Impact & Blended Finance
Impact and blended finance is capital from impact funds, foundations and development finance institutions for companies whose business creates a measurable social or environmental outcome.
Capability
How we help with Impact & Blended Finance
Founders do not fail to raise impact capital because they are not impactful. They fail because nobody told them which door to knock on.
Establish whether you are an impact company
Many founders qualify and do not know it. The test is whether the outcome is produced by the business model rather than alongside it, and that is a question with a definite answer.
Map the capital that fits
Impact funds, foundations, development finance institutions and blended structures all judge companies differently. Knowing which door to knock on is most of the work.
Build the case in their language
An impact investor reads a company through a theory of change and a measurement frame. The same business, described the way a venture fund expects, reads as a weaker version of a venture deal.
Make the measurement real before they ask
Measurement is the commitment founders underestimate most and the one funders check first. Instrumenting it early turns it from a condition into an advantage.
What Impact & Blended Finance delivers
Who funds impact
Foundations, impact funds, development finance institutions and corporate programmes each judge a company differently. The first job is knowing which one is yours.
- Mapping the mission to the funders who fund it
- Grants and schemes that sit beside the raise
- Stage fit: the impact fund that found you first is not always the one for your growth round
Blended structures
Concessional and commercial capital in one stack, so the terms match the risk each investor is actually taking.
- Grant, debt and equity layered rather than chosen between
- Catalytic first-loss where it unlocks commercial capital
- Terms that the next round can live with
The case
Impact investors read a company through outcomes as well as numbers. The case is built for both readings at once.
- Theory of change stated in the language funders use
- Outcomes measured, so the case is evidence rather than intention
- The financial model an impact fund and a commercial fund can both underwrite
How an impact raise runs
- 01
Map
The mission, the stage and the segment, against the capital that funds it: who, how much, on what terms.
- 02
Match
The shortlist of funders whose thesis fits, and the ones to leave alone however warm the introduction.
- 03
Build
The case, the outcomes evidence and the model, with impact measurement set up so the reporting exists before the term sheet asks for it.
- 04
Raise
The process run end to end, from first conversation to close, by the same team that built the case.
Why SRF for Impact & Blended Finance
- Strategy, capital and execution for the same company, which is the integration most impact advisers do not offer
- Blended structures as a design choice, not a compromise
- Grants and schemes worked alongside the raise, not as a separate errand
- One lead from fundraise to impact measurement, so the story told to funders is the story the reporting confirms
FAQ
Questions founders ask about Impact & Blended Finance
What counts as an impact company?
A company whose social or environmental outcome is produced by the business itself rather than by something it does on the side. A company selling affordable diagnostics in tier-three cities is an impact company; a company that funds a school from its profits is a company with a foundation.
Is impact capital cheaper than venture capital?
Not usually cheaper, but often more patient. Impact funds and development finance institutions frequently accept longer horizons and lower return expectations than venture, which for the right business is worth more than the headline cost.
What is blended finance?
A structure that combines capital with different return expectations in one deal, for example a concessional tranche from a foundation alongside commercial debt. It makes businesses financeable that neither source would fund alone.
Do we need impact measurement before we raise?
You need a credible plan for it. Funders rarely expect a full measurement function at the first meeting, but they do expect to see that you know what you will measure and why, and a founder who has not thought about it reads as someone who has not thought about the outcome either.
What our research says about Impact & Blended Finance
Is there a genuine gap that patient or concessional capital is justified in filling, because commercial money, left alone, would not have served this segment? If ordinary capital already flows here freely, no foundation will subsidise it.
India's flagship health facility reports pulling in roughly eight to ten rupees of commercial and debt capital for every rupee of philanthropy it puts down.
The people behind Impact & Blended Finance
Impact & Blended Finance is run by the studio team: one multidisciplinary team whose pods work in tandem, matched to the sector and the stage the company is in.
Impact, Growth & MSME pod
Led by Sanskriti Jhaveri
Lead - Growth & Partnerships, Impact Consulting. Growth and impact for India's MSME base.
See the pod structureWhat usually runs alongside this
Government Grants & SchemesIdentifying, applying for and staying compliant with the non-dilutive government funding a business already qualifies for.
Debt & Blended FinanceWorking capital, venture debt and blended structures for businesses that should not be raising equity.
Impact MeasurementImpact measurement built into the finance function: outcomes defined, data instrumented and reported the way foundations, impact funds and DFIs require.
