Impact investing may have originated in the West. Its future is being shaped in the East. From Singapore to South Korea, Japan to Hong Kong, investors in a mosaic of Asia-Pacific markets are leaning into Asia’s distinctive edge in the global impact investment ecosystem: patient capital, intergenerational stewardship and disciplined innovation.
The driver: a rising, intergenerational “now generation” steering the region’s innovative operating businesses and investment portfolios toward sustainability and social impact.
“There’s this undercurrent of energy and willingness to try and come together,” Katy Yung, who leads the Hong Hong-based Sustainable Finance Initiative, tells ImpactAlpha’s Dennis Price on the latest Agents of Impact podcast. “The reality is it has to be an intergenerational effort.”