Microfinance Focus, October 28, 2011: Fifteen investment funds have committed to GIIRS ratings, representing over $550 million in new capital. These funds target entrepreneurs across developed, emerging, and frontier markets. They join twenty-five previously-announced funds, bringing to forty the total number of GIIRS Pioneer Funds. GIIRS has also released the first set of GIIRS Fund Impact Ratings for its original Pioneer Funds and Companies.

The 15 new GIIRS Pioneer Funds represent a diverse range of investment vehicles, ranging from early-stage equity to long-term debt funding. They include: Adobe Social Mezzanine Fund I LP, Bellwether Microfinance Fund, Catalyst Microfinance Investors, Greenmont Capital II, IIP India Health Fund I, India Financial Inclusion Fund, InReturn I, Investeco Sustainable Food Fund, L.P., Mergence I, Paradox Fund, Próspero Microfinanzas Fund, SJF III, SocialAlpha-Bastion, Vox Impact Investing Fund I, and WillowTree Fund.

GIIRS will be issuing the first Company and Fund Impact Ratings this month. Nine Pioneer Funds and 50 Companies have completed the rigorous GIIRS Ratings process. In the coming months, the remainder of the original 25 Pioneer Funds and 200 Companies will complete the rating process. Ratings information will be available from rated companies and funds directly, and to subscribers of GIIRS Analytics, which is set to launch at the end of 2011.

GIIRS is a comprehensive and transparent system for assessing the social and environmental impact of developed and emerging market companies and funds with a ratings and analytics approach analogous to Morningstar investment rankings and Capital IQ financial analytics.