The term impact investing first appeared in 2007 at a Rockefeller Foundation meeting. It is defined as an investment with the intention of generating a positive social and environmental impact as well as a financial return.
Supported by powerful institutional actors at the international level (G8, OECD and UN), impact investing is growing. At the end of 2020, the size of the market was estimated at US$715 billion by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), a network of actors considered to be a major player in the impact-investing ecosystem.
