NEW PODCAST! Sound Funding with Arnaud Gillin
Arnaud Gillin, Co-founding Partner of Innpact, was Ryan Grant Little from EVPA’s guest for the “Conversations with Europe’s Leading Experts in Impact investing” – Episode 9 – 11 June 2022
In this episode, Arnaud looks back at the history of Innpact, how their search for the “why” turned them into a mission-driven company: “Our mission is to facilitate the development of impact investing, helping in the creation and management of impact investment structures.”
Since its inception, Innpact has set up 33 funds, working with both small and big structures, providing them with legal, governance, operational services, impact management and measurement, and financial structuring services. “We help them operate the best investment structure to generate their impact.” A B Corp since 2015, Innpact identifies with this mission and is determined to share its knowledge.
Referring to market trends, Arnaud was pleased to see the increase in initiatives in impact investing. “It’s good to have this race” towards positive environmental and social impact, this healthy competition is “great for the planet.” But the increase of demand in impact finance has automatically led to more regulation of the market, and made it more complex for the funds:
“The most difficult part in launching a fund is the fundraising. If you can get rid of the technicalities by hiring external help who says ‘this is the way you can set up a fund’, you (the fund initiator) can save time and focus on what is really key. Our advice is to focus on your team, your pipeline and fundraising. These are the 3 things that consultants cannot do for you, you have to do it yourself.
If you are stuck with questions such as: ‘What domicile should I select? How do I draft a timesheet? how do I integrate SFDR?’ and you spend 80% of your time on this, it’s not a good use of your time because you are the only one who is able to do the rest.”
Listen to the full podcast on the EVPA website (44 min)
