Growth Impact Fund

Evergreen fund aimed at diverse-led charities and social enterprises.

Key info

  • Geography

    England

  • Asset class

    Other

  • Fund manager

    Big Issue Invest

  • Investment status

    Current

  • Investment date

    2022

  • Term

    Evergreen, 5-7 year lock-up period

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The challenge

Covid-19 has impacted marginalised communities the hardest and laid bare the structural inequalities that exist across the UK. Diverse-led charities and social enterprises offer some of the best solutions to tackle poverty and inequality and are well placed to reach underserved communities. However, these organisations have been historically underfunded, and research has documented a number of barriers that diverse leaders face when accessing social investment.

Our approach

Better Society Capital, alongside other partners such as Access and Bank of America, supported Big Issue Invest and UnLtd, to create a fund aimed at making social investment more accessible to diverse-led community businesses and social enterprises. This innovative investment will serve as a pilot targeting a key gap and will aim to bring more mainstream investment into diverse-led enterprises.

The Fund

The Growth Impact Fund is a targeted £25 million evergreen fund, which means capital will be recycled to allow it to make investments in perpetuity. The fund will provide investees with the option of patient, flexible capital, or alternative options including 70% of funding invested through equity and quasi-equity products.

The fund will provide grant funded wrap-around support across the investment process (from early-stage enterprises to established organisations, and pre-investment to post investment)

At least 50% of these investments will be diverse-led.