Impact Investing & Social Ventures: Risk Capital for Expanding Innovation
Columbia Business School
B8562-001 B Term, Spring, 2015
Thursdays, 2:15 – 5:30 PM, March 26 – April 30
Instructor:
Rick Larson, Senior Vice-President & Director of Special Initiatives
Natural Capital Investment Fund
Description: Impact investors seek to intentionally generate environmental and social
impacts in addition to financial returns. This emerging investment strategy is
developing around the globe as a way to expand the ability of for-profit and non-profit
ventures to scale their impacts on critical issues such as energy, water, climate change,
community development, health, sustainable development and education. It includes
venture capital, private equity, debt and specific kinds of philanthropic investment tools.
Social ventures have traditionally had few sources of expansion capital, but in the past
few years, their options have been growing as the universe of impact investors and
lenders has grown. In addition, new corporate structures, industry metrics, and
financing platforms are being developed to bring transparency to the market and
facilitate the flow of capital to social enterprises in a range of industries. From GIIRS and
Impact Assets 50, new initiatives to assess the impact of funds doing this work, to
President Obama’s recent commitment to social impact bonds, to the development of
new corporate forms including Benefit Corporations and low-profit limited liability
companies (L3Cs), the field of impact investing is growing rapidly.
In this course, students will examine the developing marketplace of impact investing from
two points of view. First, through a series of case studies of domestic and international
social ventures that need risk capital to grow, students will explore how entrepreneurs are
faring in their search for growth capital and the challenges they face in benefitting from it.
Second, students will consider how investors and lenders adapt traditional forms of
financing to support enterprises seeking both profit and mission. Case studies and guests
will explore challenges and lessons in creating successful fund and deal structures that align
various blended value objectives for both entrepreneurs and investors.
Students will complete three deliverables as part of the course, a short paper and writeups of two case studies about social ventures seeking growth financing.
The course will be taught by Rick Larson, Senior Vice President at Natural Capital Investment
Fund, a US Treasury certified CDFI. He is a former Managing Director for SJF Ventures, LP, a
$100 million mission-driven venture capital fund with offices in Durham, NC, New York, and
San Francisco. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia Business School and Duke’s
Fuqua School of Business.
Methodology The course will employ discussions of readings, case analyses of impact investors
and social ventures, and focused interactions with social entrepreneurs and financiers. Grading
will be based on:
o Class participation and one short paper (30%).
o One 2-page case analysis (35%).
o One Investment Recommendation, 1 page + exhibits (35%).
Impact Investing and Social Ventures: Risk Capital for Expanding Innovation, B Term, Spring, 2015
Impact Investing & Social Ventures: Risk Capital for Expanding Innovation
Columbia Business School
B Term, Spring, 2015
B5862-001
Syllabus
3/26
SESSION ONE
Tensions in Impact Investing
Topics: What’s unique about social and environmental innovators and their
ventures? Why do they need impact investment to go to scale? What is Impact
Investing?
o Social venture unique characteristics.
o Overview of impact investing space.
Reading:
The Impact Investor: Lessons in Leadership and Strategy for
Collaborative Capitalism, Clark, Emerson and Thornley (Jossey Bass
2015), pp. 1-12, 19-44, 58-107.
Spotlight on the Market:
Morgan/GIIN)
4/2
The Impact Investor Survey (2014) (JP
Case:
Root Capital: Investment in the Developing World (Columbia Caseworks,
2009)
SESSION TWO
How Social Venture Capital Works: Portfolio Management and
Structuring an Investment
Topics: How are venture capital funds structured? How do “social” venture funds differ?
How are social and financial value measured by social venture investors? How does the
integration of social and environmental objectives change the terms and conditions of an
investment? How do investors structure their investments to earn a return?
o Venture capital fund mechanics.
o Market creation
o Valuation and deal structuring.
Readings:
“The Pioneer Gap,” From Blueprint to Scale (Monitor,
April 2013), pp. 10-19.
“Executive Summary, Impact Investing 2.0: The Way Forward – Insight
from 12 Outstanding Funds,” (PCV, Impact Assets, Duke University
Fuqua School of Business, November 2013).
“How Venture Capital Works,” Zider (HBR).
Introduction to Termsheets, ANDE
Case:
Acumen Fund and Embrace: From the Leading Edge of Social Venture
Investing (Stanford Graduate School of Business, April 2011).
Syllabus -Impact Investing and Social Ventures: Risk Capital for Expanding Innovation, B Term, Spring,
2015, p 1
4/9
SESSION THREE
How Social VC Works: Measurement and Results
Topics: How do individual companies and funds set their social and environmental
standards? Are impact and “market rate” financial return mutually exclusive? What risks
do liquidity events pose for mission-driven companies? Can standards and metrics help
expand the field of impact investment?
o Overview of social venture capital funds.
o Metrics.
Readings:
“A New World of Metrics: Trends in Monitoring Social Return,”
Clark and Emerson, in “Investing For Impact,” Credit Suisse Research
Institute, 2012, pp. 31-35.
SJF Ventures: Positive Impact Report, 2013.
GIIRS 2011 Progress Report
4/16
Case (WRITE UP):
SJF Ventures & Ryla Teleservices (Leamon, Community
Development Venture Capital Alliance, 2004).
SESSION FOUR
Innovations in Non-Profit Social Venture Financing
Topics: How and where do non-profit social ventures attract risk capital? What challenges
does a non-profit structure create for expansion capital?
o Structuring debt as equity.
o Foundations: PRIs & MRIs.
o Non-profit lending entities and structures.
Readings:
Miller, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Understanding Nonprofit Capital
Structure” (The Nonprofit Quarterly, Spring, 2003).
Miller, “The Equity Capital Gap,” (Stanford Social Innovation Review,
June 1, 2008).
“The World Has Changed and So Must We,” Clara Miller, President,
The F.B. Heron Foundation, 2013.
Case:
4/23 SESSION FIVE
Partners for the Common Good/FirstBook Marketplace (Columbia
CaseWorks, 2008).
Innovations for Governments and Individuals
Topics: How are governments, investment structures, and angel investing changing to
respond to the desire for impact in investments?
Case:
Social Finance, Inc. (HBS, 2012)
Case Study:
Deutsche Bank Global Commercial Microfinance Consortium I,
Impact Investing 2.0, November 2013
Syllabus: Impact Investing & Social Ventures: Risk Capital for Expanding Innovation, B Term, Spring, 2014,
p2
Readings:
“Foundations for Social Impact Bonds: How and Why
Philanthropy Is Catalyzing the Development of a New
Market,” Social Finance, 2014.
Impact Assets 50 2011 (Impact Assets).
Guest Speaker:
4/30 SESSION SIX
Casey Littlefield, Director, Social Finance US
Going to Scale: Matching Form and Function
Topics: How does the Impact Investing industry need to evolve to help take
innovation to scale? How can non-profit social ventures utilize innovative structures to
attract equity capital? What structures and mechanisms are being developed to protect a
company’s social/environmental mission in the face of leadership or ownership changes?
o Determining the right financing and legal structure to facilitate growth.
o For profit spin-offs.
CASE (WRITEUP):
TransFair USA in 2006: How to Finance Growth? (Columbia CaseWorks,
2012).
Syllabus: Impact Investing & Social Ventures: Risk Capital for Expanding Innovation, B Term, Spring, 2014,
p3