Pioneering Change: Creas’ 2023 Impact Report
We keep placing impact at the heart of our decisions, we believe it is key to bringing our unique value to the table.
Once again, we are excited to present the Creas 2023 Impact Report.
This document summarizes the efforts and achievements of our portfolio companies over the past year.
As in previous years, we also wanted to dive deeper into a critical issue in impact measurement and management. This time, we conducted a survey among the entrepreneurs in our ecosystem to gain first-hand insight into their perception of the value that impact and its measurement bring to their companies.
Additionally, we collaborated with three experts who helped us explore the challenges and opportunities in our main investment areas: education, elderly care, and the circular economy.
We are proud to share that since the launch of Creas Impact in 2019, our portfolio has impacted 5.2 million people and has saved over 165,000 tons of CO2, 3,600 tons of waste, and 60,000 tons of chemicals.
These figures reflect the commitment of our portfolio companies to climate regeneration and improving people's quality of life. Impact investing has grown significantly in recent years, both in Spain, where it has nearly reached €1,000M, and globally, largely due to a combination of changes in consumer behavior and new regulations, such as the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) in Europe.
At Creas, we continue to grow and evolve, reaching a major milestone in 2024 with the launch and first closing of our new fund, Creas Impacto II. With the growth of both the sector and Creas, we believe it is more important than ever to continue promoting an investment vision that truly places impact and social transformation at the heart of business management and value creation.
That’s why we keep deepening our focus on various aspects of impact measurement, convinced that measuring and prioritizing impact generates long-term value for companies. As an impact fund, our mission is to support companies in developing in this area to contribute long-term value.
Therefore, this year we surveyed nearly 300 European companies in our network to better understand their perception of the added value of impact in their companies. We analyzed three areas: strategy, talent attraction and retention, and capital attraction.
From the survey, we learned that entrepreneurs especially value having impact-oriented investors and board members to support decision-making that prioritizes and effectively scales impact. We also found that entrepreneurs believe that impact particularly helps with talent retention, though fewer than half of the companies have incentive plans linked to impact.
We want to understand how impact and its measurement become a lever for long-term value creation.
With the launch of Creas Impacto II, over the next 5 years we will continue to support companies that are transforming their sectors, multiplying our impact and our ability to create value. That’s why we have also delved deeper into Europe’s social and environmental challenges and opportunities.
Asking ourselves how to solve the teacher shortage in Europe, understanding how artificial intelligence can help personalize education, discovering new models of care and self-care for the elderly, or exploring new circular and regenerative models are all part of what will help us truly contribute to the meaningful world we strive for.
To ensure systemic changes, we must continue driving increasingly rigorous impact measurement, capable of demonstrating social change when it occurs and humbly and transparently acknowledging potential negative impacts. We hope to keep moving in that direction and help promote rigor, humility, and transparency in impact investing.
We trust you will enjoy this report, in which we share our reason for being, our way of doing things, and, finally, our results. Thank you to everyone who accompanies, encourages, and pushes us to keep growing and improving.
The Creas Team