Displaying items by tag: tech

Across the best MBA programs like Wharton, Duke, and Harvard business school there is a surging interest in impact investing and climate finance. In the last nine years there has been a 240% increase in enrolment in electives related to social issues at HBS. Money is flowing into ESG and that is boosting a demand for jobs and salaries, and that is peaking the interest of the rising graduates. 19% of graduate students leaving Stanford Business School are taking jobs in and around social impact. Overall this will shape business for years to come because of the exposure to ESG as it is worked in throughout the curriculum regardless if graduates end up taking final positions related to sustainability.

FINSUM: ESG is still a minority interest among rising MBA grads, and that's because salaries may be on the rise but they still trail overall averages.

There’s a lot of talk about the disruptive power of technology, but what does that mean, exactly? See More

The new age gold rush had investors and hedge funds sprinting to the euro area investing in the carbon market where prices doubled last year, but hedge funds are betting California is the big break. If the U.S. is serious about its climate aspirations then the price of carbon will have to increase and California is already a leading collector in the tax of carbon. There has already been an 85% increase in the price of carbon per ton this year stateside and those tax dollars are funding municipality-related climate initiatives such as wildfire prevention. However, the carbon taxes come at a cost. The higher built-in tax drives up consumer goods prices when inflation is already on the minds of every American. Overall investors like Blackstone see gains coming.

FINSUM: In the long-term, this could be another major global financial market that is centered in the US.

ESG has been for 2021 what the dotcom expansion was for the year 2000, but maybe that growth will fall off like tech did in the early 2000s. This month was startling for the ESG investors as debt issuance took a dive. Green bond issuance slumped 28% and other categories like social bond sales and sustainability loan offerings were down 54% and 49% (respectively) month-to-month. Annually ESG is still in a wonderful place in comparison to last year as the cumulative bonds are over $500 billion ahead when compared through the first 10 months. This volume is concerning still as investors had higher projections for 2021 than are currently being met.

FINSUM: ESG is nowhere near over but ‘faux’ green bonds could be catching enough attention to slow the ESG trend.

Privatized space launches were a hot topic in news cycles this year, with success from SpaceX and private launches of billionaires Bezos and Branson. However, space didn’t just move headlines this year, it moved bottom lines as well. Privatized space infrastructure investment drew $3.9 billion in 2021Q3, setting an annual record of $10.3 billion. Space investments are broadly divided up into infrastructure (which posted the record year), distribution, and application. Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPAC) were the predominant factor in space investments. The capital was raised in private markets and mergers to go public happened frequently this quarter by Rocket Lab, Spire Global, BlackSky, Momentous, and Redwire. The trend won’t stop this quarter as more deals SPAC deals are expected to place and set more records in Q4. Space investment has raised nearly $231.2 billion in private equity since 2012.

FINSUM: While a lot of major deals are done in private equity, retail investors can look to ETFs like ARKX to invest in this growing market segment.