Hong Kong-based insurer AIA plans to invest $200mn into impact funds, its first such allocation, in a sign of the growing demand among Asian investors for strategies combining the prospect of financial returns with social or environmental goals.

AIA’s allocation to funds run by LeapFrog Investments, a specialist impact fund manager, is one of the largest investments into portfolios trying to meet social or environment targets such as those in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Between $5tn and $7tn of annual financing will be needed to meet such goals, according to the UN.

While Asian investors have been slower than their European peers to commit to impact funds, AIA’s allocation highlights how they have been rapidly putting money into the sector.