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German Impact Investing Survey 2025 (Short Version) (Bertelsmann Stiftung)

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SurveyBertelsmann StiftungJanuary 202523 pages35 min readOriginal source
Key number
€12.5 billion
Impact investments reported by survey participants p.10
Largest segment
28%
Private equity share of impact AUM p.10
What changed
65%
Participants planning to increase impact investments over the next five years p.11

Summary

  • The survey is based on 142 participants, and 76% of participating asset managers and asset owners already have experience of impact investing.p.7
  • Participants' impact investments total €12.5 billion, equivalent to just 0.85% of their combined assets under management.p.10
  • Participants prefer illiquid asset classes, with private equity (28%) and venture capital (16%) leading impact allocations.p.10
  • Over the next five years, 65% of participants plan to increase their impact investments by a moderate (36%) or high (29%) amount.p.11
  • More than 70% of survey respondents expect market-rate returns or even outperformance.p.3
  • 69% of participants expect a risk-adjusted market return from impact investments, while 22% expect a higher return.p.8
  • Among non-impact investors, an unclear definition of impact investing is the top barrier (56%), followed by lack of IMM standardization (39%).p.14

Key insights

  1. 26% of participating asset managers and asset owners conduct transition investments, versus 76% for traditional impact investments.p.12
  2. In the GIIN study, 90% of investors reported satisfaction with impact performance compared to 73% for financial performance.p.9
  3. Active impact investors name the lack of standardized IMM approaches (43%) as their top challenge, followed by regulatory complexity (31%) and lack of impact data (31%).p.15
  4. A social taxonomy was the most requested policy measure (50%), followed by lower capital requirements for institutional impact investors (41%) among asset owners and managers.p.16
  5. Only 30% of the 23 participating social businesses are financed by impact investors, and 43% cite excessive return expectations as a key obstacle.p.19
  6. 91% of social businesses value access to networks, markets or partners from impact investors beyond capital.p.20
  7. Fears of greenwashing accusations are named much more rarely in Germany as a barrier (22%) or challenge (12%) than the 62% globally.p.14
  8. 67% of already active investors report slight to strong growth in transition investments over the past five years.p.12

Funders mentioned

KfW Capital

Topics and entities

DACHEuropePrivate marketsRegulationBundesverband Alternative Investments (BAI)Bundesverband Impact Investing (BVII)European CommissionGIINSFDR

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