Summary
This report provides detailed information about the investing activity and trends in 11 countries in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. It outlines challenges and opportunities for impact investors and analyses political and economic factors that may inform investment decisions in each country.
The following is provided for each country:
- an overview of the country’s social and economic context;
- the activities of impact investors, including the volume of investment activity;
- the characteristics of organisations and enterprises receiving impact investing capital;
- information on the supporting ecosystem, including the roles played by accelerators, incubators,
- networks, and policymakers;
- gender lens investing awareness and activity; and
- a discussion of key challenges and opportunities for growing the market.
Building on existing research, the report uses deal-level data to provide first-of-its-kind quantitative analysis of the impact investing landscape in Southeast Asia. Findings are based on primary research conducted with over 100 stakeholders, a thorough review of existing research, and aggregate analysis of 514 impact deals between 2007 and 2017.
This report is published by the Global Impact Investing Network and Intellicap, with support from Investing in Women.
Highlights
- Southeast Asia’s impact investing landscape has grown, with $904 million from private impact investors and $11.3 billion from Development Finance Institutions deployed since 2007.
- Despite growth, the region’s impact investing market remains fragmented due to varying economic development stages and entrepreneurial ecosystem maturity levels.
- Development Finance Institutions dominate impact capital deployment, while private impact investors show increased activity since 2013.
- Major gaps in seed-stage impact capital persist, as investors prefer to make larger, later-stage investments exceeding $1 million due to high sourcing costs.
- Investments focus on financial inclusion, basic services, and livelihoods sectors, with limited awareness and intermediary support on gender lens investment.
