Event Recap

Vancouver | April 1

CAFIID convened about 30 professionals in Vancouver for a dialogue exploring how Canada’s trade ecosystem, impact investors, and blended finance actors can better align to mobilize capital toward climate, gender, and development outcomes in emerging and frontier markets. The discussion brought together perspectives from Global Affairs Canada, Momentus Global, Deetken Impact, and Table of Impact Investment Practitioners, alongside CAFIID members and community leaders.

Key Takeaways

Momentum is growing, and so is the opportunity to build

Canada’s impact investing ecosystem continues to evolve, with increasing interest from investors, foundations, and public actors. Participants noted a growing community in Vancouver and across the country, signaling an important shift from a few years ago. This momentum presents a strong foundation to build from.

Growing Alignment Between Trade and Impact Investing

Speakers highlighted that trade, development, and impact investing continue to operate with different mandates, incentives, and “languages.” Efforts by Global Affairs Canada to bridge these areas, including through trade services and innovative finance initiatives, reflect meaningful progress toward a more integrated approach. While progress is being made, greater alignment is still needed to translate international opportunity into investable pathways for Canadian capital. Canada was noted as underperforming in areas such as international procurement, pointing to missed opportunities to better connect Canadian actors to global markets.

Blended Finance as a Key Enabler

Blended finance plays an important role in de-risking investments and bringing new actors into emerging markets. Practical examples included:

• crisis-linked financial instruments that trigger rapid disbursement following climate events

• insurance mechanisms supporting farmers facing drought

However, moving from early traction to scale requires stronger demonstration effects, deeper investor confidence, and broader participation from institutional capital.

A Growing but Evolving Impact Investing Market in Canada

There is clear momentum in both domestic and international impact investing, but the market remains relatively small in scale, uneven in understanding across actors and constrained by coordination challenges. 

Participants noted that advancing the field will require stronger shared frameworks, clearer mandates within investment committees and greater alignment across ecosystem actors.

Bridging the Gap Between Interest and Action

A recurring theme was the gap between interest and action. While there is willingness among actors such as foundations and institutional investors, barriers include:

• limited internal capacity

• conservative investment committee dynamics

• lack of familiarity with emerging market opportunities

Relationship-building, smaller initial allocations, and ongoing engagement were identified as practical ways to build confidence over time.

Unlocking Greater Institutional Participation

Challenges raised included:

• regulatory constraints and fiduciary interpretations

• ticket size mismatches between available deals and institutional expectations

• the role of financial advisors as gatekeepers

These factors contribute to Canada lagging behind peers in mobilizing larger pools of capital.

Advancing Gender Integration Across Trade and Investment

Global Affairs Canada noted that gender considerations are meaningfully incorporated into trade policy and programming, including targeted initiatives to support women-led businesses and exporters. This reflects broader alignment with gender lens investing approaches across the ecosystem.

Strengthening Coordination to Scale Impact

Across the discussion, a central theme emerged: coordination is now the primary constraint to scaling impact capital. The session underscored that Canada has strong building blocks including growing investor interest, active ecosystem organizations, and practical examples of blended finance in action.

At the same time, unlocking meaningful scale will require:

• stronger coordination across trade, development, and investment actors

• continued ecosystem building and knowledge sharing

• and more intentional alignment between public and private capital

Thank you everyone who participated and attended the event. CAFIID will continue to play a convening role in advancing these conversations and supporting greater collaboration across the Canadian impact investing ecosystem.

---

Invitation

Canadian businesses and investors are increasingly looking outward, yet many opportunities in emerging and frontier markets remain underexplored.

Join CAFIID in Vancouver on April 1 for a dialogue at the intersection of trade and impact investing. This session will explore how Canada’s trade ecosystem, impact investors, and blended finance actors can better align to mobilize capital toward climate, gender, and development outcomes globally.

As Canada seeks to play a stronger role in emerging markets, strengthening our domestic impact investing ecosystem is essential. Greater alignment at home — across investors, intermediaries, trade actors, and capital providers — creates the foundation needed to deploy capital internationally with clarity, credibility, and scale.

Featuring perspectives from Global Affairs Canada and CAFIID members including Deetken Impact, Momentus Global and the Table of Impact Investment Practitioners (TIIP), the discussion will:

• Explore how trade services connect Canadian businesses and investors to opportunities in emerging markets

• Highlight where blended finance can unlock climate and impact investment opportunities

• Discuss the partnerships, information, and ecosystem support needed for Canadian investors to engage globally

• Share practical insights from Canadian investors and companies operating at the trade–impact nexus

Meet your hosts:

Emily Boost
Co-CEO at Kore Global
CAFIID Gender Lens Investing Community of Practice Steering Committee

Joanne Norris
Impact Investing Consultant
CAFIID Impact Measurement and Management Community of Practice Steering Committee

Katharine van der Laan
Director Commercial and Standards at Taking Root
CAFIID Climate Finance Community of Practice Steering Committee
CAFIID Board of Directors