Private Market Impact Investing: A Turning Point

The report argues that private market impact investing has reached an inflection point, moving from a niche area dominated by endowments to a mainstream asset class involving large pension and sovereign wealth funds. It highlights the proliferation of scaled products across infrastructure, private equity, and private credit, and the emergence of industry-standard frameworks for measurement and verification. While demand from large asset owners continues to outstrip supply, the document notes a virtuous cycle of increasing track records and more sophisticated fund features, such as impact-linked carried interest, which are now being integrated into broader investment platforms.

• The impact investing market has grown significantly, with the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) estimating its size at $1.16 trillion at the end of 2021, more than doubling from $502 billion at the end of 2018.
• There is a growing trend of established general partners (GPs) launching scaled impact funds, with 25 asset managers raising over $1 billion in impact capital each between 2017 and 2022, totaling over $80 billion.
• Impact fund products are diversifying beyond traditional growth equity to include infrastructure, buyouts, venture, private credit, and real assets, enabling larger allocations from pension and sovereign wealth funds.
• Demand for scaled impact and energy transition products from large asset owners continues to exceed the available supply, a mismatch that is expected to persist.
• The industry is coalescing around standardized impact management and measurement frameworks, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the IRIS+ metrics, and the Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM).
• New, more rigorous fund features are emerging to differentiate impact platforms, most notably impact-linked carried interest, where remuneration is tied to the achievement of impact targets.
• Best practices from dedicated impact funds are being transferred to traditional flagship funds, particularly in the areas of ESG integration and the identification of opportunities to reposition business models for greater positive impact.

APA

World Economic Forum (2023). Private Market Impact Investing: A Turning Point. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Private_Market_Impact_Investing_2023.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Private Market Impact Investing: A Turning Point. 2023. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Private_Market_Impact_Investing_2023.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Private Market Impact Investing: A Turning Point |date=April 2023 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Private_Market_Impact_Investing_2023.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2023private, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Private Market Impact Investing: A Turning Point}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2023}, month = apr, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Private_Market_Impact_Investing_2023.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }