The growing problem of fashion waste affects our climate, ecosystems, and health. The textile and fashion industry is looking for ‘circular solutions’, and fast.
Over the past decade, the EU-backed EIT Climate-KIC accelerator programme has supported 2,100 solutions and secured nearly €2bn in capital to address different aspects to the climate challenge.
Last week’s European Sustainable Energy Week in Brussels covered everything related to renewables and efficient energy use, including the role of private capital in accelerating the transition to clean heating and cooling.
Christian Nielsen discusses the issue of correlation between impact and financial performance with Machtelt Groothuis and Willemijn Verloop, co-founders of Rubio Impact Ventures.
The Belgian impact fund manager has secured backing from Degroof Petercam Asset Management and Korys to accelerate its growth and impact in emerging countries.
We need to strengthen regulations and sharpen reporting around misleading climate-related communications, according to Lindsay Otis Nilles of Carbon Market Watch.
Impact investors are split on whether nature-based investing is nascent, just about to take off or already the next big thing. But they do agree that the current threat to biodiversity is unsustainable and that industry leadership is needed.
An “impact extravaganza” was how one of the speakers described this year’s EVPA Impact Week & Annual Conference held in Brussels last week, writes Christian Nielsen
Impact Investor’s Christian Nielsen visits The Skateroom, a Belgium-based social enterprise “uniting art and skateboarding for a better world”. It is a riot of good vibes, he writes
A new breed of consultants are helping small businesses navigate their journey to net zero. Steve Fawkes, managing partner at ep group, talks to Impact Investor about helping smaller players make better decisions about their energy transition
Lisa Hehenberger, Associate Professor at ESADE Law and Business School in Barcelona and a member of Impact Investor’s Advisory Board, thinks the essence of the ‘social’ contract in entrepreneurship and impact could come down to one big thing: being grateful.
The European Investment Fund has carved a distinct and tough line as a funder and driver of impact investment best practices. For EIF’s Deputy Director of Equity Investments Uli Grabenwarter that is just part of the challenge of backing social enterprises whose value is in creating true impact.
Without much hype or ado, the European Investment Fund has been busy shaping the market for impact investment in Europe. Experts agree this is something to applaud, but the EIF says it prefers to keep a low profile and lead by example.
The Swedish government together with the Nordic Green Bank has launched a new facility to scale up clean cooking technologies for up to 3 million Africans.
UNOPS, the United Nations Office for Project Services, has put out an open call for investors and partners to co-design and back large-scale sustainable infrastructure projects in “emerging and frontier markets”.
Rubio Impact Ventures closed its second fund last week at €110mn, almost 40% over target. It added a new seed facility to invest in earlier-stage companies.
Why dump or burn waste when you can upcycle it? The trick is finding how to match waste-makers with waste-users efficiently. Tech start-up Seenons thinks it has the solution.
Tip me is a platform for sending small tips directly to garment workers. It’s choosing to crowdfund its drive to reach more brands and ‘tipsters’ and increase its influence on the industry.
Dutch impact investors have spied an opportunity to take sustainable fashion to the next level. Amsterdam-based platform The Next Closet (TNC) raised €3mn in growth capital last week.
What started as a casual chat with Warner Philips at Rubio Impact Ventures, one of the Netherlands leading impact investors, led to existential questions about what is impact.
Sama, a San Francisco-based data-training company, decided a few years ago that it was time to run its impact numbers through an independent randomly controlled trial. The risk paid off.
Three like-minded European impact investors joined forces to back Light Microfinance. The Indian lender helps women in poor rural areas achieve their business dreams.
Future Positive Capital is betting its venture capital on companies that can be game changers in solving the world’s biggest societal challenges. Their investment in climate-intelligence platform Cervest illustrates this.
The pandemic has rewired the way people think about their power as consumers. It has also supercharged ambitions for circular value chains and sustainable investment and trade in general.
Impact investing is not about trends or warm fuzzies, according to Ali Najafbagy. It is about investing in a better future, said the co-founder of Dutch investment fund 4impact.
It seems simple: tech4good ventures offer digital solutions with a net positive impact on people and the planet. But investors in these businesses face double challenges, according to the co-founder of venture capital fund 4impact.
Jamie Butterworth, co-founding partner of Circularity Capital talks about ‘theory of change’ principles and how his company applies them to circular economy investments as a springboard for reinventing how the planet sustains itself.
The circular economy to keep the planet’s precious resources in productive use for longer is entering popular consciousness. EU policies are driving investment opportunities in getting rid of waste.
Artificial intelligence has the tools to improve how ‘impact investment’ decisions are made by factoring in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities better than ever before.
Artificial intelligence, combined with the boom in cloud computing, has huge investor potential in a wide variety of areas, from identifying and treating diseases to managing environmental impacts in industry and farming.
Buoyed by a successful rollout of its data protection laws, or GDPR, the European Union has now set its sights on regulating artificial intelligence (AI). Impact Investor explores the implications.
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