Better Society Capital

Our latest market sizing reveals the value of social investments in the UK has grown to £10 billion at the end of 2023 🚀 This twelvefold increase over the past 12 years marks a significant milestone for the sector, driven by an increasingly diverse group of investors. Despite economic challenges, the market has continued to demonstrate stability, with sustained investment focused on addressing pressing social issues such as child poverty, homelessness, and long-term health conditions. For the first time this year, we’ve also estimated the investor composition of the market to better understand the appetite for social impact. Our findings show that pension funds are the largest group of investors, making up 21% of the market. They are followed by endowments and charities, which contribute 14%, and asset and wealth managers, who make up 13% of the investor base. With public spending on social issues under significant strain and the new Labour government preparing its first budget, our report is especially timely. We hope to continue working with partners and the Government to shape policies that direct more capital into impactful projects, benefiting society, easing the burden on the Treasury, and supporting the economy. Learn more in our 2023 Market Sizing report: https://lnkd.in/eHfjyyUA

🤝 We’re pleased to join Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Access - The Foundation for Social Investment in providing £1.2 million of equity investment into Resonance Limited. This investment will strengthen Resonance as it aims to mobilise over £1 billion for UK social enterprises by 2030. Our CEO, Stephen Muers, comments: “Resonance is one of the best-performing social impact fund managers, and BSC has supported them as an investor in their funds to date with over £70 million. This is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to back Resonance as a manager itself. It marks a significant milestone in their journey, as we see them unlocking institutional capital from pension funds, providing valuable diversification strategies without compromising on social impact.” 🏘️ Resonance has been instrumental in the growth of the social property market, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration to channel investment into homes for individuals and families in temporary accommodation or at risk of homelessness. Find out more below 👇

🏡 The UK is facing a housing crisis that affects people across the income spectrum, but particularly those who are most vulnerable. Addressing this chronic shortage is estimated to require at least £16.9 billion annually over the next decade. Impact-driven private capital has played a crucial role in increasing the supply of social and affordable homes across the nation—from virtually zero in 2011 to £5.1 billion in 2023. Despite the macroeconomic turbulence of recent years, we've observed an overall increase in the value of investments, with year-on-year deployment remaining relatively stable. There is growing evidence from our portfolio that impact investment in social and affordable housing is making a difference in high-need areas. Notably, 75% of our investments in this area are delivering homes in regions with the highest rates of homelessness. Explore the data further in our market sizing report: https://lnkd.in/eqcfh5ag

🌱 Here's what our Venture and Impact team were up to in Paris last week! Watch our colleagues Ellie Broad, Annelise Sauter and Emma Jones in action at WVC:E, an event dedicated to promoting the inclusion, integration, and empowerment of women in venture capital. Annelise was also a panellist at the conference, sharing why ESG integration is crucial to driving sustainable growth and sharing insights into leveraging ESG as a competitive advantage in venture capital. See the full highlights here 👇

The latest webinar from The Diversity Forum explores best practices for building an Inclusive Funding Process, featuring insights from our EDI Lead, Melanie Mills, alongside Swati Pujari from Pathway Fund and Joshua Robinson from Access - The Foundation for Social Investment. They shared practical advice and examples on how to build a truly inclusive funding process, covering topics such as: 🤝 Co-designing programmes with intermediaries 💰 Developing flexible finance programmes 💡 Ensuring diversity in investment committees 🎯 Measuring the impact of inclusive initiatives 💪 Building organisational learning around EDI 👉 Watch the full webinar here: https://lnkd.in/e_QRSRBE #DiversityAndInclusion #SocialInvestment

🌱 This morning our CEO, Stephen Muers, participated in the Impact Investment Roundtable hosted by the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, The Rt Hon Darren Jones MP, to instigate a new partnership with impact investors to address social and environmental challenges, including affordable housing.   🏘️ At the Roundtable Darren Jones underlined his dedication to creating the right environment for impact investment across the country, following the Government's announcement today welcoming £550 million in impact investment to build thousands of new homes across the UK. Alongside Mr Jones, the Rt Hon Lisa Nandy MP also commented on the news, sharing their aim to make the UK a world-leading centre of excellence on the impact economy.   🤝 To achieve this goal, we agree there is a need for a strong cross-Whitehall focus, with HMT, DCMS, No 10, DBT, and MHCLG collaborating. Strategic public investment and blended finance is essential to leverage impact-motivated private capital, which can be channelled into initiatives tackling entrenched social issues.   At the Roundtable, the impact investment funds by Resonance Limited, Man Group and Schroders were highlighted as exemplars of private capital responding to major social and environmental challenges, delivering returns while also helping to grow the economy   Read the full announcement here: https://bit.ly/3XYYjWE   #SocialImpact #Growth #UKHousing #BetterBritain

We are building a venture market that nurtures and scales innovative ways of tackling social problems. According to our latest market sizing estimate, impact venture currently accounts for 8% of the overall social investment market, reflecting a growth of 22% from last year. 🚀 We believe tech-enabled business models have the potential to transform the lives of many people. Through our venture managers, such as Eka Ventures, we have now invested in over 100 impact companies, reaching over 7.4 million people in the UK. One such venture is Flok Health, the UK’s first autonomous physiotherapy clinic, which provides same-day access to care for NHS patients. Read our case study to find out more about its services and how it is helping to deliver complete treatment pathways directly to patients on behalf of NHS partners 👇 https://lnkd.in/evXZEqYV

Our Engagement Lead, James Westhead, attended the Co-operative Party Conference this weekend, joining the action to build a better Britain and engaging with policymakers to explore how social investment can contribute to this mission. It was inspiring to hear from various MPs including Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds MP, DCMS Secretary Lisa Nandy and Local Government Minister Jim McMahon on how the co-operative movement can make a difference in these areas. We also heard from Adam Hug, Mete Coban MBE and Megan Corton Scott on the role that co-ops can play in helping transform the UK’s energy landscape. We work with a range of partners to help communities own their assets, which provides a valuable way to build community resilience, empower local people to take climate action and accelerate progress towards net-zero emissions. Thank you to everyone who connected with us and shared their thoughts on growing the community together!

The Lifetime Savings Model is an important initiative from our partners at Schroders, aimed at creating a more sustainable national savings framework that helps individuals improve their financial resilience and long-term savings. We're pleased to contribute to this cross-sector project, looking at the entire UK savings system and identifying actionable recommendations for industry and policymakers to address key challenges that prevent people from being able to secure their financial future. Visit the link below to read the latest research from this project and learn how it can help improve the lives of millions of individuals, and through this increase the resilience, health and productivity of the UK as a whole. https://lnkd.in/eZ-P6rhB

🚀 Great insights from Stephen Bediako OBE, co-founder of Pathway Fund, on the role of the Impact Economy in shaping policy discussions both in the UK and internationally. 🤝 He reflects on our jointly-hosted Mission-driven reception, where we brought forward ideas on how Government can harness the power of social enterprises, charities and the broader impact economy to drive growth. This sector has been a pioneer in the past, and by partnering with us, a Labour government could unlock up to £100bn in private investment to revitalise communities, create jobs, and improve lives across Britain. #ImpactEconomy #SocialEnterprises