Inyova’s online impact investment platform
Authors: Karen Chica Gómez and Georgia Thorne
Inyova (formerly, Yova) is a Swiss start-up with a mission to make investing in a sustainable future easy, without any compromised returns (Inyova, 2022a). It offers a free online tool to promote investments across 12 areas: advancing education, renewable energy, energy-saving technology, clean water, circular economy, sustainable forestry, plant-based food, Swiss champions1, access to medicine, pandemic control, digital champions, and transport of the future (Inyova, 2021).
Impact investing provides capital to companies striving for positive change, in which investors are often found willing to accept lower financial returns than in traditional investments (Yova, n.d.-a; Barber, Morse, & Yasuda, 2021, p. 183). According to the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN, 2020), the size of the impact investment market stood at US$ 715 billion in April 2020 and is expected to continue growing. The need for reliable and accessible mechanisms to make impact investment possible is driven by the large market size and willingness of investors to help solve global challenges, coupled with the large number of companies seeking capital for their activities.