New study shows the European impact investing market reaching €190 billion in unlisted assets

Bilbao, 27 November 2024 – The private impact investing market in Europe has shown growth, with investments in unlisted assets reaching the record amount of €190 billion. This is chief among the findings by the European Impact Investing Consortium in their report, The Size of Impact, released today at Impact Europe’s Impact Week, gathering 1,000 impact actors in Bilbao to accelerate positive change for people and planet.

The European private impact investing market — comprising both direct and indirect investments in unlisted assets — is estimated at €190 billion, 2.5% of the €7.6 trillion, which is the total assets under management the Consortium considers eligible for impact investing in Europe. The report found a promising growth of total direct investments in unlisted assets under management, +20% between 2022 and 2023.

The growth observed shows that impact investing is increasingly considered as a tool to develop new solutions that operate at scale. The report also notes an increase in investor additionality – a positive contribution that would not have happened without the investment itself – with 62% of the capital captured in unlisted assets having some element of investor additionality.

Additional findings in The Size of Impact include: the size of the public impact investing market (€40 billion); comparisons across European countries (leaders: the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France); dominant categories of private and direct impact investing (VC/PE, 44.8% of the investors included in this study); biggest sources of funding (institutional investors, 28% of the total capital made available to impact investors); 45% of capital flows outside of Europe; social and environmental goals continue to be among the top three targeted SDGs; 88% of organisations surveyed report clear evidence of managing impact, though impact measurement and management strategies remain fragmented.

READ THE REPORT HERE.