Fellow Travelers: Bringing Emerging Markets & Impact Investing Back Together

Once deeply intertwined, impact investing and emerging markets are increasingly diverging. This article explores why, despite strong growth in impact investing overall, capital is shifting away from the high-impact, risk-tolerant work once central to the field. Large funds now dominate the space, making smaller deals in emerging markets less viable. As a result, small and growing businesses (SGBs)—critical to inclusive economic growth—are increasingly left out.

The piece argues for a renewed effort to close this gap, calling for standardized investment structures, more efficient blended capital products, and a rebalancing toward debt and growth-stage support. It sets the stage for a broader conversation about how to realign market incentives with impact goals, particularly in underinvested geographies.