If social investment is to happen on a large scale, an effective and efficient intermediary market is vital. That’s where we come in.

Big Society Capital has a key role to play in growing a sustainable social investment market in the UK. We do this by investing in social investment finance intermediaries (SIFIs), developing their capacity to provide social sector organisations with access to new, appropriate and affordable sources of finance to increase their social impact.

If social investment is to happen on a large scale, an effective and efficient intermediary market is vital. There need to be mechanisms available to match the interests of socially motivated investors with the need for capital in the social sector. These mechanisms need to be transparent and cost-effective.

At the moment the social investment market is still new and small and so not yet able to provide the social sector with access to all of the finance that it needs.

We provide investment and support to SIFIs so that they are better able to provide the social sector with access to finance. We only invest in SIFIs. We don’t invest directly in social sector organisations. This is because, by supporting SIFIs to grow, we can help them to make more connections between socially motivated investors and social sector organisations. This brings more capital into the social sector than BSC alone could provide and increases long term impact. Our investments in action illustrate this. See our investments in action

We provide finance and other support to SIFIs through:

Capitalisation and balance sheet growth: injecting core equity capital to build stronger, larger SIFIs that are able to raise further private investment and provide a reliable and predictable flow of capital to social sector organisations.

Risk and working capital: acting as lead or cornerstone investor in the developing and piloting of financial products and funds that provide risk and working capital to the social sector.

Sustainability and operational growth: providing medium to long-term capital to SIFIs to enable them to achieve sustainability and scale and so increase the volume of affordable finance that they can offer to the social sector.

Market mechanisms and infrastructure: acting as lead or cornerstone investor and/or providing underwriting support for the development of market infrastructure.

Advice, skills and information: providing direct equity and loan investments to SIFIs developing and providing financial advisory and corporate finance services to help social sector organisations build the skills required to take on investment.

If you are a social investment finance intermediary and are interested in investment from BSC, you can find out more about our investment process and criteria.

If you are a social sector organisation seeking investment, we can help you find out more about where you can find the right finance for you.