Joanna Reiss, Apollo
Joanna Reiss, Apollo

Joanna Reiss, partner and co-head of impact at Apollo Global Management, shares her thoughts on the year so far, as part of our mid-year impact Q&A series.

The impact investing market is scaling up and going mainstream; how is this affecting your business?

We are seeing global LPs of different types and sizes establish dedicated impact allocations, indicating that investor awareness and interest in these strategies is scaling and that is exciting, albeit off a small base.

We also recognise that LPs expect rigour and transparency in this space and that established firms play an important role by supporting key industry standards and applying recognized best practices, including the Operating Principles for Impact Management (Impact Principles). Our impact platform, along with many of our peers, is a signatory to the Impact Principles, participates in industry working groups, publishes public impact reports and, more unusually, has implemented impact-linked compensation structures. At Apollo, we are focused on delivering measurable results to meet investor expectations, and hope that by doing so we are supporting the greater adoption of impact investing into LP portfolios.

Which impact themes, sectors or strategies do you see as being most exciting and untapped?

At Apollo, we see our focus on later-stage, mature companies as a differentiated approach that broadens the impact investing landscape. Despite the opportunity that later-stage companies offer for outsized impact alongside strong financial returns, impact capital is largely absent from this segment of the market. We believe that these businesses demonstrate a tremendous ability to effectuate change and drive impact at scale, given the magnitude of their operational scale and influence within their respective industries.

Which impact themes, sectors or strategies do you plan to avoid because they are over-capitalised?

Authentic to the Apollo approach to private equity investing, we target mature businesses within our impact strategy instead of growth equity or venture capital opportunities where many of our impact peers are deploying capital. By focusing on value-oriented opportunities, we can leverage the full Apollo playbook, platform, and firm-wide resources to best drive long-term, quantifiable impact.