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Private impact investing in Canada: Revealing the current state to support future growth

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Event
  • Mar 9, 2026
    3:30-5:00 PM EDT
  • SmithToronto, 200 Front St. W., Toronto, 30th Floor, Rm 174

Data, trends and insights into a maturing Canadian private impact investing market with new opportunities for scale

For asset owners, asset managers and other community partners, gaining a clear picture of where capital is allocated, how strategies are evolving and where gaps remain is critical to growing the Canadian impact investing market in the years ahead.

New research by the Institute for Sustainable Finance in partnership with Rally Assets reveals a maturing Canadian impact investing market with an expanding number of investable opportunities. However, challenges remain, and there is a strong need for increased pools of capital, more innovative financing models, new market entrants, greater regional representation, and more diverse areas of impact.

Join us to hear from academic researchers and practitioner experts to explore the data, trends and insights emerging from their work, and to discuss how to build on accomplishments to date and scale capital to address Canadians’ most pressing social and environmental issues.

Attendance is free but space is limited. 

Moderator

Sean Geobey

Research Fellow, Institute for Sustainable Finance

Sean Geobey is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Finance and Associate Professor at the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) at the Univesity of Waterloo. He brings applied expertise in social innovation, sustainable finance, and decision-theory to his research and teaching. As Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI) his teaching includes cutting-edge work in social entrepreneurship and social innovation, with a pedagogical approach that uses problem-based, community-engaged learning. His work uses complex adaptive systems theory and community-based research to explore governance and design issues in collective action, often using large-scale co-design processes such as social innovation labs and participatory budgeting processes. He has been a Fellow at the Filene Research Institute, Social Capital Partners Fellow at the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing.

Presenters

Kelly Gauthier

President, Rally Assets

Kelly Gauthier is the President of Rally Assets. As the driving force behind one of Canada’s fastest-growing firms, Kelly sets the strategic direction, leads the team, and ensures Rally delivers on its work to align clients’ capital with purpose. Her leadership is shaping the future of impact investing in Canada. With over 20 years of investment experience, Kelly has advised a wide range of clients — including private wealth, foundations, family offices, institutional investors and Indigenous trusts — on building portfolios that achieve social and environmental outcomes without compromising financial performance. She has worked in impact investing since its earliest days in Canada and has played a pivotal role in developing the market—unlocking the flow of capital from the supply side to the demand side. This depth of experience gives her deeply valuable insight into the evolving impact investing sector. Before joining Rally, Kelly worked at Mercer in the Responsible Investing team. She has served the broader investment sector through her roles on the Investment Committees of the Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds, Coralus’ Venture Fund, and as a former board member of the Responsible Investment Association.

Yingzhi Tang

Senior Research Associate, Institute for Sustainable Finance

Yingzhi Sarah Tang is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Sustainable Finance (ISF). Before joining ISF, Yingzhi worked with both the private and public sector in Europe, Asia and North America to accelerate their climate and biodiversity ambitions. She has led research on green finance and energy transition for emerging markets at the International Institute of Green Finance (Beijing, China), supported the insurance and banking sectors’ climate risk assessment projects at the UNEP Finance Initiative (Geneva, Switzerland) and the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation (Waterloo, Canada). She holds both a research-based Master’s degree in Environmental Studies (Sustainability Management) and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from University of Waterloo, and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Nanjing University of Finance and Economics (China).

Sıla Baştürk Ağıroğlu

Manager, Private Investment Research, Rally Assets

Sila leads the screening and due diligence of private investment opportunities at Rally, and monitors both financial and impact performance across portfolios post-investment. Sila joined Rally’s impact reporting team in 2023 and supported multiple teams and projects before fully transitioning to the research team in 2025. Before Rally, Sila worked with the Sustainable Infrastructure Group at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, focusing on equity and project finance investments in the energy sector. She has also held roles as a public equity research analyst at Union Bancaire Privée and as a data analyst with the Ecological Footprint Initiative at York University. 

Gajan Kulasingam

Managing Partner, BOF Capital

Gajan Kulasingam is an experienced Investment Professional with a 20-year proven history of working in the investment management industry. Gajan has a demonstrable track record of executing complex transactions, driving operational results and realization of successful investments. He has extensive experience investing globally, across the entire capital structure, broad industry exposure, with private and public transactions. Gajan has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto, holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designations.​

Wren Laing

Senior Investment Director, McConnell Foundation

Wren Laing is Senior Investment Director at McConnell Foundation. She has 10+ years of experience leading investment strategy creation and implementation, completing mid-to-large size transactions across the UK, Europe, and North America. She has expertise in multi-asset class investments, including private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and public equities, with a focus on integrating sustainability and impact across the investment life cycle. She holds an MBA from the University of Oxford and and MSC from the London School of Economics.