This plenary session features the author of the seminal report ‘Coordinating Impact Capital: A New Approach to Investing in Small and Growing Businesses’ in conversation with a thought leader on the role of philanthropic capital. They discuss the state of the impact investing field and the work that remains to build an investing ecosystem that can realize its goal to scale social enterprises and yield handsome returns. This will include a frank discussion about the lack of exits for social investments, the threat to follow-on funds being raised, and the further participation of interested capital in the sector. The session will also introduce specific examples of potential solutions that may form a grand unified theory of impact investing, details of which will be further explored in the follow-on panel and workshop.
