private organizations. We uniquely combine world-class expertise in technology, computer security, usability and election administration. Continually innovating to meet customer needs, Everyone Counts’ patent pending innovations are quickly becoming the industry standard globally. What impact do you hope to have with your company? Everyone Counts ensures that every person in every democracy in the world that is legally entitled to vote can do so privately, independently and securely.  By increasing transparency and auditability in elections and improving access for voters, Everyone Counts gives voters confidence that their vote was accurately received and counted. What has been your biggest...

How would you describe your business? Mamma Chia is a San Diego based company and the creator of the first-to-market, organic chia seed beverage. We have a passion for chia, the planet and her people!  Mamma Chia’s Vitality Beverages, winner of BevNET’s 2011 award for “Best Non-Carbonated Beverage,” pairs the highest quality organic chia seeds with delicious organic fruit juices. The result is a drinking experience that is fun for your mouth and great for your body! What impact do you hope to have with your company? Mamma Chia is a Certified B Corporation, a member of 1% For the Planet and a founding member of the Slow Money Alliance. We donate 1% of our gross sales to support farmers, community groups and organizations that are building healthy, local food systems. We are committed not only to be the leader in chia-based foods and beverages, but...

By Jamie Shea, Social Venture Fund at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Wharton, Stern and the London Business School. What do these schools have in common? They have all contacted me about how they too can start a student-led social venture fund as part of their MBA program.  However, it was not school administrators whom I was speaking with, but rather motivated students who wanted to learn about social enterprise investing through a real world application and to shape the future of business education. They were calling me because I am the external relations director of the University of Michigan Social Venture Fund at the Ross School of Business (SvF). Many schools have traditional venture funds where students are involved with the investment analysis/decisions, and social enterprise education has become one of the fastest...

By Ben Bingham, 3 Sisters Sustainable Management Thanks for the chance to say a few words to the IC community.  First, I would like to honor my brother, Hiram (Tony) Bingham who passed away not so long ago, who was a pioneering IC member, and who broke the rules in ’93 and gave me the IC Directory, introducing me to this wonderful network and kicking off my career in finding, fostering and funding socially relevant businesses.  Tony had named and led Caithness away from Uranium and Gold to Geothermal and his first investment was a home-run both financially and in terms of energy efficiency: the geothermal plant in Coho Springs has provided electricity to LA while providing, I understand, multiple returns to the early investors for decades.  When he left Caithness to found Davenport Ventures, we did some work together and he liked to say that the secret to...

By Sean Greene, Small Business Adminstration SBA recently licensed our first nationally-focused Impact Investment Fund, SJF Ventures III, LP. The fund will make equity investments in growth-stage clean-tech and positive-impact companies in targeted clean energy businesses nationwide. It is part of the President’s Startup America initiative aimed at helping small businesses create new jobs and drive innovation and competitiveness. SJF Ventures III, LP is yet another important new ally in SBA’s commitment to foster small business growth and job creation. The fund has an experienced team that is well-positioned to drive more investment in clean energy small businesses and SBA is committed to continue to grow this and other public-private partnerships by licensing more funds and putting more capital in the hands of small business owners to grow and create good...

An interview with Tom Mills, IC member mentor Have you had any great mentors and what is the most valuable thing(s) they've taught you? Yes, I’ve been very lucky to have a few of them, including my business partner today.  From her, I’ve learned to take the time to think through and hear the other person’s perspective.  I’d say the other most valuable thing I’ve learned, from another mentor, is: ask for the order! What, if anything, has been your experience as a mentor before, and what made you interested in participating in this program? I’ve been a board member for both for-profit and non-profit organizations, and that’s a mentoring role, in its way.  As a board member, you’re trying to give the organization the tools and information to allow it to succeed, and that can be incredibly gratifying –...

By Beth Richardson, GIIRS GIIRS (pronounced “gears”, stands for Global Impact Investing Rating System) is a ratings and analytics platform for impact investing that provides comparable and verified social and environmental performance data on high impact funds and companies seeking investment capital. Since its launch in September 2011 at the Clinton Global Initiative, GIIRS Ratings & Analytics has achieved important milestones. To date, 50 Pioneer Funds have committed to GIIRS ratings, representing a diverse range of investment vehicles that address the financing needs of entrepreneurs across developed, emerging and frontier markets. Currently, 25 Pioneer Funds and over 150 Pioneer Companies have completed the GIIRS ratings process and in doing so set themselves apart as bold leaders in the impact investing field, embracing common performance standards,...

By Tom Balderston & Sky Lance, Patient Capital Collaboration The Patient Capital Collaborative (PCC) is a series of venture capital funds that invest in Investors’ Circle companies.   PCC funds are typically raised every 18 months and generally invest in four to six promising IC companies each.   PCC funds offer meaningful portfolio diversity, and limited partners are encouraged to invest across a series of PCC funds to create as large and diversified a portfolio of triple bottom line venture investments as suits each limited partner’s asset allocation. The funds are led by seasoned General Partners and are overseen by Investment Committees that are made up of experienced business leaders in the Sustainable Future field. The funds are open to accredited individual investors only. The first PCC fund, raised in the fall of 2007, has $1.5...

By Michael Bartner, Slow Money Slow Money crossed many thresholds in 2011. Over $16 million has now been invested in 95 small food enterprises throughout the country. Fourteen Slow Money Chapters are now in existence (10 more in formation) and local investing is happening in a dozen regions. There are three local investment clubs and two more in formation. Slow Money has more than 200 Founding Members, 2,300 total members and 23,000 Signatories to the Slow Money Principles.  The Soil Trust, a 100% "mission-related investment" philanthropic fund, is in formation.    With its focus on soil fertility and local food systems, Slow Money is bringing together a diverse constituency including angel investors, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, foodies, and, increasingly, individuals who are looking for a real alternative to Wall Street...

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Jed Emerson and Antony Bugg-Levine’s new book, Impact Investing, and Socap11 discussion have left the term “both/and” ringing in many ears.  According to Emerson and Bugg-Levine, we live in a bifurcated world where the notions of making a difference and making money are mutually exclusive.  Yet the authors believe that through the emergence and formalization of impact investing, we can move away from either making a difference or making money to both making a difference and making money. “Both/and” may be the new way to explain impact investing, though it may not be so new in practice. Investors’ Circle founding members, many of them entrepreneurs who had grown successful companies that value employees, support communities, and protect the environment, came together to use their resources to support the next wave of high impact and...

Message from Cliff David – President, IC Philly After launching as a pilot program in 2009, we are very excited to announce that the Investors’ Circle Philadelphia Chapter has formalized.  The chapter consists of 15 members that meet monthly at Blank Rome, LLP on the second Wednesday of each month.  To date the group has made two investments; PublicStuff and DailyWorth.  Both companies are led by innovative entrepreneurs.  PublicStuff, which has developed a platform that enables small to midsize cities to interact with their residents, creating enhanced civic engagement through Web and mobile applications, was the first company funded by Investors Circle, Philadelphia. DailyWorth, the second investment, is a community of women who talk money.  DailyWorth makes complex financial concepts simple.  It stands out as the go-to source about...

Can you describe your personal investment experience and what led you to Murex Investments? Two things about my relevant experience: First, I started in strategy and growth consulting and entered Murex at the associate level when I was quite young. Second, before that I taught chemistry, biology, and ecology to high school students for three years.  My first social venture was helping to build the first for-profit children’s museum in the Philadelphia suburbs.  So I’ve been around education, for-profit ventures and investing for a long time, and about three or four years ago, we invested in our first ed-tech company. What does Murex Investments focus on?  What is your investment strategy? Education technology has become a larger focus within Murex because of enthusiasm for the industry and also my partner, Joel’s experience on a number of...

Could you tell us briefly what Drop the Chalk does? Drop the Chalk builds web-based software applications for use in results oriented classrooms.  Our flagship product, Kickboard, allows teachers and school leaders to collect everything from grades, preparedness, attendance, behavior, rewards and consequences, and anecdotes about students.  It’s teacher friendly with a focus on providing data to spot trends and make more informed decision in the classroom. Why is it exciting to be building a company in the education space right now?  It’s not a question of if reform will happen but of when. My background includes tech experience and formal training in computer science as well as first hand teaching experience, and I understand that the landscape is ripe for innovation – and public policy is realizing the need for innovation as well. ...

How would you describe your business? Castlewood Surgical provides a medical device which helps surgeons to overcome the stroke risk of Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery, which is done 350,000 times per year in the US alone.. What impact do you hope to have with your company?  Reduce the stroke risk of patients undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery. What has been your biggest challenge as an entrepreneur?  As an incoming CEO to start-up companies, convincing company founders to change their scientific centric views in order to get the company funded and into the market. What has been your most recent accomplishment?  Driving my last company into the hands of Bain Capital and being with my current company after 3 month market launch in over 20 clinics already. Return to Newsletter...

How would you describe your business? DailyWorth delivers practical tips on personal finance to over 100,000 women's inboxes daily. Founded in 2009 as a trusted platform for women to learn about money management, DailyWorth has since stood out as the go-to source about personal finance for women, garnering a stream of media appearances including NYT, Cosmo, and Inc. What impact do you hope to have with your company? Beyond the tactical steps to move the needle in women’s bank accounts, DailyWorth seeks to empower women around the topic of finance—to replace the negative, defeated thoughts with positive, empowering ones—by providing an open and honest community of women who talk money.  What has been your biggest challenge as an entrepreneur? Launching DailyWorth and giving birth to my daughter - in the same week - was no easy...

How would you describe your business? Emerge is a social company. Our goal is to provide better borrowing choices for the 50 million workers in the US living paycheck-to-paycheck with little to no access to savings. Emerge provides workplace-based affordable personal loan products and financial counseling services designed to help underbanked workers obtain small dollar loans, build credit, establish savings plans, avoid predatory lenders and improve their overall financial stability. What impact do you hope to have with your company?  We believe there’s a scalable, sustainable business model for migrating millions of underbanked workers to mainstream banking relationships through their workplace. Through our workplace benefit, we hope to give workers access to the tools and resources they need to stay out of debt, build financial stability, and change their...

How would you describe your business? Peepoople offers a totally new, sustainable and easily scalable solution to providing hygienic and dignified sanitation to the world's poor. The Peepoo is a self-sanitising biodegradable single-use toilet that after use turns into safe high-value fertiliser. The main focus areas are urban slums, schools, emergencies and refugee camps. Peepoople was founded in 2006 with HQs in Stockholm, Sweden. What impact you hope to have with company? Peepoople addresses one of the world's biggest problems - the fact that 2.6 billion people don't have a toilet. Peepoople's mission is to save lives by providing access to hygienic, dignified and affordable sanitation for the most vulnerable people on earth.  What has been your biggest challenges as an entrepreneur? Securing a low enough cost for the Peepoo...

Robert Foster, Capitopia Strategies Why do Fish Matter? Imagine a future where only the extravagantly wealthy eat ocean fish.  Farmed fish are a rare indulgence for the upper-middle classes.  And, the billion plus individuals that now depend on fish for their primary source of protein are banished to unconscionable poverty. This may seem impossible given the vastness of the ocean and nature’s capacity for resilience, yet if current trends continue the scenario described above may not be that far off.    The Good News The good news is that despite the dire state of our oceans overall, as an investor you can be encouraged by -- and build on -- existing work with both markets and policy. Venture capital has already been mobilized around marine fisheries.  For example, in 2005 the Packard Foundation and California Environmental...

Don Shaffer, RSF Social Finance At a SOCAP special session on September 8, RSF Social Finance presented and released its white paper, “A New Foundation for Portfolio Management.” This paper, authored by Leslie Christian, CEO of Portfolio 21 Investments with support from Don Shaffer, President and CEO of RSF, challenges current assumptions about risk, growth and utility, and proposes new principles to bring portfolio theory into the 21st century. One of RSF’s operating principles is inquiry. We ask difficult questions challenging ourselves to think differently about money and investments. It was through this process of inquiry that both RSF and Leslie Christian realized that the assumptions we rely on to guide our investment strategy are no longer appropriate for the environment we are living in or for having the social impact we seek. The white paper...

Jonathan Storper, Partner, Hanson Bridgett, LLP Co-Chair California Benefit Corporation Legal Working Group Current corporate laws do not provide impact investors with the shareholder rights to guard against their early-stage impact investments suffering mission-creep through successive capital raises.  Shareholders of Benefit Corporations possess additional rights to hold the corporation accountable to pursue mission as well as margin. Benefit Corporation legislation has already been passed in five states (Maryland, Vermont, Hawaii, Virginia and New Jersey) and is moving forward with broad bi-partisan support in several more states (see sidebar). It is on the governor's desk awaiting signature in both New York and California. Unfortunately, Governor Jerry Brown has indicated he may veto many of the bills on his desk and so we need your help today (right now) to persuade...

Investors’ Circle is proud to partner with The Hitachi Foundation and its Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneurs Program.  The Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneurs Program identifies and supports inspiring young entrepreneurs who are operating businesses that create greater economic opportunity and help to improve the lives of low-wealth individuals in America. The program is open to entrepreneurs who are operating viable businesses in the United States with the dual purpose of making a difference and making a living. Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneurs receive a grant from The Hitachi Foundation and technical resources in the form of a mentorship program organized by Investors’ Circle. Cliff David, mentor to the inaugural class of Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneurs, was paird with GTECH, a Pittsburgh- based non-profit social enterprise dedicated to growing new opportunities for sustainable...

  GIIRS Ratings & Analytics was launched in September at Clinton Global Initiative along with a commitment from 15 GIIRS Pioneer Investors who represent $1.5 billion in impact assets. These investors have declared as part of their impact investing strategy an investment preference for GIIRS-rated funds and companies. In addition, three GIIRS Pioneer Funders - Deloitte, Prudential and Rockefeller Foundation - have pledged $4 million in philanthropic funding to accelerate industry adoption of the platform. GIIRS Impact Ratings provide investors for the first time with a comprehensive, comparable and third party verified assessment of companies’ and funds’ social and environmental impact.  The GIIRS Analytics platform gives investors uniquely powerful tools to analyze aggregated and verified social and environmental impact data across geography, sector,...

The Patient Capital Collaborative (PCC) is a series of venture capital funds that invest in Investors’ Circle companies.   PCC funds are typically raised every 18 months and generally invest in four to six promising IC companies each.   PCC funds offer meaningful portfolio diversity, and limited partners are encouraged to invest across a series of PCC funds to create as large and diversified a portfolio of triple bottom line venture investments as suits each limited partner’s asset allocation. The funds are led by seasoned General Partners and are overseen by Investment Committees that are made up of experienced business leaders in the Sustainable Future field. The funds are open to accredited individual investors only. The first PCC fund, raised in the fall of 2007, has $1.5 million in commitments and invested in four IC companies.  The...

  “Slow Money is critical to the future of social investing.” —Robert Zevin (often called the father of socially responsible investing) What could make more sense than the idea of a million Americans investing 1% of their money in local food systems within a decade?  It makes so much sense that NPR has called Slow Money  “a movement” and ACRES USA has called it "a revolution." Slow Money crossed many thresholds in 2010. Approximately $4 million was invested in small food enterprises that presented at their National Gathering last June, which brought together 600 people from 30 states and a few foreign countries.  Some two dozen local Slow Money chapters are emerging around the country, with local investing begun in five locales. National...