Making Impact Investment Strategies Actionable in Emerging Markets
Nine Strategy works with investors, families, foundations and institutions to identify and assess investment opportunities across emerging economies. The work begins with the conditions that shape whether capital can be deployed in practice, including regulatory context and the availability of credible partners.
Who We Are
An Impact Investment Consultancy with a Strong Interest in What Capital Can Do
Nine Strategy is a London-based consultancy working at the intersection of investment strategy and emerging market development. We help investors think more clearly about where their capital can be effective, and support them in making decisions that are grounded in market reality.
London is a practical base for this work, as a centre for clients with cross-border mandates. From there, the work follows those mandated into the markets where capital can make a meaningful difference, and to the people working within them.
What We Do
Investment Strategy & Opportunity Review
Nine Strategy works across the full impact investment process, covering strategy, market mapping, pipeline development and the assessment of specific opportunities. Our role is to help clients move from broad intent to specific, well-grounded decisions.
Emerging markets vary significantly in institutional depth and regulatory conditions, as well as in their capacity to absorb investment. What looks compelling from a London perspective can prove harder to execute once local conditions come into view. We help clients navigate that disconnect, with analysis grounded in context and advice that can hold up in front of an investment committee.
Areas of Interest
We work across a set of nine interconnected areas:
Financial inclusion
Climate resilience
Sustainable agriculture
Health access
Education
Enterprise development
Market access
Economic participation
Representation in leadership and institutions
Alongside this, we consider broader questions of access and participation across markets and institutions.
These are fields in which we have seen capital make a meaningful difference in market development and access to opportunity, and where we know from experience which questions are worth asking before a commitment is made.
We also take an interest in organisations working across systems and communities to expand access and improve outcomes in underserved markets, reflecting the same principles that guide our advisory work.
Our Mission
To help investors deploy capital in emerging markets with greater insight and purpose, so that investment decisions are better for both investors and the economies and communities they reach.
Our Vision
We believe that capital, well directed, can do more than generate returns. It can improve livelihoods and expand access to essential services, while supporting the development of enterprises and institutions that endure.
Our vision is that impact investment in emerging markets is taken as seriously as any other investment, and that it contributes to outcomes that are both financially sound and socially meaningful.
Our Values
How We Work & What We Stand For
Nine Strategy supports clients across the investment process, including strategy development and the assessment of specific opportunities. Our work is organised across five areas.
Intellectual Honesty
We tell clients what we think. If a market is weaker than it appears, we say so. If a strategy needs refining, we say that too. We would rather offer a harder truth than a comfortable one.
Context Over Convenience
Emerging markets are not a single category. They differ in ways that matter enormously to investment outcomes, and those differences are the substance of the work. We treat local conditions as central to every decision we make.
Collaboration
The best advisory relationships are genuinely mutual. We work closely with our clients, learning from their knowledge whilst we contribute our knowledge of the markets in question.
Commitment To Access and Participation
Nine Strategy is interested in exactly who capital reaches and who it tends to bypass. Questions of access – whose enterprises attract investment, how markets are structured, who gets to participate in supply chains, institutions and leadership – shape how we think about opportunity and where we look for it.
Rigour Without Rigidity
We are not template driven. The work required at the strategy development stage is different to the work required when a specific opportunity is already under discussion. We adapt to the brief, but we never cut corners on the analysis.
Our Services
Closing The Gap Between Strategy & Execution
Impact Investment Strategy
Good intentions are a starting point. A strong strategy is what makes them investable. Nine Strategy helps clients design an impact investment approach that is specific enough to guide client’s decisions about where to focus and what to back.
We can:
- Design and develop impact investment strategies from first principles
- Define geographic scope and sector priorities with supporting rationale
- Establish impact objectives and connect them to investment structure
- Develop investment criteria and opportunity assessment frameworks
- Clarify portfolio role and capital type
- Review and stress-test existing mandates against current market conditions
Market Mapping & Pipeline Development
Emerging markets are frequently described in ways that flatten the differences that shape investment outcome. Nine Strategy helps clients develop a grounded view of the markets they are considering to build a clear pipeline from that foundation.
We can:
- Map market structure and investment conditions
- Identify and assess intermediaries, local partners and co-investors
- Analyse funding gaps and capital scarcity by sector and geography
- Screen and develop opportunities aligned to the client mandate
- Assess access and participation dynamics within target markets
Catalytic Capital Advisory
In many of the markets we work in, how capital is structured matters just as much as where it goes. Patient, flexible or first-loss capital can influence who else invests and which parts of the economy are reached. Nine Strategy helps clients think through these structural choices with a clear-eyed view of what is possible.
We can:
- Advise on catalytic capital design and positioning
- Review mobilisation potential and sequencing
- Explore blended and complementary capital structures
- Consider how investment can broaden participation and market access
- Identify strategic alliances across the social, public and private sectors
Opportunity Review and Decision Support
When a specific opportunity is already on the table, Nine Strategy provides structured support to help clients decide with greater confidence. Our aim is to sharpen judgment.
We can:
- Review strategic fit against the mandate
- Test key assumptions and dependencies
- Assess counterparty and intermediary quality
- Support due diligence processes
- Prepare investment committee materials
Inclusive Economic Participation
Nine Strategy is interested in how capital can support broader access to opportunity, including stronger participation in markets, leadership, procurement and supply chains across underserved groups and communities. This perspective informs much of the firm’s work. Where it matters to a client’s mandate, we bring it into their investment logic from the start.
We can:
- Embed participation and access considerations into strategy design
- Review how investment terms and counterparty choice affect who benefits
- Identify opportunities with stronger representation across leadership and supply chains
- Advise on how to frame and monitor inclusive outcomes over time
Affiliates
We work alongside a small number of organisations whose capabilities complement our own, allowing us to draw on deeper insight and specialist expertise where needed.
Why This Work Matters
Much of impact investment is still shaped more by aspiration than by analysis, with strategies that are too broad to guide allocation and market narratives than overlook critical conditions.
Nine Strategy exists because better-grounded investment decisions lead to better outcomes. We believe that consistent analysis, informed by genuine local knowledge, leads to stronger results for investors and for the businesses and communities their capital is intended to serve.
Better investment decisions begin with a clearer understanding of the conditions in which capital is deployed. Nine Strategy works with clients to develop that understanding, and to act on it.
Reach Us
info@ninestrategy.com
+44 20 8073 1899
17 Hanover Square, London W1S 1BN
Nine Strategy
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