The Impact World this Week: 12 December 2025
Your quick guide to the most interesting news snippets about social enterprise, impact investment and mission-driven business around the world from the Pioneers Post team. This week: Africa’s impact investing market mapped; Danone achieves global B Corp certification; green economy will surpass US$7tn by 2030; and more.
Africa: Impact assets under management in Africa have reached between US$70bn and US$80bn, reveals a new paper from the Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development, titled Update of the mapping of Africa’s impact investors 2025: Quantifying the African footprint. Annual impact investment flows are estimated between US$10bn and US$16bn per year, representing about 1% of the continent’s GDP, according to the new figures. The study identifies 250 impact funds operating in Africa, half of which invest exclusively on the continent. South African funds account for the largest share (43%) of impact assets under management, while US-based funds come second, accounting for 15.4%. The researchers published a first mapping of impact investors operating in Africa in 2024 to identify the key actors in the sector, and this year’s update looks at the share of investments of each impact fund dedicated to Africa and a market size estimate.
Grameen Danone Foods is a social business which sells yogurts fortified with added vitamins and minerals at an affordable price to families with children at risk of malnutrition in Bangladesh. Photo from Danone integrated annual report 2019, ©Sandro di Carlo Darsa
Global: Danone has achieved global B Corp certification, with 200 eligible subsidiaries (which operate independently) as well as the holding company, Danone SA, having certified as B Corps. Danone employees now represent 9% of the global B Corp workforce. It took 10 years for Danone to become fully certified, with its former CEO Emmanuel Faber, who was close to the B Lab founders, a strong champion of the movement. Danone has a long history of doing business for good: its former CEO Antoine Riboud committed the company to a double-mission – social as well as economic – back in 1972; and the brand is known for its collaboration with Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen microfinance bank to fight child malnutrition, among other initiatives.
Figure of the Week: US$7tn is the annual value the international green economy will surpass by 2030, according to a new report. Already a Multi-Trillion-Dollar Market: CEO Guide to Growth in the Green Economy was published by the World Economic Forum last week. The report says green revenues (from low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive sectors like renewable energy, sustainable agriculture and green transport) are growing twice as fast as conventional revenues on average, while companies involved in green markets (commercial activities that address environmental challenges) often secure cheaper capital and typically enjoy valuation premiums. But, green markets are moving at different speeds, with mature solutions such as solar, wind, batteries and electric vehicles achieving cost competitiveness at the global level, while costly technologies such as low-carbon hydrogen and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) require substantial support to bend the cost curve.
UK: Women-led businesses in the UK received more than 55,900 loans, with a total value of £2.84bn, from NatWest since 2021. The bank announced it had exceeded its target of lending £2bn to female-led businesses by the end of 2025 in a statement on Wednesday. The top five sectors receiving support were: health, leisure, commercial real estate, retail and professional services. In 2023 the bank launched Europe’s first €500m social bond for female-led businesses. This has led to over 14,500 loans to women-led businesses being made across the UK. More than 50% of the founders on the bank’s 13 nationwide accelerators are female.
EU: The OECD and European Commission published a report to help the success of the social economy, by looking at existing practices and exploring how policy changes would support the sector. Recommendations include having a dedicated ministry in country governments for the social economy; having specialist units at regional and local government levels, and cross-institutional structures to make sure different levels of government work collaboratively on the social economy. Business support to social economy organisations should involve both public and private sectors and be accessible geographically, adapted to the specific needs of social economy organisations and financially affordable. The report also calls for actions on taxation – which is mentioned by many European social enterprises as a barrier. Clearer, exhaustive eligibility criteria to tax advantages for social economy organisations should be provided, facilitating access to clear tax information and using state aid in line with competition laws.
Movers and shakers
- Lisa Hehenberger has been appointed dean of Esade Business School, the business and law school based in Spain. Hehenberger has been head of the Esade Centre for Social Impact since she founded it in 2021.
In case you missed it
Europe: Over-55 year olds made up a greater portion of social enterprise founders in 2023-24 compared with 2020. The Social Entrepreneurship Across Generations report, published by Euclid Network at the end of November, analysed data from 1,807 social enterprises in 30 European countries to explore the experiences and perspectives of young (<35) and senior (55–64 and 65+) founders. The report found that in 2020 19% of social enterprises had young founders, while only 3% were led by those aged 55+, but 7% of respondents in 2023-24 have young founders, while 15% are led by senior entrepreneurs, including 4% aged 65+.
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