Social enterprises and others can apply for grants of up to £9m as part of the government's new Youth Investment Fund, delivered by Social Investment Business, and set to fund 300 existing or new youth facilities.
Six top-performing social enterprises and two outstanding leaders are announced today as the 2022 NatWest SE100 Social Business Award winners – including the first-ever SE100 Equality Champion.
Dilemmas for the NatWest SE100 judges as 29 high-performing finalists are chosen across seven different categories for the 2022 Social Business Awards.
PLUS: BlueMark raises $3.75m; electronics repair unicorn BackMarket reaches $5.7bn valuation, and more: our regular impact finance bulletin brings you the latest funds, deals and programmes in the world of investing for good.
Rishi pickings... Did the UK chancellor give us loads of money – or just a lot of missed opportunities? Here’s what some of the UK's social enterprise and social investment leaders had to say about this week's Budget.
Leading UK social enterprise buys 28-year-old coffee bar chain, taking on 370 staff, as part of pandemic-assisted acquisition strategy to create more social businesses.
PLUS: Pioneering revenue-based fund launches in Scotland; Back Market raises $335m in “bullish” circular economy market; AU$8m boost for Queensland social enterprises; Dutch trio backs “truly disruptive” AI firm Envision – and more.
Government-backed Covid lending schemes have been a lifeline – but in the long term, high levels of debt cause problems. One solution: transitioning at-risk, viable private businesses into employee or community ownership at scale.
Government sees clear role for impact investing in driving ‘levelling up’ agenda in face of massive social and economic inequality – and financiers are getting on board with the new concept of equality impact investing.
