, a social investor that helped to seed the fund, putting in £5 million ($6.06 million).
 
The fund will be available to retail investors on the direct investing platform, Smart Investor, as well as to high net worth individuals through Barclays Wealth & Investments and Private Bank and Overseas Services.

is a term applied to when money is put to work to bring about certain outcomes – such as cuts in criminal re-offending rates, illiteracy or pollution – in addition to generating a financial return. There is debate on whether impact investing can match, or even beat, traditional approaches to money management; as the approach is put to work over time, it is hoped that more data will emerge to allow investors to compile benchmarks of performance. Impact investing is a relatively young field and not yet tested by a major recession.

According to a recent survey of US asset managers by Cerulli Associates, the analytics firm, a rising percentage of asset managers look at environmental, social and governance factors alongside more traditional financial tests to identify opportunities and risks. And a recent report by Boston Consulting Group and MITSloan Management Review found that investments that deliver financial results are closely correlated with those that are deemed sustainable (Investing For A Sustainable Future, 11 May 2016). Separately, a study by Barclays found that investment-grade bonds with higher ESG scores outperformed those with low ESG scores between 2007 and 2015 (source: MSCI). Impact investing has a way to go in terms of size, but the amounts are already large. There are $60 billion of impact investing assets under management, and $12.2 billion of fresh investment was expected to be put in place last year, according to the Global Impact Investing Network, a forum for the sector. One forecast has impact investing AuM topping $3 trillion over the next decade.

At a recent seminar hosted by , it was pointed out that there are about 400 impact investing and related funds of their kind around the world. Industry figures tell this publication that there remains a relative dearth of products enabling HNW and other investors to tap the theme.