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.
