Africa Impact Summit 2025
11th June 2025 | 08:30 GMT+3 | Accra, Ghana
Impact investment wholesalers aim to improve lives by helping to build a market that connects finance to organizations that solve social problems.
This report shows how the first wholesalers are speeding up and scaling up impact investment in their countries, building a market which goes far beyond their direct activity, developing strong intermediary structures and connecting capital to social enterprises to help them achieve greater impact.
The Definition of an Impact Investment Wholesaler:
A wholesaler invests.
It invests indirectly (it invests in funds or other intermediaries). It may also invest directly (it may invest straight into social enterprises).
A wholesaler draws in other investment.
It invests in ways designed to catalyze capital from other investors (such as foundations, individuals and institutional investors).
A wholesaler measures, manages and reports impact and financial data.
It measures impact and financial data at the wholesale, intermediary and (if possible) enterprise levels. It reports as transparently as possible. It facilitates progress toward shared norms for measuring and managing impact.
A wholesaler seeks to develop its impact investment market.
It builds the market by methods outside investment. Among other efforts, it may strengthen enterprise capacity, encourage policy change, build new intermediaries and promote integrity.
The report draws principally on data, publications and interviews related to the two first wholesalers: Big Society Capital (BSC) in the UK and the European Investment Fund (the EIF) and its Social Impact Accelerator (the SIA). Further information was gathered from Portugal and Japan – both in late-stage design and implementation of their wholesale activities –as well as a number of other countries seeking to develop wholesalers.
Alex Begg
Big Society Capital
Amit Bhatia (ex officio)
GSG Impact
Bjorn Vennema
Social Finance Netherlands
Chul Woo Moon
Sungkyunkwan University
Clara Barby
Impact Management Project
No Content Set
Exception:
Website.Models.ViewModels.Components.General.Authors.AuthorComponentVm
David Galipeau
United Nations Development Programme
Debra Schwartz
MacArthur Foundation
Duncan Farthing-Nichol
MaRS Centre for Impact Investing
Filipe Almeida
Portugal Social Innovation
No Content Set
Exception:
Website.Models.ViewModels.Components.General.Authors.AuthorComponentVm
Ilse Treurnicht
João Machado
Portugal Social Innovation
Karen Wilson
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Krisztina Tora
Chief Market Development Officer - GSG Impact
Leehe Skuler
Social Finance Israel
Maria Laura Tinelli
Acrux Partners
Masataka Uo
Japan Fundraising Association
Rajiv Lallompany
Infrastructure Development Finance Company
Sally McCutchan
Impact Investing Australia
Silvia Manca
European Investment Fund
Susan de Witt
Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Uli Grabenwarter
European Investment Fund
Publication Enquiries
realimpact@gsgii.org
