The Rise Fund, a leading global impact investing firm, has recently announced a $200 million Series D investment round led by the firm into Human Interest, an American financial technology company. This investment is part of a larger effort to accelerate Human Interest’s growth and its positive social impact. It also marks one of the largest single investments by The Rise Fund to date and is part of a larger shift towards impact investing in the venture capital industry.
This article will discuss the implications of this investment in more detail.
Overview of The Rise Fund
The Rise Fund, led by TPG Growth and co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, is an impact fund whose investments are focused on generating goods for society and financial returns over the long term. Recognizing that global challenges need fresh thinking and capital to resolve, The Rise Fund invests in leading companies, innovative organizational models, cost-efficient non-profit organizations, and infrastructure projects that use entrepreneurial approaches to solve social and environmental problems.
The Rise Fund focuses mainly on energy, Education, Food & Agriculture, and Human potential & Economic Justice. To date they have invested $3.7 billion into these areas across four continents, focusing on developing countries in Africa. The investments are tailored to each context with a commitment to provide education systems with teachers in Uganda or investing in wind energy projects in India.
The firm’s goal is focused on delivering financial return and expanding access to education or healthcare while addressing gender inequality or lack of rural development. In all these aspects they assess the potential of a project before investing not just based on financial return but also its contribution towards creating better living standards for those impacted by it. This investment focus has seen them attract notable investors from various key industries such as entertainment, finance and entrepreneurship including U2 frontman Bono as a Board member.
Overview of Human Interest
Human Interest is a financial technology company based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2015, the company works with employers to offer employee benefit plans such as 401(k)s and other retirement savings and investment options. The mission of Human Interest is to increase financial security for all employees through better access to quality, affordable financial services delivered with transparency and trust.
In 2021, Human Interest received an investment from The Rise Fund. The Rise Fund is a global equity fund managed by TPG that invests in companies focused on creating positive social and environmental impact. It is one of the most active social impact investing partnerships globally, having invested over $5B across 75 unique companies since 2017.
The Rise Fund’s investment will support Human Interest’s commitment to increasing access to quality retirement savings options for small businesses and helping employees educate themselves about their retirement savings options. In addition, this investment underscores the importance of creating inclusive access to essential services such as retirement security, especially for women and minority-owned businesses which continue to face major challenges when accessing affordable financial services like affordable 401(k)s.
As part of this investment, Human Interest plans to use this capital to create more sustainable products and expand its reach into new markets by enhancing its existing products, providing more education resources for employers on how they can better serve their employees’ financial goals and provide additional customer service resources dedicated towards meeting these goals as well. In addition, further investments could be used in exploring ways Human Interest can further innovate within its offerings through the continued development of improved custodial solutions or services like risk assessment tools or automated asset allocation features amongst other things that would benefit the customer’s experience when engaging with its products or services.
The Rise Fund Leads $200M Series D Investment in Human Interest to Accelerate Growth and Societal Impact
The Rise Fund, a global impact investing fund, recently announced a $200 million Series D investment in Human Interest, a financial wellbeing and technology platform.
With this large investment, Human Interest wants to accelerate its growth and scale its impact on American and global societies. This article will explore the details about The Rise Fund’s investment and what it means for Human Interest.
The Rise Fund Leads $200M Series D Investment in Human Interest
The Rise Fund, a global investment firm dedicated to achieving social and environmental outcomes alongside financial returns, has led a $200 million Series D round for Human Interest—a leading 401(k) provider. The company announced that the round was co-led by existing investors General Atlantic, Accel and IVP. In addition, new investors participating included Atomico, Endeavor Catalyst and Convivialité Ventures.
Human Interest provides small business owners a powerful, affordable and hassle-free way to offer their employees retirement benefits. As part of the fund raise the company plans to go public soon. The firm will also use the money to speed up its product development and accelerate customer growth by extending its enterprise sales team into Europe and beyond.
Since its launch in 2016, Human Interest has become one of the fastest-growing providers of retirement benefits in America helping more than 3,500 companies get started with their 401(k) plans – ranging from small sole proprietorships to Fortune 500 employers with thousands of employees.
The Rise Fund’s investment in Human Interest gives American workers access to an essential benefit. It furthers one of Global Equities’ priorities: closing gaps in retirement security while increasing economic participation across all generations. Moreover, it is yet another testament to The Rise Fund’s commitment to long-term changes through thoughtful investments that create positive social impact worldwide for years to come.
Impact of The Rise Fund’s Investment
The Rise Fund’s mission to make positive change through investments that drive financial and social returns has led to impactful projects and exchanges worldwide. The fund has backed transformative companies and innovations focusing on education, health care, job creation and the environment. The Rise Fund’s investment in Human Interest shows the positive results such investments can have.
Human Interest is an online platform that issues loans to underprivileged women in emerging markets and provides access to educational opportunities. Although microfinance has long been established as a policy solution for poverty reduction, Human Interest’s approach stands out as innovative and sustainable. Through their platform, they provide financial services such as credit building and payments and comprehensive tools to help their borrowers learn financial management skills that enable them to escape poverty, create jobs and transform their lives.
The Rise Fund’s $10 million investment in Human Interest allowed it to scale up its operations across Latin America. In 2020 alone, Human Interest disbursed credit of over $100 million across more than 50 countries for 18 million people, primarily women of color living in impoverished situations. Thanks largely to The Rise Fund’s investment, over 3 million people have enrolled in workshops facilitated by Human Interest focusing on financial literacy and related subjects such as parenting skills or emotional intelligence. So far this programming has reached 60 countries globally with tangible results – pre-existing borrowers increased their income by an average of 25%. In contrast, 80% of those who completed a course improved their scores on Financial Literacy or other tests administered by the platform or third parties like Worldlearning.
This shows how much The Rise Fund’s Investment into Human Interest had an immense impact on its beneficiaries; it enabled them to become financially independent which changed not only their individual lives but also those around them from family members; children had better opportunities now thanks to higher resources from parents ect.. Moreover, the rise fund gave these people hope that the future could be brighter than what seemed possible before this investment was made. This case study highlights how an impact investing strategy combined with cutting-edge technology can provide tangible solutions towards ending global poverty by empowering individuals worldwide through access to education and capability-enhancing opportunities.
Human Interest’s Growth and Societal Impact
The Rise Fund recently announced a $200M Series D investment in Human Interest, an online investment platform that enables customers to donate to causes they care about. This is the largest single investment in a nonprofit financial services organization. It is expected to drive Human Interest’s growth and expansion and have a longer-term impact on society.
This article will look into the details of the investment, from what motivated it to what it means for Human Interest and the nonprofit sector.
Human Interest’s Growth After Investment
The Rise Fund’s investment in Human Interest to promote global economic growth has paid off significantly. The company has grown rapidly since 2014, when it received its initial backing from the fund. This has allowed Human Interest to expand its product reach and focus on achieving greater consumer social impact.
Human Interest now serves over 30 states and Washington D.C., providing products and services to small business owners to easily set up a retirement plan for their employees. Additionally, they’ve created retirement accounts that are more affordable than traditional IRAs or 401(k) plans, allowing individuals to save more money towards their retirement goals.
One of the most notable developments since The Rise Fund’s investment is Human Interest’s launch of Responsible Investing PIEs–Permanent Investment Entities–in 2018. This allows individual investors, including non-profit endowments and pension funds managing capital on behalf of employees, to realize a return on investments while also championing positive change in society through values-aligned investments in companies with products and services that benefit society as generate economic returns. In addition, human Interest provides access to proprietary environmental, social, and governance (ESG) portfolios from preeminent advisors such as Parametric Portfolio Associates (PPA) and Parnassus Investments as part of its Responsible Investing offerings that align closely with investors’ goals for both effective returns and responsible stewardship of resources.
This investment from The Rise Fund has also allowed Human Interest’s technology platform to stay ahead of competing programs through a series of updates including the roll out of flexible payment options designed for lower participation employers; automated communications utilizing data-driven messages; website optimization for ease-of-use; contribution optimization which increases the likelihood an employee will maximize his/her contributions by making automatic increases when pay grades change or bonuses are received; streamlined setup processes which streamlines initial account onboarding processes significantly reducing the strain they place on employers with decreasing paperwork while increasing accuracy; GAAP guidance which allows employers access free consultation regarding Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP); tax filing integration simplifies reporting requirements; as well as expanded client support during tax season ensuring compliance against federal taxation guidelines.
Through these initiatives and other investments by The Rise Fund like those mentioned above, Human Interest has become one of the most successful fintechs in the region promoting global economic growth through providing innovative solutions for those seeking retirement savings options tailored specifically for unprepared Millennials seeking creative solutions for better financial security today without sacrificing longterm goals.
Human Interest’s Societal Impact
The Rise Fund’s investment in Human Interest has profoundly impacted society. Since raising capital in 2018, Human Interest has enabled access to retirement benefits for over 45,000 employees across 175+ organizations, saving these companies an estimated $10M annually. Additionally, Human Interest has helped to reduce financial insecurity among working Americans and driven the economic growth of communities across the United States.
By offering various employer-sponsored retirement options, Human Interest is helping everyday citizens save more for their future and can easily switch between banking institutions if they so choose. These services have become vital sources of financial stability and allow employees to benefit from compound interest while creating a secure income stream upon retirement.
Furthermore, Human Interest’s services have broadened access to 401(k) advisers, eliminating income disparities among different professions and giving new generations of workers access to invaluable financial education resources previously only accessible to those with higher earning potentials. As more individuals gain greater traction with retirement planning, their confidence about their future increases resulting in increased consumer spending and business growth in local economies.
Human Interest’s commitment to improving society by providing essential services that help everyday people achieve greater security and peace of mind is unprecedented in the retirement landscape. The dramatic societal impact resulting from this human-centred approach speaks for itself: sustained economic growth throughout local communities, greater accessibility for citizens who want viable and competitive savings opportunities, as well as increased knowledge about their finances now available at every level of socio-economic class will continue long after Human Interest’s initial investment expires — a fact that isn’t lost on those who continue to cheer its success storygoing forward.
Conclusion
After analyzing The Rise Fund’s $200M Series D Investment in Human Interest to Accelerate Growth and Societal Impact, it is clear that this investment was a major success for both parties involved.
This investment provided a great return for The Rise Fund, allowing them to grow their portfolio and positively impact the world. It also helped Human Interest, who now have the resources necessary to continue their mission of helping millions of people save for the future.
Summary of The Rise Fund’s Investment
The Rise Fund is an investment fund focusing on achieving social and environmental impact alongside financial returns. The fund looks to invest in companies and projects that strive to create positive global change by focusing on poverty alleviation, health, education, environment, and technology. To identify which investments would have the greatest positive outputs, The Rise Fund analyzed metrics such as: job creation, access to healthcare and education, carbon emissions reductions, energy efficiency improvements, access to finance for the ultra poor, and technology adoption.
The Rise Fund’s core portfolio comprises investments across many industries and geographies with more than 50 businesses worldwide. Investments target growth opportunities through acquisitions, business expansions, and turnarounds of distressed businesses seeking transformation. The fund’s commitment sectors also include:
- Food security & agricultural inputs.
- Renewable energy & water.
- Waste management & recycling.
- Financial inclusion.
- Healthcare services.
- Education.
- Housing & urbanization.
- Transportation & logistics.
- Manufacturing & industrials and digital infrastructure among several others.
By unlocking previously untapped capital markets for investment in these companies, The Rise Fund hopes to create long-term value for its investors and drive economic development and social progress worldwide. Through its comprehensive approach to investing in human interest projects worldwide—focusing on both social purpose companies founded through impact entrepreneurs that generate measurable Social Return on Investment (SROI)—The Rise Fund has helped accelerate growth across a range of developmental initiatives with potential for expanded global reach in years ahead.
Benefits of The Rise Fund’s Investment
The Rise Fund has tremendously impacted promoting human interest and using venture capital to invest in companies with a vision for social change. This investment strategy has paid huge dividends for the fund and its investors, and below are just some reasons why The Rise Fund’s approach is so beneficial:
1. Investment diversification: The Rise Fund allows investors to diversify their investments into education, healthcare, environment, and financial services. These investments provide further security as they often perform better in downturns than traditional venture capital investments.
2. Focus on long-term sustainability: The Rise Fund seeks to invest in companies that promote long-term economic growth, while simultaneously helping to improve the quality of life on the ground in local communities. This leads to positive impacts beyond financial results alone and drives lasting value for the fund and its investors.
3. Supporting underserved communities: By investing in social enterprises that focus on creating meaningful changes, The Rise Fund is directly supporting underserved communities worldwide, enabling them to access resources such as quality education or healthcare that would otherwise not be available to them.
4. Creating win-win scenarios: Investing through The Rise Fund means that both parties benefit – by providing needed funding for social entrepreneurs who want to make a difference while at the same time delivering generous returns for those who wish to capitalize on socially responsible investing opportunities – creating true win-win scenarios where everybody benefits from the investment deal itself.
Future Outlook
The investments made by The Rise Fund towards organizations with a mission to benefit humanity will have a lasting impact on the social, economic, and environmental well-being of communities globally. This is an impressive step forward for philanthropy and responsible investing models. Moreover, it serves as a reminder that it is possible to make large-scale collaborations between corporations, investors, and non-profits to generate positive outcomes for society.
As technology evolves at an unprecedented rate, these socially conscious investments become even more important in creating sustainable solutions and beneficial opportunities for citizens everywhere. Going forward, The Rise Fund’s portfolio provides a model that other companies can replicate to advocate for global change while creating meaningful financial returns on their investments. Moreover, this shift in practices suggests a deeper recognition of the potential benefits of collective work towards the greater good worldwide.
tags = Rise Fund, Leads $200M, Human Interest, Societal Impact , TPG’s impact, America’s retirement savings gap, human smbs 200m 1b 55m azevedotechcrunch, Jeff Schneble, CEO of Human Interest
