ImpactConnect 1:1 will take place at the Impact Investment Summit. In a new format, it offers pre-arranged one-on-one meetings between investment managers and businesses, with sophisticated, wholesale and institutional investors, during the summit. In this series we’re introducing the funds and the business leaders presenting at the event, so stay tuned.
Impact Opportunity name:
NorthStar Impact Australian Equities Fund
Asset class of your fund:
Listed equities
Investment minimum:
$10,000
What impact themes are you targeting with this fund?
The key themes are affordable housing, education, healthcare, renewable energy, and regenerative agriculture.
The Fund provides a diversified and liquid (daily applications and redemptions) exposure to impact investing in listed equities.
What are the key returns drivers of your strategy?
The Fund seeks to outperform the Australian stockmarket over the long-term. The main return driver is the growth of the portfolio companies’ earnings. We look to invest in companies when their valuations are in our cheap-to-fair range and exit when valuations become very expensive. This means we are long-term investors looking for companies that can scale their impact and their earnings.
Can you share a BRIEF case-study or example of an asset in your fund?
We have been investors in Avita Medical since 2018. The company developed the RECELL System, based on the work of Professor Fiona Wood, to treat severe burns by creating “spray-on” skin from a small patch of the patient’s own skin.
RECELL has significant benefits relative to skin grafts, the current standard of care, including less pain, smaller donor skin area, fewer surgical procedures, shorter stay in hospital, faster recovery time, and better pigmentation. These benefits also result in substantial cost savings for the healthcare system. Our goal as impact investors is to encourage the company to accelerate their international expansion and to ensure the availability of RECELL in less developed countries.
When did you first discover impact investing?
I was introduced to impact investing in 2011 by my friend, Simon Schudmak, who had come across it via Philanthropy Australia’s New Gen network.
What’s the most interesting development you’re seeing in the impact space at the start of 2023?
We are pleased to see increased interest in impact investing from large institutional investors, including actual commitments from Australian super funds.