Social Impact Investment in Germany - Market Report 2016

The German Social Impact Investment market is growing

Our research shows that the demand for social impact investment is growing in Germany: investable impact assets have almost tripled since 2012, from 24 million euro to just short of 70 million euro.

Education and employment are the primary investment sectors in Germany

From 2013-2015, 20% of impact assets were invested into the employment sector while 18% went towards education. 12% and 9% respectively were invested into healthcare and sustainable consumption.

High Net Worth Individuals remain the most important investor category in Germany, while German foundations are becoming increasingly active in the market. Both the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt and the Bertelsmann Stiftung indicate plans to increase their allocations to Social Impact Investing in the mid-term. Current levels of foundation assets invested in the German SII-market are around 10 million euro.

Active support is needed

The German National Advisory Board, an interdisciplinary expert group, attributes the demand for Social Impact Investment in Germany to the financing of innovation, prevention and scaling-up good ideas to solve societal problems. Despite its well-developed welfare system, there are financing gaps in these areas in Germany. In order to be able to alleviate these gaps, active state support is needed.

"International comparisons show that Social Impact Investment markets only grow significantly where the state creates suitable framework conditions" Brigitte Mohn emphasises. Our report proposes a first step in creating an independent specialist agency for Social Impact Investing on a federal level. This agency could then evaluate and implement development policies for the German market for Social Impact Investment.