Better Society Capital's £11.2 Billion Market — the Infrastructure CICs Need Still Isn't There

Better Society Capital’s 2025 market sizing is out. The UK social investment market has reached £11.2 billion — a 12% increase on the previous year, and a 13.5-fold increase since 2011. Over £2.1 billion was invested in the last year alone, across approximately 1,100 deals.

The headline number is remarkable. The social investment market has grown from almost nothing to £11.2 billion in fifteen years. It’s a genuine achievement, and the people who built it — from Sir Ronald Cohen to Nick O’Donohoe to Stephen Muers — deserve credit.

But I look at those numbers and I ask the same question I’ve been asking for a decade. How much of that £11.2 billion reached small CICs?

The answer, as far as I can tell, is still not enough. The market has grown at the top end — social property, impact venture, social lending to established organisations. The £500 million Better Futures Fund, announced this year as the largest social outcomes partnership fund globally, is impressive. But it’s focused on vulnerable children and families, not on CIC capacity building.

The Social Impact Investment Advisory Group reported to HM Treasury in November, recommending the creation of an Office for the Impact Economy, an annual Civil Society and Impact Economy Summit, and reforms to unlock pension fund capital. Those are worthy recommendations. But they’re about the macro level. They don’t address the micro reality of the CIC that needs £50,000 and can’t find a lender who understands their business model.

The £11.2 billion market is a triumph of market-building. But it’s not yet a triumph of market access. The infrastructure that CICs need — small-scale, patient, flexible capital delivered through intermediaries who understand community enterprise — is still not there.

I’ve been making this case since 2013. The numbers have gone from £830 million to £11.2 billion. The arguments haven’t changed. At some point, the market has to take responsibility for reaching the organisations it was created to serve.