Pedagogical innovation central to KEDGE's finance programmes
Launched in 2021, the Impact Investment Challenge is a competition that ran for the second time between February and April, bringing together 65 students from KEDGE's finance programmes. The objective of each group was to create a high-impact investment project and to defend it in front of a jury composed of professors specialised in investment projects, impact finance and innovation financing. The challenge presented to finance students is part of one of the key modules in learning about the issues of sustainable finance.
Taught by Christophe Revelli, this learning experience is offered to students of the Masters of Science (MSc) Corporate Finance and Sustainable Finance, who take on the role of impact investors and are asked to develop a profitable and viable investment project that contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined by the UN. In groups of 5, they have to build a tailored investment plan to finance a social impact project. All financial strategies and vehicles can be considered (debt, equity, structured funds, private equity funds, asset management, green bonds, sustainable bonds, microcredit, crowdlending...) and must be adapted to the project that needs to contribute to at least 3 SDGs over the investment period and beyond.
During 3 weeks, all the students who participated in this second edition of the challenge have:
- identified the "sustainable finance gap
- proposed a project to address the issues
- created and detailed the business model and business plan
- identified potential partners
- built the structure of the investment vehicle and how to measure environmental and social impact
This challenge allows students to use the knowledge and tools they have acquired throughout the year in several areas: macroeconomics, innovation financing, financial valuation, emerging market economics, financial geopolitics, financial modelling, strategy, financial analysis, ESG risk analysis and social impact measurement methodology: all key issues for understanding the challenges of sustainable finance.
Innovative investment projects assessed by professionals
The investment projects submitted were reviewed by a panel of professionals based on several criteria:
- their degree of innovation
- their relevance to the SDGs in a sector where there is a lack of needs
- the relevance and feasibility of the solution
- the identification and monitoring of the project's impacts
After a mentoring and tutoring session, each group defended its project to a jury composed of Luis Reyes-Ortiz (Professor of Economics and Finance, Director of the Master of Science - MSc Sustainable Finance), Pierre Casanova (Director of the MSc Corporate Finance programme) and Christophe Revelli (Professor of Sustainable Finance, holder of the KEDGE/CANDRIAM Chair).
Congratulations to the students behind the winning projects:
- "Green Flux" submitted by Carolin Gorzelitz, Lisa Fleury, Samantha Cole, Saara Haapamäki and Ayman Gaballa, students in the MSc Sustainable Finance programme to finance reforestation in Portugal, a country hard hit by fires due to global warming, with the aim of providing bioenergy from carbon capture and biomass. The Green Flux project aims to plant 30 million willows on 20,000 hectares, with a carbon capture capacity of 85,000 tonnes per year. It will create 4,000 direct and indirect jobs and supply 1.15 million MWh per year of renewable electricity to the Portuguese market.
- "B.Living", led by Lisa Brisson, Roberto Bellabarba, Asmaa Majdi, Maryam Mshelia and Jérémy Yong from the MSc Corporate Finance programme, which plans to combat the housing deficit in Nigeria by building affordable 3D-printed housing for disadvantaged communities.
- "Carbon Catcher", which aims to invest in Direct Air Carbon Capture Storage technology in China, with a view to capturing carbon and converting it underground into rock. It was submitted by Lou Rivière, Risa Siriwat, Chia-Yen Lin, Noura El Maadi and Marwa Ben-Daoud from the MSc Sustainable Finance programme.
An official award ceremony will be held at the end of 2022 during the annual conference of the KEDGE/CANDRIAM Chair, with the participation of potential investors and the winners of this second edition (winner and finalists).
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Discover the winning projects:
