Impact investing plays a crucial role in closing the $4 trillion SDG financing gap, yet represents only 1.2% of global assets. How can we scale it to meet the world's needs? In this episode, Guillaume Bonnel, CEO of the SDG Impact Finance Initiative (SIFI), examines the barriers constraining impact investing — from liquidity challenges and misaligned risk perceptions to regulatory obstacles — and explores how blended finance can unlock private capital at scale. He discusses how concessional capital, platform approaches, and enhanced data standardization can align public and private interests, ensure genuine additionality, and channel investment flows toward emerging markets where both impact potential and growth opportunities are greatest.

Season 2 is produced in collaboration with the SDG Impact Finance Initiative (SIFI).

Hosted by Luka Biernacki.

Also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGenevaConnection

Let’s Talk Finance! Let’s Talk Impact!

Development is often framed as aid, but for Jeffrey Sachs, one of the world’s leading development economists, it’s first and foremost an investment challenge. In this opening episode, Professor Sachs explores why capital isn’t flowing to the countries that need it most, how risk perceptions keep private money out of poor economies, and what a new investment-led development model could look like by 2030.

The episode is part of Season 2 of The Geneva Connection — “Bridging the Gap: Financing the Future of Sustainable Development.” This four-episode season takes listeners inside the world of development finance: why capital isn’t flowing where it’s needed most, and how blended finance, catalytic capital, and impact investing can help close the $4.2 trillion SDG funding gap. From big-picture insights to practical solutions, we explore what it will take to turn ambition into investible impact.

Season 2 is produced in collaboration with the SDG Impact Finance Initiative (SIFI).

Hosted by Luka Biernacki.

Also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGenevaConnection

Let’s Talk Finance! Let’s Talk Impact!

Guests: Dimple Sahni, Yuko Takano, Kostis Tselenis. This episode explores the evolution of impact investing once seen as a niche, now emerging as a powerful strategy to reshape how capital is allocated, measured, and scaled across financial systems. Through three grounded conversations, we examine how investors across asset classes from institutional portfolios to early-stage startups are embedding impact into core decision-making.

PART 1 From Values to Value — Embedding Impact into Investing

Dimple Sahni, Managing Director, Multi Asset Impact Investing, Anthos Fund & Asset Management

PART 2 Transparency, Data, and Strategy in Impact Investing

Yuko Takano, Co-Lead Investment Manager, Pictet Group

PART 3 Fuel for the Future — Scaling Impact Through Venture Capital

Kostis Tselenis, Managing Partner, Swiss Impact Office

Timestamps:

Dimple Sahni (1:32)

Yuko Takano (13:28)

Kostis Tselenis (25:29)

Hosted by Luka Biernacki.

Season 1 was recorded in December 2024 at the Building Bridges Summit in Geneva.