​Ripple Hosts

​Chris Corbishley

​BNVT Capital

​Madeleine Evans

​Generation Investment Management

​TL;DR

​This Ripple tackles how impact investing can scale by aligning returns with real business value—not just mission. It’s about rebuilding trust and making climate core to strategy.

​Topic overview

​Why is the topic relevant?

​This topic is crucial because “impact” investing has struggled to scale, and we need to rethink how to deliver both measurable financial returns and meaningful change. Many impact funds have historically poured money into philanthropic assets, prioritizing mission over returns. While well-intentioned, this approach has lowered LP confidence in the broader asset class, making it harder to attract the scalable capital needed to address systemic issues. Additionally, political decisions related to the U.S elections, such as withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and rolling back methane emissions rules under the Trump administration, have deprioritized climate solutions that lack clear financial incentives. Looking ahead to September 2025, this topic will likely be even more pressing, as private companies and investors face increasing pressure to make climate and impact an institutional responsibility. The challenge lies in aligning solutions with business constraints—solutions that merely identify inefficiencies without providing tangible value often led companies to cut spending or prioritize short-term gains over transformative, long-term opportunities. Rethinking this alignment via non-obvious impact investing is key to ensuring “big problem” initiatives can truly scale.

​What’s up for discussion?

• ​We aim to explore a range of perspectives by including companies that embody varying degrees of alignment with this thesis, examining where the line lies between genuine impact and surface-level sustainability efforts. A key focus will be on how to identify and tackle real problems first, ensuring solutions are designed to address these challenges meaningfully. We would also want to address greenwashing and how strict methodologies pushed stakeholders to focus on optics rather than outcomes. We will also delve into methods for quantifying the positive externalities these solutions have on the world and society, including their impact on key stakeholders. Additionally, we also hope to highlight examples of “non-obvious” plays in this space, using companies like Zoom as a case study to showcase how businesses can deliver financial returns while creating broader societal (and planetary!) value. It would be awesome to also highlight companies that would join the Ripple as case studies.

​Dream outcome

​We would like to spark new ideas about how and where impact can come from - where attendees leave with a clearer understanding of how financial returns and solving systemic global problems can be complementary. We would love founders in the Ripple to share their stories with the audience, and showcase how their missions are leading to ripple-effect impacts across the planet and society. We want to inspire investors, founders, regulators, operators and advisors to broaden their imaginations on impact - leaving the panel with concrete ideas for investment strategies or internal initiatives that push boundaries.

​Who should attend?

​This Ripple should attract LPs, investors, operators, and founders who are passionate about solving systemic problems but are equally committed to ensuring those solutions drive financial returns. We would also want thought leaders in climate tech, industrial efficiency, and adjacent sectors, as well as anyone exploring the intersection of impact and innovation.