Big Issue Invest more than triples investments in 20th year, with £9.4 million deployed to social purpose organisations

Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm of the Big Issue, has more than tripled its investment in businesses making a social impact in the past year, its 2024/25 impact report has revealed today.

The leading social investor has reported a drastic increase in year-on-year deployment, investing a collective total of £9.4 million in 50 British organisations in the past year – more than three times the investment made in 2023/24 (£2.7 million in 13 businesses).

139 social businesses and charities now sit in Big Issue Invest’s portfolio of investees, with a total of nearly 1.9 million people across the length of the UK being supported by their services and programmes.

The new impact report has been published in tandem with Big Issue Invest’s 20 year birthday celebrations, with October marking two decades since entrepreneurs Nigel Kershaw and Lord John Bird launched the social investor back in 2005.

Back in May 2025, Big Issue Invest celebrated the milestone of having made more than £100 million in investments since 2005 – with that number having risen higher still in the months since. In the past 20 years, the social investor has supported more than 500 social enterprises, offering grants and non-financial support in addition to investments.

Big Issue Invest enters its 20^th year under the stewardship of newly appointed Managing Director Holger Westphely, who was recently promoted to lead the social investor’s next chapter of growth and innovation last month.

Holger Westphely, Managing Director of Big Issue Invest, said: “2024/25 has been a year of both exceptional progress and deepening social challenges. With poverty now affecting 21% of the UK population and social needs rising across every region, we are glad to have significantly scaled our support for the sector by committing a further £9.3 million to 50 social purpose organisations, marking a drastic increase in our year-on-year deployment.

“I’m excited to be taking charge of Big Issue Invest as we enter this milestone year for the business. We’ve spent 20 years of investing in businesses that dismantle poverty, and I’m proud to be leading us into the next chapter with real determination to build further on that incredible legacy.”

Nigel Kershaw OBE, Big Issue Group Chair and Big Issue Invest co-founder, said: “We had a mission to build business solutions that would create opportunities to prevent poverty for future generations. In the same way that the magazine is a tool for the vendors, so Big Issue Invest is a tool for social enterprises. We’ve enabled social enterprises that are on the frontline helping to dismantle poverty.

“20 years later, that idea has grown beyond our wildest imagination. Big Issue Invest has helped achieve remarkable things in our first two decades and I’m excited for what we can enable many more social enterprises in the next two decades.”

Big Issue Invest’s newest fund, Social Impact Debt Fund IV, made its first deployment earlier this year, with a major investment of £3.2 million enabling a specialist education college for young adults with learning difficulties to buy and refurbish new premises.

In 2023, just two months after receiving an Outstanding Ofsted report, Great Oaks College in West London was unexpectedly served a two-year notice to vacate its current purpose-built £38 million facility in Hounslow. The college struggled to secure an alternative suitable premises to safely accommodate its students with complex physical and educational needs.

Unable to secure a mortgage or attract investors without a site, Great Oaks applied for a loan from Social Impact Debt Fund IV, which offers large, property backed loans for organisations making a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of their communities. The £3.2 million loan subsequently secured has allowed the college to purchase new premises in Sunbury-on-Thames, due to open in 2026.

Nickyie Thomas, Principal at Great Oaks College, said: “There was fear, anxiety, and the deep worry that without financial backing, all the good we had built could be lost. Securing this funding has not only safeguarded the future of Great Oaks but has laid the foundation for growth. 

“BII has proven to be much more than a financial partner; they have invested in our vision and values.”

More than half of Big Issue Invest’s investments in 2024/25 have impacted people living in the most deprived areas of the UK. 34% of Big Issue Invest’s total investment capital is in investees supporting people who live in precarious housing, or were homeless, while 14% is invested in organisations supporting those living with learning difficulties or other neurodivergence.