Chris is the Founder of Impact Ventures NZ which is a partner in the Impact Enterprise Fund which recently completed a first close having raised $8 million dollars for impact investing in New Zealand. In this interview we talk about his background and work as an investment banker before the decision to get into impact investing. We also discuss what impact investing actually is and what you look for when you go to invest such a fund which is commercially focused and wants market returns but also wants to have impact in other ways too. We also talk about developments in New Zealand in this sector such as the Social Enterprise World Forum in 2017, the role of Ākina and the network of impact investors that is developing as well as the Edmund Hillary Fellowship (Chris is a part of the first cohort).

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissimcock/

Info on the fund: http://www.newground.co.nz/impact-enterprise-fund/

Impact Investing Network NZ: https://www.impactinvestingnetwork.nz/

EHF description: https://stories.ehf.org/ehf-fellow-chris-simcock-79b2994226de

Book mentioned is by Derek Handley: Heart to Start https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/heart-to-start-9780143771548