New Spanish impact funds are expected to be announced today at the Global Steering Group’s (GSG) Global Impact Summit 2023 in Malaga.

Representatives from more than 60 countries working in the global impact investment sphere, including Argentina, Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria and Turkey will be attending the two-day event running from 2-3 October 2023.

The event itself is sold out, with the quickest session to sell being the ‘Masterclass on Demystifying Impact Valuation’.

Chief strategy officer at GCG, Alasdair Maclay, said he believes an announcement of new funds would be coming from the Spanish government at the summit.

At Tuesday’s plenary ‘Driving the growth of the impact economy’, Jose Luis Curbelo, chair of the Spanish Development Finance Institution will announce a new financial commitment to support the impact economy in Spain.

Before this, in the Monday morning plenary slot (2 October), Jose Luis Ruiz de Munain, secretariat of the Spanish National Advisory Board for Impact Investing, will present a range of developments in impact investing in the country, along with plans to support its further growth, in the session titled ‘Impact Investing in Spain: A new public private agenda’.

‘There’s lots to share around what’s been happening in impact investment in Spain in recent years,’ said Maclay. ‘There will be some new funds committed to impact outcomes, which is exciting because it’s yet more growth in capital under management which will be allocated to impact.’

The summit will have an arts and culture theme running through it, with performances and sessions such as an AI conversation with Picasso. Delegates will discuss a new Culture Impact Fund at a workshop bringing together international investors, creative entrepreneurs, and policymakers.

Key findings from a new market sizing report ‘Towards the creation of a Culture Impact Fund’ will be presented in the workshop.

The fastest-selling session at the event is a masterclass focusing on impact valuation and accounting. This will explore the process and methodology for accounting for positive and negative impacts and incorporating valuation adjustments in an organisation’s financial statements.

‘There’s big interest in how you value impact; we’re really interested in this and it’s clear the audience is,’ commented Maclay. ‘If there can be a monetary value on impact it will help investors and companies make decisions.

‘This is quite a seminal moment; the regulators are starting to understand that this is price sensitive information, which can affect share value. Therefore, there needs to be more transparent, clear methodologies behind it all.’

Elsewhere at the summit, Maclay said speakers would talk about the ‘huge, huge growth in impact investment in Turkey’. ‘They are really well poised to leverage Islamic finance for impact,’ he noted.

Additionally, one of the big trends, he said was the development of blended finance (mixing public and private money) in Asia.

Claudia Cahalane is the Investments Editor at Alliance