State of Impact 2025

Over the past decade, the field of impact and the Sustainable Development Goals have changed significantly. In partnership with Impact City and Microsoft's Entrepreneurship for Positive Impact.

Key findings

• Impact startups were worth $3.6T combined in 2025, 28 times their $126.6B value in 2015.
• Impact VC funding is projected at $33B in 2025, three times the 2015 level but 24% below 2024 and well under the $89B peak of 2021.
• North America took 59% of global impact VC funding in 2025 so far, more than double Europe's 28%, which is down from a 40% peak in 2023.
• Impact took 15% of European VC funding in 2025, the highest share of any major region, against 7% in North America and 4% in Asia; the Netherlands reached 20%.
• Defence tech startups are worth $693.1B against $2.8B for peace tech, a gap of about 250 times built on unequal financing and a longer corporate history.