NYU Stern is pleased to announce that Golub Capital has established the Golub Capital Social Impact Investment Education Fund to support the NYU Impact Investment Fund (NIIF). NIIF is the first-of-its-kind student-operated impact investment fund built on a unique cross-school collaboration between NYU Abu Dhabi, NYU’s Stern School of Business and NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. The program is overseen by Professor Andrea Armeni of NYU Wagner and supported by NYU Stern’s Experiential Learning team. NIIF acts as a springboard for preparing emerging professionals for competitive impact investing roles globally while providing much-needed investment capital to early-stage impact enterprises.

“We are excited to partner with the NIIF and to support the NYU students from Abu Dhabi, Stern and Wagner that benefit from this innovative program,” said Lawrence Golub, CEO of Golub Capital. “This partnership reflects our continued commitment to building a network of business and social impact leaders with the shared goal of effecting change and social impact.” 

NYU Abu Dhabi students from the NIIF program.

Launched in 2017, initially as a collaboration between NYU Stern, NYU Law, and NYU Wagner, NIIF’s year-long experiential course now includes students from NYU Abu Dhabi as well.

This past year, five students from NYU Abu Dhabi participated in NIIF. One of the students was part of the NIIF investment team that won the opportunity to direct the program’s annual investment capital into Maternova, a company providing critical maternal and neonatal health solutions in low-resource areas. Another was part of the NIIF Education Deal Team that represented NYU at the prestigious Turner MBA Impact Investing Network & Training (MIINT) competition hosted by the Wharton School of Business. The NIIF Education Deal team placed third overall, presenting (and securing an investment in) Mosaic Instructional Planning, a lesson planning platform that provides tools and resources for teachers to support students in their learning processes.

“It was an honor to represent NYU at the MIINT competition,” said Camila Garcia, an undergraduate (senior) student from NYU Abu Dhabi. “The experience was invaluable, allowing us to work alongside students from around the world.”

Students representing NYU and NYU Abu Dhabi at the 2024 Turner MBA Impact Investing Network & Training (MIINT) competition were among the winning teams.

“We are delighted that Golub Capital has chosen to partner with NIIF to support our programming and student-led social impact investment fund,” shared Prof. Andrea Armeni, NIIF Faculty Advisor. “We see tremendous value in the experiences and ideas brought by our diverse student groups that NYU Abu Dhabi students bring to this program. It’s been such an amazing immersive learning opportunity.”

The NYU Impact Investment Fund is funded entirely through the charitable contributions of philanthropic friends, parents, and alumni of the program. Now in its sixth year, NIIF has supported more than 175 students and made $140,000 in investments in five companies.