There is stubborn misconception that the cultural and creative sector represent riskier, less interesting investments. Nevertheless, in the EU, the two sectors combined currently account for 5% of its GDP and represents 8.7 million jobs, with this ratio expected to expand even more in coming years.

The potential for impact, in particular, is immense. We sat down with Javier Arias, Director of Business Creation at EIT Culture & Creativity. They are supporting impact-minded start-ups and scale-ups throughout Europe and helping them connect with investors. We are joined by Johannes Söderstrom of Vreal and Cynthia Asije of Adirelounge - two entrepreneurs who can testify to the importance of this support, and to the impact they bring to the table.

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You can join EIT Culture & Creativity at their side-event in Malmö, on November 20th. Learn more about it here!

With over 20 years of experience at EIB, Shiva Dustdar is one of the leading voice in the European impact discourse. Leading into Impact Week, she took some time of her busy schedule to discuss their most recent projects, how they contribute to European competitiveness and which innovations they foresee in the years to come.

Collaboration is a magic word in the impact space, but it's not always easy to pull off effectively. The Take-a-Stake Fund, which supports SME's in the WASH and WASTE sectors, is a shining example of how to execute for maximal impact.

We spoke to Åsa Skogström Feldt (IKEA Social Entrepreneurship), Kajetan Hetzer (WASTE) and Raj Kumar (Yunus Social Business) on their learnings, their complementarity and the impact the project has had on communities in Asia and Africa.

The topic of collaboration will be high on the agenda at Impact Week in Malmö, where you can meet all three speakers and get engaged.

How's the impact investing space in North Macedonia? Don't know? Let's fix that.

Recently, Impact Europe launched a new EU-funded market building programme called Invest For Change, focusing on an underserved region: the Western Balkans. By way of introduction, we sat down with Marjan Icoski and Irina Janevska of ARNO, our new partner in the country, for a chat on their impact ecosystem and what is needed to push the envelope.

As a bonus, we bring back the creator of Impact People, Ben DeVries, for one last poetic rodeo. Be sure to stick around until the end!

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Get to know ARNO

Connect to Marjan and Irina on LinkedIn

Join us at Impact Week and connect with our market building work

Join Eleni Theodorou for a conversation on leadership, empathy, community and more, spanning her work as Managing Director of We Share Forward Foundation to the many alliances to which she contributes. What’s the role of listening in impact leadership? How do diverse stakeholders and co-funders come together around impact goals? What’s next for Europe’s foundations? What’s the role of catalytic capital in 2025? How do we make more capital impact capital? Tune in to find out!

We Share Forward

Find Eleni on LinkedIn

Discover the communities of practice in Health and Agrifood, spotlighted in the episode

Join Eleni at Impact Week, 18-20 November

Listen to Eleni on a previous episode of Impact People

Anastasiia Dieieva (CEO, Tokarev Foundation) has described the work of Tokarev Foundation as ‘tech philanthropy.’ But what does that mean in the context of wartime Ukraine? Anastasiia has answers – and big questions – to share. She’s joined by Darii, a young scientist supported by Tokarev’s programs, to add a perspective on EdTech’s future.

Read Tokarev Foundation’s 2024 Impact Report and check out their website to learn more

Check out the documentary We Are U, which features Darii, and the YouTube channel of SaveEd, who produced it

Join the Impact Europe crew at Impact Week Malmo – early-bird tickets now available!

We’re at ChangeNOW in Paris — three days, 40.000 people, bold ideas everywhere, and one big question: Whose minds do we still need to change — and how?

In this special episode of Impact People, we take you into the heart of ChangeNOW 2025 — weaving together raw, honest reflections from founders, funders, thinkers, and doers who pitched at Funds For Change, the stage we co-organised. Tune in to hear what’s giving changemakers hope, what’s keeping them up at night — and who they wish had been listening.

The Impact Generation was assembled by Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo and tasked with putting together a youth impact agenda. We heard from them on Impact People last year in Torino – and this year in Bilbao, they’re back! Tune in to hear them ask big questions, share learnings and ponder what being ‘likeminded’ really means.

About the Impact Generation (in Italian)

https://www.compagniadisanpaolo.it/it/news/impact-week-2024-continua-il-percorso-degli-impact-generators/

Listen to the Impact Generation episode from Torino

https://open.spotify.com/episode/70ZNVoQstc9i13pLowHDBN?si=478defbc972e4f9f

Mentioned in the episode

Better Together for Youth – a whitepaper

https://www.impacteurope.net/insights/better-together-youth

Youth Hackathon

https://www.impacteurope.net/insights/five-young-afghan-students-shine-bilbaos-impact-week