Private equity firm Bain launches impact investing fund to help ‘mission-driven’ companies

Bain Capital, the $75bn private equity firm, has launched a new fund to help ‘mission-driven companies’ get to scale and drive meaningful change.

It’s the fruit of work by former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who joined the firm last year to found a new business to focus on delivering attractive financial returns by investing in projects with significant, measurable social impact.

The new offering – called Double Impact – will use Bain Capital’s expertise to “build great companies, maximize their financial potential, and scale their social and environmental impact”.

“Our goal is to enable the next phase of financial and impact growth for our partner companies, which are solving critical social problems, and doing so profitably,” Bain says. It will partner with companies, primarily located in North America, that have strong business models and “great impact potential”.

There are three core themes: sustainability; health & wellness; and community building.

As Governor, Patrick pioneered social impact bonds and other initiatives to attract capital to address social and economic challenges. A civil rights lawyer, he was in the post from 2007 to 2015. Earlier, he was US Assistant Attorney General for the civil rights division under President Bill Clinton as well as being a former General Counsel at the Coca-Cola Company and Texaco.He heads a team which includes Greg Shell, who joined Bain Capital Double Impact this year from GMO, where he was a Lead Portfolio Manager of a concentrated Global Equity product. Other team members are five-year Bain veteran Chris Cozzone, Jacob Donnelly, a former White House Fellow at the U.S. Department of State, and Michael O’Leary, who joined the firm in 2012.

Bain has filed a ‘Form D’ securities offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Double Impact: core themes:

• Sustainability: Products and operations that minimize environmental impact and promote ecologically beneficial water, energy and agriculture practices through efficiency gains and sustainable alternatives.

• Health & Wellness: Improving health outcomes through food access and quality, products & services promoting healthy lifestyles, access to healthcare, and better education, training and human development.

• Community Building: Supporting great companies and expanding economic opportunity in distressed communities to create good jobs, promote ownership and catalyze long-term growth.