There is a natural tendency for investment funds to stay close to their home market. This is a reasonable strategy as investments in other countries or regions might be difficult to monitor and support.

Co-Investments are a strategy to expand the investment universe but at the same time limit the operational risk and share costs. This session will explore current practices, from pure equity to more hybrid investors’ alliances. It will discuss the motivations and limitations of the stakeholders and blueprints for governance structures among others.

The operational risk can also be reduced by conducting market research. Traditional venture capital or private equity funds have many services to conduct market research. There are consulting companies, expert networks or industry reports. However, the same tools do not exist for social enterprise finance intermediaries. This session will cover approaches and participants are invited to share their experiences.

Speakers

Clémentine Blazy works at the European Center for Social Finance, which delivers EaSI Technical Assistance services on behalf of the European Commission. With a background in consulting and over 15 years in social finance (mostly at France active where she led the investment activity for the national entity), she has experience both as board member of social enterprises and investor within different investment committees. The growing involvement of philanthropy in social finance is of particular interest to her.

Wolfgang Spiess-Knafl works at the European Center for Social Finance, which delivers EaSI Technical Assistance services on behalf of the European Commission. He has an engineering background and started his career in investment banking. Wolfgang is active in the field of social finance since 2009. His current main interests are emerging new technologies and their intersection with social and environmental objectives.

Practical information

Date: May 30; 10:00 – 14:00

Address: Online