The Hellenic Impact Investing Network has published the first impact investment market sizing report for Greece, which reveals €10bn in impact investments have been mobilised across the country.
The Hellenic Impact Investing Network (HIIN), GSG Impact’s national partner for Greece and the country’s principal market building platform for impact investing, has published The Hellenic Impact Report 2024, the first coordinated attempt to map, study, and benchmark the entire Greek impact investing ecosystem.
Research for the report, which was conducted in 2024 and consolidates data and interviews from more than 80 investors and over 100 start-ups, reveals that direct, unlisted investments from the domestic market into impact almost doubled in two years, growing from €1bn in 2022 to €1.8bn in 2024. When combined with EU and foreign capital this rises to more than €10bn over the year.
Speaking to Impact Investor, Kostis Tselenis, chairman of the board for HIIN, said: “In 2024, we submitted Greek market sizing data to Impact Europe for the first time and this report builds on that research, with data from a survey of start-ups as well as qualitative interviews with practitioners from the broader impact ecosystem. This is the first co-ordinated effort to present the situation in Greece as it is, as well as to provide suggestions of what needs to be done and where the gaps are.”
Tselenis – who is also managing partner of the Swiss Impact Office, a Zurich-based investment boutique and multi-family office – echoed the report’s findings that Greek public institutions, such as the Hellenic Development Bank, the Hellenic Development Bank of Investments, and the Growthfund, are the backbone of impact investing in Greece, by supplying capital, but also by shaping incentives, supporting infrastructure, and leveraging EU funding.
“The leaders in impact are Greek public institutions that are leveraging EU funds such as [those] from the European Investment Bank (EIB) or the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Part of the reason for this is that until recently, no sizeable alternative investment market existed in Greece. The wealthy were not accustomed to investing into venture capital or private equity,” said Tselenis.
This started to change as the Greek economy emerged from the sovereign-debt crisis and with the establishment in 2016 of EquiFund, a Greek government and EIB-led fund of funds programme providing venture capital and private equity financing to Greek SMEs, he said.
“In 2024 and this year, we have started to see the emergence of dedicated Greek impact funds as well,” he added.
Sources of capital
Although public investment leveraging EU financing makes up the majority of impact investing into Greece, the dominant source of domestic capital into impact investing today comes from mixed funding models combining mainly private and institutional capital.
Venture capital and private equity constitute the preferred financing instrument used by 64% of domestic investors, followed by private debt (22%), project finance (11%) and grants (3%).
Nevertheless, the report’s findings reveal that domestically, private sector participation – while growing – is still limited and that pension funds and insurance companies, which the authors say could serve as powerful allocators of long-term capital, have also shown limited engagement in impact strategies to date. There is also a lack of dedicated Greek impact funds, or accessible financial products in Greece, which limits options for capital deployment.
Tselenis said the HIIN is working on designing a dedicated legal and financial framework for impact investing, including a national impact law as well as a standardised reporting framework, which he said would help to channel more private and institutional capital towards impact.
“This law would provide a legally defined platform for the impact investing ecosystem in line with existing EU frameworks such as SFDR and provide coherence to what is still an informal market,” he said.
“We also need to help the government and its public institutions to put in place a reporting framework to start measuring outcomes for impact. We will provide training on how to use this framework, starting with seven Greek impact fund managers.”
Impact ventures
The majority (57%) of impact ventures in Greece, which include for-profit start-ups, cooperatives, hybrid and non-profit models, are in the ideation, pre-seed or seed stage.
Only a relatively small number of enterprises – fewer than 100- have transitioned to investment-ready for-profit impact models, with the report highlighting limited high-quality deal flow as a growing concern for the market, especially as new impact funds and financing mechanisms emerge.
The majority of investment into impact start-ups, as rounded to the nearest whole n umber, is concentrated in the growth (39%) and seed (35%) stages, and only 4% is directed at pre-seed and 4% at growth-stage companies, while real-assets and project finance receive a 19% share of capital.
According to the HIIN, the most pressing capital needs include working capital, seed and venture-stage equity and structured finance of more than €1m to scale companies and projects.
The organisation said this presents an opportunity for mission-aligned capital to step in and for Greece to build financing structures that reflect the depth and diversity of its impact ecosystem.
Impact themes
Responsible consumption is the most common area of focus for Greece’s impact start-ups, in line with consumer demand for more ethically sourced and sustainable goods and services, the report finds. This is followed by sustainable cities, waste management and green energy.
Despite Greece’s long coastline and major maritime sector, the report reveals a gap in blue economy entrepreneurship. But this may soon change.
According to the report’s authors, the blue economy presents “vast” impact potential for both the sustainability of the oceans and coastal communities as well as for economic gain. This is closely related to industries such as sustainable aquaculture, offshore wind, and regenerative tourism, which the HIIN said are being driven by EU-aligned policies and growing interest from international capital. Green shipping and sustainable food systems are also beginning to attract investor attention and the country’s social enterprise ecosystem is expanding quickly.
