How to Invest in Sustainable and Regenerative Food and Agriculture
Invest for health outcomes and equity
We all eventually understand that good health is key to living our best lives. It’s a universal “aha” moment.
Now, picture this: a world where everyone can access healthcare, where we’ve wiped out preventable illnesses, and where medical innovation thrives. To make that vision a reality, we need to invest more money towards it. That’s where impact investing comes in.
CapShift has created a primer, in collaboration with Multiplier Advisors, that can serve as an informative and actionable guide for investing in health. This works for those of you interested a specific condition, like breast cancer, a community like your hometown, or with a broad commitment to a cause such as social equity.
Health investments fall into one of three categories
Health investments fall into one of three categories
Innovation
These opportunities are at the forefront of innovations that improve health outcomes, often through technology or breakthroughs in scientific advancement. They vary in risk and return, often based on how much capital is needed to support an innovation until it reaches commercialization and market adoption.
Care
These opportunities increase access to healthcare that improves overall health outcomes, directly or indirectly focused on patient care. Common themes in this category include the construction of new centers of care in underserved communities, the creation and delivery of essential vaccines and medical supplies, student loan financing for the next generation of medical practitioners, and more.
Prevention
Opportunities that center on prevention are often in sectors that might seem to be outside of health. However, preventing illness and disease touches on every aspect of our society – what we eat, how we are sheltered, the environment that surrounds us, our access to physical and emotional support that create our system of care. These characteristics, often referred to as ‘social determinants of health’ are the building blocks to keep individuals and communities thriving and healthy.
Closing the Health Equity Gap
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “achieving [health equity] requires focused and ongoing societal efforts to address historical and contemporary injustices; overcome economic, social, and other obstacles to health and healthcare.” While many interventions may be inclusive of solutions that will benefit disadvantaged or traditionally underrepresented groups, opportunities advancing health equity make outcomes for these populations and the managers who support them core to their underlying strategy.
While health equity can be thought of as leveling the playing field to ensure that everyone has the same opportunity to thrive, health justice goes a step further. Opportunities advancing health justice employ a systematic approach to eliminate root causes of these disparities and create better systems to eradicate these inequalities going forward.
Different dimensions of health investments, such as categories, impact, and beneficiaries, come together to create a framework to approach investing for health.
Take Action: Build a Health-focused Portfolio
Ask yourself questions to develop an understanding of your priorities and goals. These questions might include:
- How do you define your role as an investor in addressing health?
- What health outcomes would you like to prioritize? For whom?
- What are your return and impact preferences?
Articulate your health impact thesis. Identify which capital will be invested, along with risk, return, and liquidity constraints to help determine asset allocation.
Match your goals and strategy with sourcing, diligence and deploy capital towards actionable health-focused deal flow aligned with your target areas.
Build accountability and feedback loops not just for you as an investor, but for your investees. See where there are opportunities to improve health outcomes and monitor results, look at financial returns and determine if health impact achieved was in line with the intended outcomes.
Disclosures:
This report was developed with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of RWJF.
This report and included sample portfolio do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase any security. Any such offer or solicitation would only be made pursuant to an offering memorandum or prospectus. All investments entail a high degree of risk, and no assurance can be given that the investment objective will be achieved or that investors will receive a return of their capital. Any investment opportunities highlighted in this presentation are presented for illustrative purposes only. Opportunities may not be suitable for all investors due to differences in risk tolerance, investor status, and investment time horizons, amongst other factors. Additionally, investments may not achieve stated social, environmental, or similar objectives.
