The Impact World This Week: 13 February 2025

Global: In the face of the US foreign aid freeze, including the USAID shutdown, regional impact investor networks Latimpacto, AVPA and AVPN have together committed to “enhance strategic solutions” to support social and environmental initiatives. Carolina Suarez of Latimpacto, Frank Aswani from APVA and Naina Subberwal Batra from AVPN signed a joint declaration to “reaffirm” their commitment to fostering partnerships between the private sector, philanthropies and governments, to help sustain “essential social and environmental initiatives and prevent the disruption of critical programmes”. They invited their members to contact them if they were affected by the US funding freeze.

• Read more: USAID shutdown ‘undermines global impact investing ecosystem’

Global: Mistral AI, l’Oreal and Mirova are among the founding members of the Coalition for Sustainable AI, launched at the Paris AI Action Summit this week. Initiated by France, the UN Environment Programme and the International Telecommunications Union, the coalition is a global community of organisations committed to leveraging the power of AI to achieve the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). Members will include companies, associations, and research institutions, supported by governments and international bodies. It aims to bring together “impactful efforts” towards sustainability to avoid “fragmented and redundant” initiatives that risk diluting their impact.

Global: Also during the AI summit in Paris, a Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet was signed by 61 countries including all of the EU, China, India and Brazil. The declaration calls, among other things, for AI to be transparent, ethical, sustainable, inclusive and to avoid market monopolies in the sector. The US, home to AI giant OpenAI, refused to sign – and so did the UK.

Read more: Analysis: Is OpenAI impact washing by becoming a public benefit corporation?

UK: Is the government’s new Social Impact Investment Advisory Group replicating existing inequalities found within social impact investment? That’s the question Social Enterprise UK, Cwmpas, Social Enterprise Northern Ireland and Social Enterprise Scotland asked in an open letter this week, and in an online video (pictured with Social Enterprise UK CEO Peter Holbrook). They urge the government to engage not only with existing investment providers and financiers, but also with social entrepreneurs who struggle most to attract finance. Pioneers Post requested a list of members of the group from the government last week, which it has yet to provide. Elizabeth Corley, chair emerita of the Impact Investing Institute, Stephen Meurs, CEO of Better Society Capital and Neil Heslop, CEO of Charities Aid Foundation have publicly announced their membership of the group.

• Read more: UK social investment making ‘slow and disappointing progress’ in meeting social entrepreneurs’ needs – Adebowale

Global: Private equity continues to be the preferred approach for impact investing, according to the latest Private Equity Funds at a Glance report from impact consultancy firm Phenix Capital Group. Figures are based on Phenix’s impact database, which includes information from more than 2,700 funds that seek to create a measurable positive impact while targeting market-rate returns. Private equity funds make up 53% of all the funds listed in the database, and have raised a total of €214bn. The number of private equity impact funds has more than trebled since 2015, but has plateaued in the past two years just above 1,450. According to the research, 58% of private equity impact funds focus on venture capital investment, which is considered to be the 'original’ impact investment vehicle among private equity investors.

Australia: Queensland social enterprises will receive an AUS$80m boost over the next four years after the state government launched an Office of Social Impact. The office will be based in the Treasury department and is tasked with driving the development of for-purpose businesses and social enterprise, via the Social Entrepreneurs Fund, which will deliver AUS$20m a year over four years. One of the office’s first tasks is to create a roadmap for Queensland social enterprise and impact investing, in collaboration with sector leaders, social entrepreneurs, philanthropic funders and investors

UK: Impact investing platform Ethex, which enables individual investors to directly invest in impact businesses, has secured £500,000 in loans from a consortium of investors including CO2Sense, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Friends Provident Foundation to grow its operations. Since its inception in 2013, Ethex has mobilised £120m through its platform, with over £86.7m supporting community renewable energy projects. Existing investors in the platform include Better Society Capital, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

• Read more: The review: Ethex

UK: Luxury interiors and lifestyle brand House of Hackney is seeking to raise £2m to support its goal of becoming a ‘measurably regenerative business’. The company put out a bond offer through Triodos Bank UK’s crowdfunding platform this week. The money raised will be used to buy out existing private equity investors, which House of Hackney says will enable it to promote the restoration and regeneration of natural resources and social systems. In December 2023, House of Hackney added Mother Nature and Future Generations as a board member.

• Read more about how businesses are giving nature a voice: Tree-huggers, board advisers, contract shapers: The lawyers leading the way for nature 

UK: Community energy gets a special mention in the Great British Energy Bill, which sets out plans to establish the government’s new clean energy company. The Bill states that the activities the company will undertake – production and supply of clean energy, greenhouse gas reduction, energy efficiency improvements and energy security – will include projects involving or benefitting local communities. The mention, added in an amendment this week, follows a campaign by campaign group Power for People and a number of MPs. It “sets out a clear intention that local and community energy is important for Great British Energy and the government,” Philip Hunt, minister for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, said in Parliament.

• Read more: Opinion: Why we must unlock the potential of community-led energy

Figure of the week: €350m is the target size of Mirova’s Sustainable Land Fund 2, expected to make its final close by the end of this year. Dedicated to supporting sustainable land use in the Global South, the blended finance fund will receive catalytic capital from the SDG Impact Finance Initiative, and investments from several institutional and development finance institutions. The Rainforest Alliance will help create a pipeline of projects for the fund, focusing on locally led nature-based solutions such as agroforestry.

Movers and Shakers

• AVPN has announced Patsian Low will be its new chief of markets and deputy CEO. With a background in the finance industry, Low has held senior positions at the Visa Foundation and the DBS Foundation and was previously chief of staff at AVPN.
• Unity Trust Bank has appointed British economist Lord John Eatwell to its board as an independent non-executive director.
• Ben Gales will lead the Australian state of Queensland’s inaugural Office of Social Impact (see story above). He is a former CEO of Social Enterprise Finance Australia and previous economic adviser to the UK government.

Photo of Paris AI Action Summit by Unesco/Christelle ALIX