Strengthening trust, transparency, and accountability for the impact of investments

BlueMark IQ is backed by funding from Ford Foundation, S&P Global, Temasek Trust Capital, and Tsao Family Office. BlueMark, the market’s leading provider of independent impact assessments and market intelligence for the investment industry, today announced the launch of the BlueMark IQ platform, which is custom-designed to make it easier for asset allocators to identify, […]

Research collaboration between Builders Vision, Tideline and BlueMark highlights the impact of fixed income investments

Despite its status as the world’s largest asset class, fixed income is rarely thought of as a vehicle for social or environmental impact. A new research collaboration between Builders Vision, Tideline and BlueMark presents impact investing in fixed income (or “impact fixed income”) as an accessible and attractive means of generating positive impacts for people and the planet, without any financial trade-off.

Critical and widely recognized social and environmental challenges, such as broadening access to economic opportunities and strengthening climate resilience, require bold, often capital-intensive solutions.

The price tags far exceed the current reach of the impact investing market.

For example, reaching the Sustainable Development Goals requires investments of $6 trillion annually in areas like facilitating universal access to digital resources, curbing pollution, and transitioning to sustainable food systems. That’s four times the total assets currently allocated to impact.

Impact verification firm BlueMark has placed nine first-time entrants on its Practice Leaderboard, a list of impact investors who rank in the top quartile across eight categories of impact management.

BlueMark and Tideline—two sister firms that specialize in working with impact investors, including asset allocators, asset managers, and intermediaries—have been named Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) Sustainable Investing & Impact Community Partners. BlueMark and Tideline will provide ILPA’s LP members with insights, tools, and best practices for building and managing portfolios of impact funds.

BlueMark today announced the appointment of Nick O’Donohoe to its Board of Directors. As a prominent leader in the impact investing market, Nick’s guidance and support will be invaluable as BlueMark continues to scale its efforts to bring greater accountability and transparency to the impact investing industry. O’Donohoe brings a unique and diverse background, having led impact investing at J.P. Morgan, Better Society Capital (formerly known as Big Society Capital), and British International Investment (BII). His experience gives him a deep understanding of how BlueMark’s ratings and market intelligence can help meet the distinct data and information needs of various asset owners and allocators.

How can the complex and variable impact attributes of investment products be distilled into something that is simple to interpret and easy to use?
This challenge has animated many investors, consultants, data providers, and organiza- tions seeking to streamline the evaluation and management of investment products over the years. Within the impact investing industry, clarifying how to effectively and efficiently interpret a product’s impact credentials is a major topic of conversation, with many market participants seeing this clarity as a necessary precursor to unlocking additional capital.

Impact investing today finds itself at a crossroads, navigating a natural tension between two paths–the imperative for growth and the obligation to maintain rigorous accountability. But what if there was a middle path, one that balances scaling with safeguarding market integrity? The good news is impact investing continues to grow as more investors embrace “impact” […]

In the early days of impact investing, some investors would make the case for setting impact targets. You can’t manage what you don’t measure, they argued.
The not-always explicit response: Yes, and you can’t be held accountable for what you never promised. The latest Making the Mark report from the impact verification firm BlueMark found that only 42% of clients set impact performance targets as a condition of their investments. A larger number, 58%, work with portfolio companies to set targets after investments are made.

Where are investors well positioned to report in line with the Impact Performance Reporting Norms? And where can investors improve?

Impact verification firm BlueMark has added four investors to its Practice Leaderboard, a list of impact investors who score in the top quartile across eight categories of impact management. The new investors are BlueOrchard, Circulate Capital, Developing World Markets and Schroders. These groups join others already on the leaderboard: Bain Capital, Calvert Impact Capital, Finance in Motion, LeapFrog Investments, Nuveen Private Equity Impact and Trill Impact

BlueMark Publishes 5th Annual “Making the Mark” Report, Revealing an Increased Adoption of Core Impact Management Practices Among Impact Investors BlueMark adds four new investors – BlueOrchard, Circulate Capital, Developing World Markets, and Schroders – to the 2024 edition of the Practice Leaderboard featuring impact investors with best-in-class impact management systems and practices June 6, […]

Globally, venture capital funds make up one-third of the private impact fund universe; but in India, they account for 85 per cent. As such, these Indian funds play a leading role in investing for impact, by tackling the structural inequalities that exist in the country, while also seeking financial returns for investors. And that is putting more focus on how the funds can ‘verify’ the impact they actually make.

On boardgames and subway cars, in music videos and trendy shops, affixed to lapel pins and tote bags; the colorful Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) logo is popping up everywhere in Japan, the New York Times reports. The popularity of the SDGs is evident, with approximately 90% of Japanese people being familiar with the idea, and […]

BlueMark, an impact investing verification specialist, today named Sarah Gelfand the new President of the firm, with responsibility for co-leading BlueMark’s business strategy and team, business and product development efforts, and various market-building and standard-setting initiatives. Christina Leijonhufvud, CEO of BlueMark, will remain in her role and work closely alongside Gelfand and other senior leaders.

Who are the ‘connectors’ in sustainable private markets? Leijonhufvud named alongside Tideline co-founder Ben Thornley.

The new Impact Performance Reporting Norms, published for consultation last month by Impact Frontiers, signal an important milestone for the impact investing industry – providing much needed guidance as to what useful impact reports should include, as well as a structure for organizing the content therein.

It goes without saying, for investors looking to make smart decisions about their portfolio companies, the importance of accurate, quality, and easily comparable corporate data cannot be overstated.  Which is why the new set of globals standards (the Standards)—issued on June 26, 2023 by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) for financial and climate-related disclosures, establishing baseline […]

BlueMark today closed its Series A funding round with $10 million in capital commitments from a diverse group of seven investors. The lead investor is S&P Global, with other new investors including Temasek Trust Capital and three family offices with significant experience in impact investing — Blue Haven Initiative, Gunung Capital, and Tsao Family Office. Ford Foundation and Radicle Impact are also participating in the Series A round.