Impact Investments. The emergence of a new beacon in investing

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes the development of impact investing. It is a growing and maturing field of investments for various investors with numerous instruments in different asset classes. It describes the impact investing as a crystallization point of different initiatives-ranging from socially responsible investments to mission-related investing and to development finance. It demonstrates that impact investing is a colourful field of contributions from a multitude of investors with different objectives, needs, resources and expectations. Impact investors vary significantly in their objectives, practices and capital allocations. The book discusses three dimensions that can be distinguished: investors and investment regions, the investment market, and returns. Impact investing distinguishes itself from socially responsible investing, program-related investing, mission-related investing and traditional development finance by its focus on measuring outputs, outcomes and, potentially, impact.