The History of Impact Investment Group

We are known as the Impact Investment Group (IIG) in South-Africa and are based in Sandton, Johannesburg. The group is primarily involved in large, private business project fund raising and management.

IIG is involved in numerous venture capital and private equity/debt opportunities and assist with fund management for projects in South Africa, that contribute to human flourishing and economic growth.

As an impact investment company, the Impact Investment Group of companies focuses on investments that, along with generating financial returns for our investors, also seeks to achieve a positive and measurable socio-economic or positive environmental impact.

Our partners in the not-for-profit sector contribute greatly towards our overall vision and business goals.

These SEVEN UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are where our focus lies currently, but we include a number of other key socio-economic imperatives of Africa-relevant, authentic impact investing.  Our team specialises in identifying African specific needs and challenges, as experienced by many citizens of this wonderful continent.

Impact Investing is not a new concept and identifies investments that bring wider benefits to communities. Impact Investing must deliver both financial and socio-economic returns on investment. Some of the most rewarding returns are not financial in fact.

Issues such as peace, justice, the gender matters and reducing inequalities, seem common “First-World” impact investing targets. We here at the Impact Investment Group, have directed our attention and resources to Africa-centric problems, that require African solutions.

Once high-quality, profitable projects are started and sustained here, we shall start to address some of the many needs and challenges, as identified by local inhabitants of the regions in which the residents spend most of their lives. 

These specific SDGs attended to by IIG, address job-enhancing education needs, clean water and sanitation, sustainable and affordable energy provision, permanent job creation, small and profitable private-enterprise establishment, food security through agri-tech, rural small-scale farming and lastly, we contribute to affordable housing solutions.

We are of the strong opinion that these four UN SDGs are of greater importance in Africa and are fundamental to nation-building, than in other regions such as Europe, where social issues, domestic consumption, and production, seem more important.

There is a clear need for innovative funding in Africa.  Capital formation is rudimentary in many countries and inadequate, mostly due to poor reporting and lack of confidence from the funder’s side, in the ability of the recipient of funds in large quantities, to deliver suitable, positive impact investing results, both financial and socio-economic.

Avenues for capital formation, along with investment channels, are still underdeveloped in much of Africa. We aim to contribute positively towards improving this African need, by designing appropriate structures to help facilitate funding African businesses. We promote businesses that lead to and facilitate human flourishing, through our involvement in small and large projects and regional circular economic growth where possible.

One of our most successful fundraising opportunities over the past five years, has come through making appropriate use of Section 12J of the South Income Tax Act. This Treasury introduced fund raising mechanism was opened to assist funding small and medium sized private businesses. Unfortunately, Section 12J was discontinued, by Treasury in June 2021, despite its growing success in funding new businesses, who were mostly unable to get the necessary funding from traditional financial institutions.

We embrace the unfolding of the 4th Industrial Revolution in the global economy. This is an essential dimension to incorporate into African enterprise development, especially to facilitate small and medium enterprise growth, if we are to achieve long-term Africa sustainability and prosperity.

Our companies currently work closely with two non-profit companies in South Africa.  Both focus on ground-level matters of great concern to residents in the areas where they do sterling work. We have committed financial and non-financial resources in these two, well managed and passionate teams, who have employees and volunteers who live in the communities where they function and work tirelessly, to improve the quality of life, and standard of living.

Our holding company is in Botswana, where we have a long-term strategy which includes establishing operations across Africa in future.

We exist to help discover African Solutions to African problems.