Path to Impact Investing Firms?

Hi there WSO. I am currently an undergrad at a target interested in ultimately being at an impact investing firm for my career. Because impact investing seems to be a bit more niche, I haven't been able to find a lot of resources about it from my school -- most info is geared toward getting into banking or traditional PE -- or from this site. 

From my research so far, it seems like impact investing firms aren't super accessible directly out of undergrad (correct me if I'm wrong), so I'm a bit unsure on the path to breaking in. My intuition is that you have to gain some experience in banking or traditional PE first and then lateral over, but that's just my guess. Hopefully someone who is at an impact investing firm or knows more about the process can provide more clarity. Thanks in advance!

 

Many traditional PE firms have impact investing / ESG funds now. At their core, they are middle market funds with a bias towards industrials/energy because they will be targeting clean tech, renewables infra/tech etc.

You can go there from IB or IB—>PE to lateral. I think there is a lot of hype around them tbh from undergrads...I have not heard of any impact funds that have killed it. It’s usually offered as a product by large PE firms for their LPs who want ESG exposure.

 

goldennuggets05

Thanks for the insight. In your opinion, do these traditional PE firms' ESG funds actually make a substantial impact or are they more or less a marketing ploy?

I guess what’s your standard of “impact”? No fund is doing Gates Foundation type impact/ESG. It’s more so traditional company with some sort of ESG angle.

 

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