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BLOG by Edina Csányi, European Investment Bank For much of my professional life, I worked with things you can see: railways, energy systems, water infrastructure (and savin the Danube sturgeon). Financial structures. Large investments that appear on maps, in spreadsheets and eventually — if all goes well — in the real world. There is something wonderfully reassuring about physical infrastructure, isn’t there? You can point to it. Even photograph it. You can measure whether

Interview with Arnaud Blandin, Keynote Speaker at CEE4Impact Day 1.Your new book (The Seven Principles: Playbook for Sustainable Companies) argues that sustainability should not be treated as a constraint or a reporting exercise, but as a way to redefine business strategy. What is the most important mindset shift leaders need to make today? The most important mindset shift is that sustainability as a function does not exist, sustainability is an operating system, a way of doi

BLOG by Zsófia Hárs-Garami, Andersen Europe has enormous pools of long-term savings. Yet European startups, scaleups and transformative infrastructure projects frequently struggle to access the growth capital they need. At first glance, this may seem paradoxical. If both the capital and the investment opportunities exist, why does the connection between the two remain so weak? The answer lies partly in a market failure, but also in a significant information and experience gap

BLOG by Elemér Eszter, President of Impact CEE We are no longer talking only about an impact ecosystem, but about regenerative capitalism — a model that could become Europe’s economic advantage over the global superpowers. 2026 is the year of metamorphosis. Where should Europe move in an increasingly unfair competition between China and the United States? How can a large corporation change direction when its shareholders and management genuinely want to move beyond ESG-washin

BLOG by Semi Hakim, Co-Founder at Kök Projekt Food security is increasingly becoming a question not only of agricultural production, but of resilience: how well food systems can withstand climate volatility, water stress, geopolitical disruption, infrastructure challenges, and increasingly fragile supply chains. At CEE4Impact Day, this topic will take centre stage in a panel discussion led by Semi Hakim, CEO and Co-Founder of Kök Projekt. The conversation will explore where f

Blog by Elemér Eszter, President of Impact CEE Whenever I read articles like Harvard Business School’s recent piece, Why ESG’s Past Returns May Not Predict Its Future, I find myself returning—mentally, and thankfully also physically—to our regular Monday meetings at Impact Ventures. The HBS article highlights an important and uncomfortable finding. Between 2012 and 2023, institutional investors and asset managers shifted roughly $3 trillion toward ESG-oriented investments. ES

Nikolaus Hutter, partner at Relevant based in Vienna, joins Field Notes to talk about caliber over scale. He makes the case for character and capability as the real measure of success, why raising modest capital in underserved markets can be a bigger achievement than raising millions where cash is easy to find, and why friction and resistance are what actually drive growth. Listen to the Podcast HERE

BLOG Series by Erzsébet Ábrám Caring is costly, but so is waiting. This is my journey of opting out of “impact later.” Ten months ago, I came to Columbia looking for answers. What I found instead was a new way of questioning – understanding how systems are built, who shapes them, and where my own agency fits within them. Graduation made these questions louder. Nothing felt certain anymore: my identity, my path, my future. For the first time, I didn’t know what the next ste

BLOG by Nora Bogsch, Executive Secretary of Impact CEE Back in March, on International Women’s Day, my younger son asked me: "Today is Women’s Day. When is Men’s Day?" His simple question got me thinking. Following the success of our previous event, where 12 inspiring women shared their personal and professional journeys through the PechaKucha format, we decided to continue showcasing impact makers from diverse backgrounds. Their stories reminded us that creating impact is no

ImpactCEE is pleased to announce the launch of an internal consultation process around a new policy initiative aimed at strengthening the long-term financing ecosystem for impact investing across Europe. The initiative explores the possibility of establishing an EU-backed guarantee mechanism that could facilitate greater participation of European pension funds in impact venture capital and private equity funds. The concept is inspired by the successful use of guarantee scheme