HESTA has reaffirmed its commitment to allocate a further $40 million to fund investments which will be the firm’s second commitment made through its Social Impact Investment Trust (SIIT) which is managed by Social Ventures Australia (SVA).
Through the trust, HESTA and SVA built a pipeline of investments designed to grow Australia’s impact investing market by attracting other institutional investors.
Since HESTA’s initial commitment, the Impact Investing and Community Investing market in Australia has almost doubled in size, growing to $4.1 billion in December 2017.
HESTA’s chief executive, Debby Blakey said that his company had a specific focus on identifying impact investments across the health and community service (HACS) sector, where the majority of HESTA members worked.
“Our successful partnership with SVA provides a blueprint for institutional investors. Our ongoing collaboration combines SVA’s expertise in impact investment with HESTA’s investment experience and discipline, and our deep knowledge of the health and community services sector,” she said.
“Through supporting the growth of the impact investment market, we are also helping to develop alternative, stable sources of funding to the HACS sectors that can create jobs and opportunities for our members.”
The trust’s largest commitment so far was $19 million to help finance the development of Australia’s first dementia village in Glenorchy Tasmania.
Other SVA investments included Horizon Housing, a community provider in Queensland that aimed to increase the supply of affordable housing, it said.
