The ICE Impact Research program is a collaboration between ICE and the Inter-American Development Bank (DB) to demonstrate the viability of investing in early-stage impact ventures in Brazil. Catalytic capital played a crucial role in supporting ventures that lacked the financial history and structure to attract conventional capital, in addition to validating the relevance of knowledge management that can share learnings with the ecosystem and to promote more investments through these financial vehicles.

This case study presents the management, results and lessons trom the ICe Program Impact Investments, which distributed $1 million between 2017 and 2018 in sixteen companies in various sectors and subsequently reinvested the returned capital of the loans in 2019 to 25 new impact businesses through financial products managed by third parties with a total of BRL 1 million invested. The results show a 74% return on capital to ICE and a significant increase in the expansion of business activities, new investors and customers, as well as the creation of indicators by the companies. In addition, a change in the behavior of the impact investment ecosystem was noted, with an increase in the use of debt as an investment vehicle.