Barcelona-based impact investor Ship2B Ventures has launched its BSocial Impact Fund II, closing at €65 million. The fund will invest in startups targeting improvements in the lives of vulnerable groups and the elderly, decarbonization of industry and natural ecosystem regeneration.
The European Investment Fund, which previously invested in Ship2B, is the anchor investor for the new fund. Its investment is sourced from the social impact equity product of InvestEU. Banco Sabadell and Axis, a private capital manager owned by ICO, Spain’s official credit institute, both invested in the first fund and in this one. Insurance and pensions firm VidaCaixa, Catalonian public development bank Institut Català de Finances (ICF) and several Spanish family offices also invested.
The second fund involves a blended finance structure, under which institutional capital is combined with investment-protection mechanisms, including first-loss cover, and technical assistance to portfolio companies. Both will be provided through the Fondo de Impacto Social (FIS), an EU-backed social impact fund managed by COFIDES.
Ship2B invests in various types of social good business. One of its startus, Ocean Ecostructures, develops technology to restore and improve marine ecosystems. Another firm, Madrid-based Dcycle, provides a platform for ESG data management and sustainability impacts assessment.
“In twelve years we have accelerated more than 1,000 projects and invested in 56, with a survival rate of 85%, with 70% of the portfolio growing at double digits, with some relevant exits and with increasingly evident impacts,” said Xavi Pont Martin, Co-Founder and President of Ship2B, and Managing Partner de Ship2B Ventures, in a post. “With this new fund we will be able to invest in 30 more projects in the quality of life of vulnerable groups and climate change.”
