Workshop recording: The future of impact investing

On 28 October 2021, the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform organised a hybrid workshop on “Good practices on Impact Investment”. The event took place within the AGORADA+ 2021 finMED Conference which was held in Valencia, Spain.

The event focused on impact investing, which goes beyond traditional investments as it also takes into account possible environmental and social impacts of investments in addition to financial returns. This concept, although in theory known already for some time, is still relatively new and used rarely in practice.

The workshop explored the lessons learned from the existing instruments and put the spotlight on how to make impact investing more widely used in Europe.

Explore the workshop's highlights, key learnings and good practices in the learning bag our experts have prepared for you.

Recording

Webinar agenda overview

Navigate to the discussion topics of interest in the webinar agenda overview below.

Moderation and concept by René Tönnisson and Mart Veliste, Thematic Expert of SME competitiveness. 

• 00:00:31 
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  Presentation
  by René Tönnisson on the topic and the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform services 
• 00:19:25 
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  Presentation
  by Alexandre Almeida, from the National Innovation Agency (Portugal) - New Financial Instruments Supporting Impact Investments from the InnovaFI project
• 00:41:14 
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  Presentation
  by Evdokia Balamou, from Larnaca and Famagusta Districts Development Agency (Cyprus) - Socially Responsible Investment Tool, Road-CSR project
• 00:58:54 
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  Presentation
  by Tracey Hannon, from Clann Credo (Ireland), RaiSE project
• 01:35:26 
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  Presentation
  by Viktorija Vaitkevičienė, from Coinvest Capital (Lithuania), Co-invest for Transport and Communications, RECREATE project

Conclusions

Impact investment includes broad range of different financial instruments (loans, grants, equity, bonds, etc) and is based on a variety of different business models. It is sometimes confusing what is exactly meant with impact and how to measure it, therefore more discussion and promotion of good practices is needed to make different target groups aware of the potential of impact investing.

Considering the goals of green and just transition, impact investments might become increasingly important paradigm in the near future for achieving those goals on EU, national and regional level.

Interregional learning and benchmaking of different available impact investment instruments are useful tools to get the concept more broadly accepted and implemented across Europe.

In addition to the workshop, the Policy Learning Platform team also organised a matchmaking session on the second day of the AGORADA conference. Even if you were not able to attend, the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform can help you address any policy challenges you are facing.

Through matchmaking sessions and peer reviews we can provide you with experiences and in-depth knowledge from other regions that have successfully found solutions for the challenges you are experiencing. Curious about who these services work? Visit our expert support webpage and contact us.  

For more information on the workshop and the good practices shared, check out the learning bag prepared for this occasion.

Policy Learning Platform resources 

• Policy Brief: 
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  The social economy and support to social enterprises in the European Union
• Policy Brief:
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  Regional branding for SME success
• Policy Brief:
  Document

  Internationalisation of SMEs
• Policy Brief:
  Document

  Vouchers for the competitiveness of SMEs
• Policy Brief:
  Document

  How to boost entrepreneurship in rural areas
• E-workshop: Scaling-up European SMEs