Financial technology for industrial renewal

The world is at a turning point in many ways, there is no question. Successful best practices and business models of the last two decades suddenly hemorrhage relevance. As the effects of digital change, demographic forces, political momentum and ecological concerns are rewriting the rules of global economic competition and sustainability, investors, businesses, and governments are on the lookout for scalable strategies and tools to harness existing and emerging resources for industrial renewal of national and regional economies. With this book, we want to enable financiers, companies and economic developers achieve this goal. In collaboration with global practitioners in banking, investing and economic development, we have developed and road-tested an integrated set of analytical tools to design Multi-Asset Renewal Funds (MARF) – a financial technology innovation – for the promotion of renewal in one thematic industrial ecosystem at a time. MARFs leverage capital commitments of both large institutional investors and economic developers to fuel the renewal of legacy industries and invest in the growth of emerging industrial ecosystems. By pooling both liquid and illiquid financial asset classes – such as leveraged debt, growth equity, ETFs and corporate or infrastructure bonds – in thematic multi-asset portfolios, this instrument enables systemic economic development at enhanced market returns. Allowing for extreme customization, the investment vehicle has great potential to address the distinct financial needs of institutional investors, startups, SMEs and enterprises alike.