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 

In a rare quiet room at the very buzzy Impact Week, seven Cartier Women’s Initiative Fellows sat down to talk. What unfolded was a conversation unlike the others in this series: about the life of founders – sometimes wonderful, sometimes not. Our guests shared their experiences on balancing family, business partners and expectations; their biggest questions for each other; and what it takes to keep going when the odds are against you.  

Jackie  

https://www.cartierwomensinitiative.com/fellow/diana-jue-jackie-stenson  

Jessica

https://www.cartierwomensinitiative.com/fellow/jessica-menon   

Monika  

https://www.cartierwomensinitiative.com/fellow/monika-tomecka 

Sofie  

https://www.cartierwomensinitiative.com/fellow/sofie-blakstad 

Jife  

https://www.cartierwomensinitiative.com/fellow/jife-williams-adeola-asabia  

Ishani 

https://www.cartierwomensinitiative.com/fellow/ishani-roy 

Rana  

https://www.cartierwomensinitiative.com/fellow/rana-sanyal 

* 

https://www.impacteurope.net/ 

Part 2 of a multi-part episode on the work lives of five Cartier Women’s Initiative Fellows. Ishani founded Serein, which helps companies prevent harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Next, we hear from Rana, founder of RS Research, a next-generation therapeutics company developing novel nanomedicines based on innovative drug delivery platforms to treat patients fighting cancer. Join us for insights on what it means to ask big questions and reach the answers in innovative, impactful ways.    

Ishani

https://serein.in/  

https://www.cartierwomensinitiative.com/fellow/ishani-roy 

Rana 

https://rsresearch.net/ 

https://www.cartierwomensinitiative.com/fellow/rana-sanyal 

Meet these Cartier Women’s Initiative Fellows – and many more – at Impact Week in Bilbao!  

https://www.impactweek.eu/bilbao/home