Impact investment or social impact investment has attracted a lot of attention lately as it has emerged as a new asset class that can contribute to realizing sustainable development goals. The concept has drawn considerable interest in India as funds focused on impact investment have made significant investments in India in recent years. The concept of impact investment along with its application in practice has grown significantly during the last decade.

This paper, accordingly, aims to focus on the concept covering its definition, typology and main features. The concept is discussed including its ecosystem comprising stakeholders , typology of instruments, regulatory considerations and measurement concerns. in addition, the paper delves a little on the typology of investments and financial instruments employed and some of the measurement concerns.