About The Client
The European Investment Bank Institute (EIB Institute) acts as a catalyst for economic and social development within the EU Member States. It supports social entrepreneurs and social innovation through a number of initiatives, such as the Social Innovation Tournament (SIT) that brings together some of the most promising European social ventures.
The Challenge
The EIB Institute aims to support alumni of the Social Innovation Tournament (SIT) with the skills and experience needed to successfully fundraise growth capital from impact investors. For many entrepreneurs, it’s hard to imagine alternatives for plain equity or classic debt. With a portfolio of 150+ alumni spread across the continent, the EIB Institute looked for support to widen and deepen the expertise of its alumni.
The Solution
To tackle the above, the EIB Institute partnered with Efiko Academy to train SIT alumni on hybrid impact fundraising. As part of Efiko’s Raising Hybrid Impact Finance training co-developed with the Financing Agency for Social Entrepreneurship (FASE), selected entrepreneurs dived into a mix of self-paced and live training to discover diverse applications of innovative financial instruments like mezzanine finance, social impact incentives and revenue-based loans. They gained confidence in tailoring impact-linked instruments to their own venture to optimally scale their positive impact.
Among the participants who joined the training were Christophe Berlo, CFO of Resortecs, Anh Nguyen, Co-Founder and Chief Sustainability Officer of Beetle Fortech and Louise Bleach, Vice President of Business Development at Desolenator.
"The live session and role play offered a new, valuable perspective, and I believe it can make a significant difference in our next fundraising rounds."
CFO Resortecs
Linking Impact with Finance
Louise Bleach sat together with her team to change the metrics in her fundraising presentation to more closely link impact with finance: “After our initial engagements in the training, we decided to shift our reporting strategy, modifying how we present and frame our impact metrics. Among other things, we placed greater emphasis on our impact statement and extended our focus beyond the short-term. So we began projecting the company's potential impact in the coming 5, 10, and 20 years. This adjustment was integral to our investment narrative and pitch: instead of presenting the impact on the final slides and discussing it as an add-on, we could seamlessly integrate discussions on future impact with return considerations for investors and propose a financial structure that provides the right incentives for everyone around the table,” Louise explained.
From Theory to Practice
“The course introduced me to new investment conditions linked to impact milestones. The insights gained from this course will be integral to shaping our future fundraising strategy, particularly when collaborating with industry partners. The prospect of considering alternative investment structures, including those with impact considerations, is more intriguing than ever,” Anh highlights.
"Thanks to the training, I've started to explore combining different types of instruments. The examples provided, featuring real startups and entrepreneurs sharing their venture experiences, have proven to be really insightful for me."
Co-Founder & Chief Sustainability Officer at Beetle ForTech
Time Well Spent
"The training offered a great opportunity for learning and networking. I also appreciated the diverse perspectives of entrepreneurs tackling critical problems. Despite having recently completed a fundraising round, I found certain insights, for instance, related to mezzanine financing, extremely valuable. The pre-session materials were insightful, and it was helpful to pick what was relevant for me, making it manageable to prepare despite a busy schedule," Christophe outlined after the training.
"Overall, the trainers’ approach was impressive and greatly contributed to my overall understanding of the topic. What I appreciated most was their ability to energise the discussions."
Vice President Business Development at Desolenator
Check out the course
Structuring Hybrid Impact Investments
