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The European Impact Investing Consortium report reveals that unlisted impact investments grew by 20% between 2022 to 2023, with institutional investors making up a large part of the funding.

Five venture capital funds have worked together to develop a handbook for implementing the European Investment Fund’s approach for linking impact to carried interest.

Education and employment are key development challenges for many parts of Africa. A substantial increase in funding, and the development of innovative investment opportunities are needed, say Paul Ronalds and Sandeep Aneja.

According to the latest annual report by India’s Impact Investors Council, impact-focused enterprises in the country raised a total of $2.9bn in 2023, compared to the $6bn raised the previous year.

Ninety One’s Africa and emerging market-focused strategy has raised close to $700m (€668m) in capital across three different funds in the past decade.

Swedfund has provided €20m in funding to COFINA to support job creation, business growth and better livelihoods in West and Central Africa.

An L&G survey indicates increasing enthusiasm for impact investing mandates within the private markets portfolios of UK pension schemes, insurers and charities.

At the Impact Investor conference, industry experts focused on the opportunities, challenges, and considerations when it comes to integrating biodiversity and natural capital into investment portfolios.

The Article 9 fund has been created in partnership with natural capital specialist IWC, majority owned by BNP Paribas Asset Management, and has raised $130m at first close.

A market study published by SpainNAB and the Esade Centre for Social Impact also revealed that direct impact investments in Spain grew by 26% in 2023 to over €1.52bn.

Healthcare has become a major focus for impact investors. At this year’s Impact Investor Conference, leading voices in the sector discussed the challenges and opportunities of investing to boost innovation and expand access to healthcare.

Blue Earth Capital has completed an investment into a private hospital in Namibia specialising in maternity and neonatal healthcare, in support of its acquisition by private equity investment manager Salt Capital.

Atradius DSB, Lendahand and Carabus have joined forces to launch a new financing model, offering European retail investors full guarantees on their investments into social impact projects in emerging markets.

The €400m impact fund backed by the Dutch government is developing its strategy in support of missing-middle SMEs, based on experience of its first decade of operations, and on discussions with stakeholders.

The public-private blended finance vehicle was launched two years ago with seed investment of £30m (€36m) from the UK government.

With more than half of global GDP dependent on systems provided by nature, protecting biodiversity plays a crucial role in keeping the world economy stable, the sustainable lender said in a new white paper.

The fund, which is Africa’s first structured debt vehicle focused on energy efficiency solutions, invests into early-stage businesses that are working on boosting climate resilience on the continent.

Speaking at the Impact Investor Conference, guiding lights in the sector said a continent-wide push to bring more and larger institutions into the impact investing arena is needed if the sector is to realise its full potential as a force for good.

A majority of local government pension schemes are considering local impact benefits when making decisions on what asset classes to invest in, a survey has found.

Asset owners, industry experts and market practitioners came together this week at Impact Investor’s annual conference to discuss the most critical issues surrounding the 2030 deadline for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The agreement was signed at COP16 with the aim of building resilience by developing nature-based solutions to face the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.