Aligning Impact Capital for Social Enterprise Scaling: A Research for the European Impact Investing Ecosystem (Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research))

Summary

• Institutional investors such as pension funds and insurance companies represent around 28% of assets under management in European private impact markets.p.9
• Venture capital and private equity funds account for a 40% share of assets under management in European private impact markets.p.9
• The European Investment Fund committed €724 million to social investments in 2025 alone.p.9
• A systematic literature review within the report synthesises 79 studies to analyze actor interactions and power dynamics across the impact investing ecosystem.p.4
• The seizmic doctoral network project received funding from Horizon Europe under grant project number 101169098.p.2
• The impact investing field is structured around seven key instruments, including crowdfunding, social impact bonds, venture philanthropy, and blended finance.p.13

Key insights

1. Pension funds and insurance companies hold around 28% of assets under management in European private impact markets.p.9
2. Venture capital and private equity funds comprise 40% of assets under management in European private impact markets.p.9
3. The European Investment Fund committed €724 million to social investments in 2025 to channel capital through intermediaries.p.9
4. A systematic literature review synthesises 79 studies to examine relational mechanisms, voice, and power dynamics in impact investing ecosystems.p.4
5. Impact investing strategies differ across portfolio-building, field-building, market-level prototyping, and experimental pioneering approaches.p.6
6. Impact investing instruments directly influence whether social enterprises pursue scaling up, scaling out, or scaling deep pathways.p.9
7. Early settlement of operational and social success definitions prior to deal closing helps prevent principal-agent tensions.p.27
8. Mission drift in social enterprises typically manifests across individual, organizational, and ecosystem levels during growth.p.29