Inclusion

Social entrepreneurship

Updated On 08.04.2025

Impact structuresuse their hybrid business model to generate a strong positive social and/or environmental impact, while pursuing economic viability. Whether start-ups or SMEs, associations, cooperatives or microfinance institutions, they develop efficient solutions to reduce our climate and environmental impact, promote social inclusion, and level inequalities.

A solid commitment to the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and to impact entrepreneurs

BNP Paribas plays a key role in financing these structures by offering them banking and financing products as well as expert advice. The Group also provides them with a methodology for measuring their impact. Through its targeted investments and powerful tools, BNP Paribas is actively contributing to the development of a more responsible and inclusive economy. 

BNP Paribas dedicated programmes to support impact structures

Act for Impact: supporting impact entrepreneurs for over a decade

Entrepreneurs' ambition to develop business models committed to social causes, social inclusion or just transition has grown steadily over the past decade. To address these challenges, BNP Paribas launched the “Act for Impact” programme in 2014, the same year that the Hamon Law was passed in France. 

Implemented first in France and then in Belgium, Italy and Luxembourg, the programme has gradually supported nearly 3,500 SSE players and impact entrepreneurs, offering them not only financial backing (2 billion euros to date, including microfinance), but also tailored strategic support, technical expertise and access to an ecosystem of partners to foster their development and maximise their impact. 

Since 2014, the Act for Impact programme in France has supported 2,200 impact structures and raised more than €1.2 billion in bank financing. To take account of the specificities of these new business models, we have developed a proprietary analysis grid for financing these positive impact projects.  We have trained 200 bankers in impact entrepreneurship, who organise strategic introductions to help impact businesses move faster. Our clients also have access to innovative solutions such as impact bonds, developed by the PIBA team, and solidarity savings plans for employees, offered by BNPP Asset Management. Our programme helps impact structures make their transition faster and more sustainable." 

Marie-Line Eyermann 

Head of the Act for Impact programme at BNP Paribas in France. 

Positive Impact Business Accelerator (PIBA), driving innovation 

In 2021, BNP Paribas established the Positive Impact Business Accelerator (PIBA) to provide expert support to its various business lines, in order to act in the best interests of impact entrepreneurs. It also aims to support impact entrepreneurs directly by developing innovative financial solutions such as impact bonds, by acquiring direct equity stakes in their companies (in partnership with BNP Paribas Asset Management), by offering them an impact measurement tool, and by providing social and financial services. 

Our partners are inventing a more inclusive and sustainable economy by addressing the needs of an ever-changing and evolving society. To best support them in their inspiring innovations, we need to be flexible, responsive and creative, and that's what PIBA is all about.  We are very proud to work with them on a daily basis as we continue to innovate to accelerate the impact economy!” 

Maha Keramane 

Head of Positive Impact Business Accelerator (PIBA) at BNP Paribas 

Employee savings to support SSE actors

Did you know? Each employee savings plan (PEE, PERECO and PERO) has at least one solidarity fund. These funds invest between 5% and 15% of their assets directly in social and solidarity economy organisations having a strong social and /or environmental impact..

At BNP Paribas, these plans allow employees to give meaning to their savings by making a very concrete contribution to the development of more than 30 ESS entities. These organisations operate in seven impact areas: access to housing, access to employment, access to health and ongoing autonomy, microfinance & entrepreneurial support; housing for dependent persons, environmental protection, and international solidarity. In 2024, solidarity funds distributed by BNPP E&RE and managed by BNP Paribas Asset Management provided 161 million euros to these entities. The impact generated can be seen each year in BNP Paribas’ E&RE report. 

Examples of some of BNP Paribas’ tools for impact entrepreneurs

In order to support and guide these entrepreneurs in their development, and to ensure that this support produces results, BNP Paribas has developed an innovative financing system and specific measurement tools. 

Impact investment: providing patient capital

To be considered 'impactful', an investment must be made with a specific goal in mind and provide concrete solutions to social or environmental needs that are currently poorly addressed or not addressed at all. These solutions must then generate a measurable societal impact.  An impact investment is based on three basic criteria:

  • Intentionality: the investment must be made with the stated goal of providing a specific solution to a social or environmental problem that is currently receiving little or not attention;
  • Additionality, or the investor’s contribution: the investor’s differentiating contribution – not necessarily financial - that makes a difference and accelerates or optimises the implementation of a solution;
  • Measurability: the results are monitored and assessed on an ongoing basis using concrete indicators. 

Through a dedicated budget drawn from its own equity, BNP Paribas supports the development of impact structures by providing them with financing or an investment. For example, the Group has invested in Blue Alliance, which finances sustainable community enterprises involved in the management of marine protected areas in developing countries; Meet My Mama, which helps a diverse group of women to develop a catering business; and Ecodair, which employs disabled people or people far removed from the labour market to recycle and refurbish computer equipment. Since 2021, 102.3 million euros have been committed to directly or indirectly support 212 organisations in 25 countries.  


Impact bonds: a financial innovation designed to help change

“Contrats à impact” (impact bonds) allow Social and Solidarity Economy actors to develop experimental responses to social or environmental challenges while involving private investors and public actors. The principle is simple: private investors advance the funds needed to carry out projects and can be reimbursed or remunerated by the French government if the project achieves its pre-defined impact, as assessed by independent experts. Multilateral, multidimensional and multi-faceted, impact bonds are both a lever for systemic change in public policies and a vector for professionalising social action and spreading the culture of evaluation in the public and associative spheres.

BNP Paribas was a forerunner in this field in 2016, in arranging the first impact bond in France for the “Association pour le Droit à l’Initiative Économique” (ADIE), and in 2019 in launching the very first fund dedicated to impact bonds in France and the European Union. 

Since then, the Group has consolidated its expertise in structuring impact bonds and supporting the expansion of the market by creating new investment capacities. At the end of December 2024, BNP Paribas had structured 28 impact bonds for a total of €92.5 million. BNP Paribas Asset Management has teamed up with long-standing investors in the market to create its second dedicated fund. Certified by Finansol and in compliance with the ESUS (Solidarity and Socially Useful Company) section of the French Hamon Law on the Social and Solidarity Economy, this €61 million fund is designed to expand the use of impact bonds in Europe.

‘‘MESIS’ to measure societal impact 

Unlike a traditional investment, where only the financial return matters, impact investments and impact bonds also need to measure and quantify the positive impact of the projects financed. That's why, in 2014, PIBA developed a methodology called "MESIS" (a French acronym for Measuring and Monitoring Societal Impact). MESIS is structured around 13 impact areas, divided into 38 thematic sub-areas, with a total of 400 indicators providing a basis for in-depth analysis of the effects of each initiative. MESIS impact measurement is based on several principles: a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the activities carried out, a comparison of outcomes with the initial objectives, and ongoing follow-up to ensure that positive impacts are long-lasting.  In its first detailed impact report, published in late 2024, PIBA looked back on the results it had achieved since its inception. 

Positive Impact Business Accelerator - Activity and Social Performance Report 2024 pdf
24.14 MB

Social impact bonds: key dates 

2014

Launch of Act for Impact, a programme to support impact companies. Development of the MESIS measurement methodology  

2016

In partnership with ADIE, BNP Paribas structures the first impact bond in France, to promote the economic and social integration of isolated rural areas through microcredit

2021

The Group's impact investment budget reaches €200 million, with priority given to direct investments

2022

First direct investment with an equity stake in Printemps des Terres, a company that acquires farmland and forest for sustainable reuse

2024

Publication of BNP Paribas’ first activity and social performance report.   

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