Spain’s impact investments surpass €5bn – latest SpainNAB figures
Impact assets under management in Spain grew by more than 50% between 2023 and 2025, shows fresh research which was previewed at this week’s annual ‘Camino al Impacto’ event in Madrid. Speakers also gave updates on Spain’s impact investment wholesaler and called for greater use of blended finance.
MADRID – Spain’s impact investment marketplace surpassed €5bn last year, according to research revealed this week by SpainNAB, the country’s impact investment alliance.
The figure of €5.05bn assets under management for 2025 was revealed during the seventh edition of SpainNAB’s annual gathering, Camino al Impacto (‘Road to Impact), which took place yesterday in Madrid. It represents just over 50% growth on the previous measurement of the marketplace in 2023, which stood at €3.3bn.
Presenting the headline findings of the research, which was carried out by Spanish business school IE University, Rachida Justo, the university’s chair in social entrepreneurship and impact investment, said: “The report’s data highlights how impact capital is evolving in terms of volume and mobilisation capacity, reflecting the ecosystem’s growing maturity and a qualitative shift in how impact-driven solutions are financed.”
SpainNAB’s president, Eugenio Solla (below), who is director of sustainability at CaixaBank, said that the marketplace now needed to scale. “In recent years, we have demonstrated that the talent, capital, innovation and commitment needed to tackle major social and environmental challenges exist,” he said. “But the challenge now is to bring these efforts to scale, and that means that the successful initiatives must cease to be exceptions and instead grow, replicate and reach more people and areas.”
The key findings of the research, which will be published in full in November, included:
- Direct investments grew to €2.6bn, up from €1.5bn in 2023
- Indirect investments increased to €573m, compared with €84m in 2023
- Finance from banks rose to €1.8bn, up from €1.7bn in 2023
- 74% of survey participants plan to increase their impact assets under management
Spain’s impact investment wholesaler commits all its funds
Spain launched its own impact investment wholesaler in 2023, the equivalent of the UK’s Better Society Capital. The Fondo de Impacto Social (FIS), or Social Impact Fund, was endowed with €400m from the government. It is managed by Cofides and began distributing funds at the start of 2025.
Cofides chair and CEO Angela Perez (below) told the audience that the FIS had now committed all its funds as well as mobilising an additional €1.3bn of investments. This demonstrated that it was “possible to combine profitability with positive impact”, she said.
She added: “Behind these figures lie people and projects that improve lives and provide solutions to social and environmental challenges. That is the true essence of impact investment.”
A call for blended finance to step up
Discussions during the day also focused on the need for greater use of blended finance – public or philanthropic investments which attract more private capital towards projects that might find it difficult to attract conventional financing.
Mercedes Valcárcel, CEO of SpainNAB, said: “The debate should not focus on how much private capital we succeed in attracting, but on the problems we are able to solve thanks to this combination of resources, which continues to be one of the most promising tools to solve major social and environmental challenges.”
Header photo: Mercedes Valcárcel, CEO of SpainNAB, speaking at Camino al Impacto this week
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