Why Sustainable Food is Key to Impact Investing in China
This article originally appeared in Next Billion
I first came across the concept of impact investing when I was studying at the Harvard Kennedy School about ten years ago. It immediately captured my imagination, as I was seeking something that could professionally leverage both my experience in the business field and my public service background. This explains why not long afterwards I had the opportunity to lead New Ventures, an impact accelerator housed at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington that supported environmental small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia and Mexico.
In 2012, New Ventures successfully transitioned out of WRI with the objective of giving all local and regional centers independence to move into their next phase of development. Around the same time, with initial support from a Hong Kong-based family foundation and a few high-net-worth individuals in mainland China, I co-founded the China Impact Fund (CIF) as China’s first impact investing vehicle for environmental SMEs. A couple years later, Dao Ventures was formed as a China-U.S. consortium of various entities, including CIF, to encompass both China-based and cross-border impact investing.