Vital Capital seeks to identify what it calls "overlooked opportunities to build successful, scalable businesses that transform lives".
The impact investor in "growth markets" has a focus on sub-Saharan Africa and on challenges associated with the provision of water, food, healthcare, and sustainable infrastructure, with a view to turn them into high-return opportunities that can deliver impact at scale.
With $350 million in assets under management, Vital Capital reports it has invested in 16 companies since it was formed in 2011.
Vital Capital reports its investments in 2022 supported 10,429 jobs and livelihoods – of which 38% are women, mitigated over 95,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions through renewable energy solutions and provided more than 60,000 individuals with access to energy.
Vital Capital says its impact strategy has been developed to demonstrate the causal relationships between thematic activities, outputs, outcomes, and long-term impact objectives that are linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
"These ensure that our impact objectives are tied intrinsically with our investment strategy and that 100% of our investments create impact," commented Tamar Pashtan, head of ESG & Impact at Vital Capital.
Also, winning the award for Impact measurement and metrics (in-house IMM framework), the IMPACT judges were impressed by Vital Capital's in-house impact measurement and (IMM) framework and the use of its bespoke tools: the Vital Impact Diamond – a proprietary impact rating tool – and the Vital KPI Dashboard.
Pre-investment, the potential impact of deals is rated through the Vital Impact Diamond, against four dimensions (transform, contribution, impact risk, transform+). Deals are also screened for alignment with Vital Capital's impact objectives and Environmental, Social and Impact (ESI) screening tool.
Impact objectives are then validated with KPIs selected from Vital Capital's ESI KPI dashboard to gather baseline data for which future performance will be measured against. Vital Capital says its KPIs are aligned with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards for impact materiality and IRIS+, a publicly available impact measurement and management system provided by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN).
Post-investment, impact is monitored periodically by assessing ESI performance against preliminary KPIs. The Impact Diamond is evaluated on an annual basis.
Vital Capital says it also works closely with each investee to both measure outcomes and conduct beneficiary surveys to validate this data. Its investment professionals work toward impact objectives which are part of an annual appraisal process and subject to assessment under the Impact Committee.
In 2021, the asset manager became a signatory to the Operating Principles for Impact Management, publishing its first annual public disclosure statement in 2022.
Impact verification firm BlueMark provided independent verification of Vital Capital's alignment with the Impact Principles in early 2023 and concluded that it "matched and outperformed against both the median ratings and a peer group of impact-only asset managers across all aspects".
Pashtan commented: "The lack of comprehensive benchmarks to assess performance has been a major challenge for impact investors so we are proud to be recognised for our work with the industry towards impact standardisation, as well as for our mature investment strategy.
"We constantly strive to evolve and refine our impact methodologies, measurement, and management, to meet industry standards as they continue to arise and to achieve our long-term impact objective to transform and improve the well-being of underserved communities in growth markets.
"My team and I are grateful for the recognition as we continue to set the bar higher for ourselves to keep raising standards, while enhancing investor returns and maximising our impact."
