A Social City Fund to foster just transition in the City of Leuven

ongoing

The Social City Fund for Leuven is an innovative place-based impact investing instrument we want to develop as a public-private instrument to provide risk capital to those social enterprises which may contribute to the implementation of the just transition ambitions of the City of Leuven, as described in the Climate City Contract which has been submitted to the EU in November 2023. The instrument will have different innovative features: the multi-stakeholder structure, including different tiers of capital, with different risk profiles, will offer loans to social enterprises whose risk-return-profile is not attractive for the investors currently on the market, while they have huge impact potential and may support the implementation of policy objectives. Through the instrument, the local authority may experiment with a shift from traditional grants to loan instruments, providing adequate support to each kind of social enterprise. In order to complement the current incubation and acceleration supply, we will develop a Startup-in-Residence (SIR) programme to focus on co-creation between social enterprises and local governments. Together they will develop solutions which are fit-forpurpose, and ideally the City of Leuven becomes a first paying customer, which contributes to the eligibility for external investment, by the Social City Fund or other investors. Through our own international networks and our partners Baltic Innovation Agency and Purpose Stiftung, we bring in expertise and guarantee that our learnings will be the basis for further innovation in the European finance ecosystem.