Planting an Impact Seed in the CEE Region
Impact Europe is pleased to introduce Impact Seed, a new EU-funded project that aims to reinforce the impact investing ecosystem in Central and Eastern Europe through a variety of supporting activities. To help you get oriented in these, we are happy to share the preliminary overview of the project and to introduce you to the consortium of partners participating.
The main objective of Impact Seed is to create financial instruments that will provide financing to early-stage companies, with small tickets of €20-150k and larger investments up to €1 million. To achieve this, we join forces with a consortium of partners, including FeelsGood Capital, ACT Group, Fund2740 and Euclid Network. By facilitating the sharing of resources, knowledge and experience, Impact Seed aims to streamline existing tools and to help expand the pipeline of the participating partners.
So - what to expect?
One key activity is the establishment of a new impact investment fund by FeelsGood Capital called "Feels Better", which will have a, estimated total size of €60 million, with €10 million dedicated to supporting early-stage companies. The fund will provide financing to companies based in EU countries and will receive catalytic funding and developmental support through the Impact Seed project.
To plant the seeds for similar instruments in the other partaking countries, the project will invest efforts in the development of an online investment readiness platform, which will be used by two partner organisations, ACT Group from Croatia and Fund 2470 from Slovenia, to support a pilot program with 14 impact-driven companies. If this pilot is evaluated positively, the project will roll out the platform on a wider basis. To maximize efficiency, this platform will be based on the existing platform used by FeelsGood Capital, and is scheduled to be available in English in the summer of 2025.
A key moment in the project will be the CEE4Impact Day in Budapest. On October 9th, a pitching session will give 10 entrepreneurs from Croatia and Slovenia the opportunity to present their businesses to investors. Additionally, a market research and mapping study of the investment landscape in 8 countries (in the Balkans, Slovenia, and Croatia) will be completed by the end of 2025.
Getting involved
Those looking to get involved in the project, can join a series of webinars throughout the year, the first of which will focus on the launch of the investment readiness platform, the second on the results of the pilot program, and the third on the launch of the "Feels Better" fund in 2026.
We like to invite our members in the region to reach out to us to explore further involvement, and to join us in Budapest to integrate efforts in advancing the ecosystem in Central and Eastern Europe. As the Impact Seed project unfolds, it will generate avenues for impact players in the region to expand their pipelines and to learn from the project's implementation.
In partnership with:
