Launch Your Impact Business

What is Impact?

More than profit: Why your startup should per­form eco­nom­i­cally and be  socially rel­e­vant.
Learn how to make a dif­fer­ence with your idea. 

What Does Impact Mean in Entrepreneurship? 

Impact is more than just a buzzword—it is a mind­set that takes your busi­ness to an entirely dif­fer­ent level. At its core, impact is about the cre­ation of mea­sur­able social or envi­ron­men­tal value. In other words, impact entre­pre­neur­ship is not just about prod­ucts or ser­vices that solve prob­lems, but about the active and strate­gic con­tri­bu­tion  to solu­tions for press­ing global chal­lenges. 

While tra­di­tional busi­nesses pri­mar­ily focus on finan­cial returns, impact-dri­ven enter­prises pur­sue a “dou­ble bot­tom line” by com­bin­ing eco­nomic suc­cess with social and envi­ron­men­tal value cre­ation. 

Social Impact

Your prod­uct or ser­vice can make a mean­ing­ful dif­fer­ence, for exam­ple by pro­mot­ing inclu­sion, cli­mate action, or edu­ca­tion. (Source)

Economic suc­cess

Impact is not a bur­den but an accelerator—many impact-ori­ented com­pa­nies grow faster than the mar­ket aver­age. (Source)

Relevance

Sustainability is no longer a trend but a mar­ket expec­ta­tion. More and more cus­tomers, investors, and part­ners are pay­ing close atten­tionto an enterprise’s value base  (Source)

Did you know? 

Impact entre­pre­neurs often tap into new mar­kets by pro­vid­ing inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to com­plex prob­lems. This leads to both sus­tain­able busi­ness mod­els and real soci­etal change. 

Why Is Impact Important for Founders?

In a world shaped by global chal­lenges such as cli­mate change, social inequal­ity, and resource scarcity, com­pa­nies with a clear social or eco­log­i­cal mis­sion are becom­ing increas­ingly essen­tial. But impact isn’t just good for world or planet—it also pro­vides a strate­gic advan­tage for you as a founder. 

Businesses that cre­ate social value ben­e­fit from: 

Competitive advan­tages

Sustainable and socially respon­si­ble enter­prises earn cus­tomer trust more quickly and retain it for the long term.  (Source)

Investor inter­est

The mar­ket for impact invest­ing is grow­ing. Investors are increas­ingly seek­ing star­tups that deliver both finan­cial returns and mea­sur­able social or eco­log­i­cal out­comes. (Source)

Employee moti­va­tion

People want to work for enter­prises that pur­sue some­thing pur­pose­ful. An impact mis­sion attracts top tal­ents. (Source)

A sense of pur­pose

Building an impact-dri­ven busi­ness gives founders a deeper sense of being dri­ven by a mis­sion and of con­tribut­ing to mean­ing­ful change. (Source)

Lean Impact Guide

Our Lean Impact Guide pro­vides a step-by-step approach to inte­grat­ing impact into your busi­ness model from the out­set.

Whether you’re just start­ing out or look­ing to refine your con­cept, our play­book guides you through key top­ics, start­ing in March 2025.

Trends and Examples of Impact-Driven Enterprises

Impact-dri­ven enter­prises set bench­marks and inspire entre­pre­neurs world­wide. By com­bin­ing inno­va­tion with a clear mis­sion, they pro­vide solu­tions to today’s most press­ing prob­lems. Here are some suc­cess sto­ries: 

Too Good To Go

This startup fights food waste while help­ing restau­rants and super­mar­kets reduce costs. Through an app sur­plus food is passed directly to consumers—a win-win model for all par­ties involved. 

Tomorrow Bank

Tomorrow Bank offers sus­tain­able finan­cial prod­ucts with a trans­par­ent impact approach, ensur­ing that money actively con­tributes to pos­i­tive social and envi­ron­men­tal change. 

Boreal Light

Boreal Light uses solar-pow­ered water treat­ment sys­tems to sup­ply remote regions with clean drink­ing water, deliv­er­ing both envi­ron­men­tal and social impact. 

Current trend

More and more star­tups inte­grate sus­tain­abil­ity and social respon­si­bil­ity into their busi­ness mod­els from the begin­ning. This is not just appre­ci­ated by cus­tomers, it is also rewarded by investors. Impact invest­ing has become a key trend, with more funds ded­i­cated exclu­sively to pur­pose-dri­ven projects. (Source)

Improve Self-Reflection and Quality through Agility

Self-reflec­tion is a key com­po­nent of Lean Impact. Ask your­selves reg­u­larly:

  • „Are we reach­ing the peo­ple we want to sup­port?“ 
  • „How can we bet­ter uti­lize feed­back from our tar­get group?“ 
  • „What resources do we need to max­i­mize our impact?“ 

Starting March 2025, use our self-assess­ment tool to eval­u­ate your pro­jec­t’s matu­rity level and find con­crete approaches for fur­ther devel­op­ment.

First Steps Toward Creating Impact

Your impact doesn’t need to be perfect—what mat­ters is tak­ing the first step. Every startup begins with an idea. In order to imple­ment  your idea and achieve the desired impact you should address the fol­low­ing: 

Problem analy­sis

Identify the social or envi­ron­men­tal issue you want to address. The best impact star­tups tackle chal­lenges that per­son­ally moti­vate their founders. 

Theory of change

Develop a strat­egy that out­lines how your solu­tion will cre­ate impact—from ini­tial action to long-term change. 

Impact Measurement

Learn how to mea­sure your impact. This helps you track progress, learn from chal­lenges, and con­vince investors. 

Build a net­work

No one needs to start alone. Find men­tors, net­works, and part­ners to sup­port your vision. 

Ready to Create Impact?

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Sources

Societal Impact: Social enter­prises such as Viva con Agua and Goodjobs demon­strate how prod­ucts and ser­vices can make a real dif­fer­ence. Viva con Agua sup­ports global water projects through the sale of water bot­tles, while Goodjobs pro­motes employ­ment in social and sus­tain­able sec­tors (Link to study).

Economic Success: According to a study by Sage, ICC and PWC, 83% of com­pa­nies world­wide name sus­tain­abil­ity as a key goal, and 60% have taken action toward becom­ing more sus­tain­able in the past year. Companies increas­ingly rec­og­nize sus­tain­abil­ity as a growth dri­ver.

A BCG study shows that busi­nesses inte­grat­ing sus­tain­abil­ity out­per­form their com­pe­ti­tion. The study high­lights a pos­i­tive cor­re­la­tion between a com­pa­ny’s social and envi­ron­men­tal engage­ment and its finan­cial per­for­mance.

Additionally, a recent study by Bertelsmann Foundation on the inno­va­tion capa­bil­i­ties of German com­pa­nies found that the net profit mar­gins of the most inno­v­a­tive sec­tors were 27% above the aver­age.

Relevance: The Sage, ICC and PWC study also reveals that cus­tomer expec­ta­tions are the main dri­ver of sus­tain­abil­ity in busi­nesses. 59% of all sur­veyed com­pa­nies and 40% of German SMEs aim to meet their cus­tomers’ sus­tain­abil­ity expec­ta­tions. This under­lines that sus­tain­abil­ity is no longer a pass­ing trend but part of stake­holder expec­ta­tions.

Competitive advan­tages: A study about size and devel­op­ment of the global impact invest­ing mar­ket shows it’s dynamic growth. It is pro­jected to increase from USD 1.33 tril­lion in 2024 to USD 1.88 tril­lion by 2029, with a com­pound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.17%. This sug­gests that sus­tain­able and socially respon­si­ble com­pa­nies are becom­ing increas­ingly impor­tant.

Investor inter­est: The FNG Market Report 2024 shows an increase of 80% of impact invest­ments in Germany in 2021 com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year. Investment vol­ume grew from EUR 16.6 bil­lion in 2020 to EUR 29.9 bil­lion in 2021.

Employee moti­va­tion: A 2021 study by German think tank Liotec found that com­pa­nies that offer incen­tives to employ­ees and that sup­port their ongo­ing moti­va­tion can gen­er­ate up to 20% higher prof­its com­pared to com­pa­nies with­out moti­va­tion pro­grams. Furthermore, employ­ees tend to stay longer and engage more in com­pa­nies with strong moti­va­tional cul­ture.

Sense of pur­pose: Companies with moti­vated employ­ees expe­ri­ence faster growth and have higher sur­vival rates in com­pet­i­tive mar­kets. There is also a strong link between effec­tive employee moti­va­tion and improved work­force health More info.

Current Trend: According to the German Startup Monitor 2024, 48.1% of German star­tups iden­tify them­selves as part of the Green Economy, an increase from 46.7% in 2023 (More info). The Green Startup Monitor 2024 con­firms this trend: 29% of star­tups are con­sid­ered “green” and 47% iden­tify them­selves as part of the Green Economy – a record high in GSM his­tory.

Impact Investing also shows strong growth: In Germany and Austria, accord­ing to the FNG Market Report 2024, the vol­ume increased to EUR 58.2 bil­lion, com­pared to EUR 9.5 bil­lion five years ago and EUR 1.6 bil­lion in 2013 (Link). Globally, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) esti­mates the mar­ket at USD 715 bil­lion in 2020, rep­re­sent­ing an increase of 42.4% within one year.