Tag: Big Issue Invest

Growth Impact Fund backs Genius Within’s mission to empower the UK’s Neurodivergent workforce

Stuart Mitchell

Recently the Growth Impact Fund (GIF), a social impact investment fund developed by Big Issue Invest (BIIFM) and UnLtd, targeted at £25 million to help underrepresented social entrepreneurs across the UK, announces its first debt deal of £500,000 in Genius Within.  The funding will help Genius Within, a specialist employment and training provider, support neurodivergent people into employment and help them to work best when employed. In the UK, it is estimated that over 15% of the population are neurodiverse, with 40% of neurodiverse employees reporting to be impacted most…

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Mark Porter is announced as new Chair of Big Issue Invest

Stuart Mitchell

Financial services veteran Mark Porter has been appointed as the new Chair of the Big Issue Group’s social investment arm, Big Issue Invest (BII), as it looks to build stronger relationships with the wider investment community. Porter has had a 35+ year career in financial services, specifically in investment management, banking, investor & fund services, and trust and corporate services. He has held a number of executive and board positions within institutional and private equity backed businesses, including at UBS, MUFG and more recently Equiom Group. At UBS, Mark had…

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Social investment arm of the Big Issue Group opens up applications for second cohort of social enterprises in London

Stuart Mitchell

Big Issue Invest (BII), the investment arm of the Big Issue Group (BIG), has opened up for applications to the second round of an investment programme, aimed at up to 20 new and early-stage social enterprises in London.  Power Up London is an accelerator programme for London-based, diverse-led, early-stage socially impactful organisations addressing social and/or environmental issues and providing services to underrepresented communities.   The programme is delivered by BII with funding by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda to invest…

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Big Issue Invest calls for applications from social ventures and charities across England from its £15M Impact Loans England programme

Stuart Mitchell

Big Issue Invest (BII) has called for applications from social ventures and charities across England from its new £15M Impact Loans England programme. The investment arm of the Big Issue Group’s new Impact Loans England programme (ILE) is a competitive blended loan/grant product which is designed to provide an inclusive, flexible and patient loan offering that can help social organisations and charities grow. ILE will provide early-stage ventures with loan products that can help social businesses deal with seasonal fluctuations in income and the uncertainty inherent to the UK’s post…

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Social investment arm of the Big Issue Group releases Impact Report showing support for 1.5 million people in need in UK

Stuart Mitchell

Big Issue Invest (BII) has launched its 2022-2023 Impact Report. The report revealed that the social investment arm of The Big Issue supported 140 social enterprises across the UK and had £45 million Assets Under Management (AUM) as of 31 March 2023. The report detailed how, in turn, those 140 social enterprises were able to support 1.5 million customers across the UK in the same period. 94% of investments made by BII contribute to core solutions to poverty, extending the mission and work of the Big Issue Group. The organisation also…

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