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Impact Investing
Impact investing brings together public and private investors to target set outcomes and goals for positive social or environmental impact. It is an innovative way to distribute risk and inject market mechanisms that hold programmes accountable and reward performance.
The market is measured now. The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) sized impact assets under management at 1.76 trillion United States dollars (USD) at the end of 2025, up 12 percent from its 2024 sizing of 1.57 trillion and growing more slowly than in the years before. Investors in North America and Europe hold 92 percent of it.
Notable instruments include social impact bonds, green bonds, outcome funds, and blended funds in which public or philanthropic money takes the first loss so that private money can follow.
Impact capital is a way for companies to raise funds for improvements to their environmental, social and governance profile through mezzanine financing and equity investment.
Having objective third parties to measure outcomes and net impact is central to the effectiveness of these instruments. The slower growth of 2025 reflects, in part, how hard that measurement remains.
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Sources: GIIN, Sizing the Impact Investing Market 2026. Further reading: the impact investor ecosystem; social impact bonds; social venture capital.