The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) State of the Market 2025 report paints a mixed picture of the global impact investing landscape, capturing both its strength and unevenness.
The report, launched at the GIIN Impact Forum in Berlin last week, found that despite economic headwinds, the sector remains resilient. Impact assets under management (AUM) now sit at around US$1.6 trillion, up from US$1.16 trillion in 2022.
In the six years to 2025, impact AUM has grown at a compound annual rate of 21%, even as total AUM expanded by only 5% annually. The GIIN attributes this resilience to investors’ growing appetite for mission alignment and measurable outcomes.
Across the 429 organisations surveyed from 54 countries, 79% now target risk-adjusted, market-rate returns, and nearly all make direct investments into companies, projects or real assets with the sharpest growth in nature and energy transition themes. These direct investments represented almost three-quarters of impact AUM invested, with the remaining share invested indirectly in a fund or via intermediaries.
Notably, 90% of investors met or exceeded their financial expectations, and 88% met or exceeded their impact goals.
New opportunities emerge
Amit Bouri the GIIN’s co-founder and CEO said:
“This has been a year of rapid change and many challenges, but it has also revealed new opportunities for bold leadership and meaningful action. Across the impact investing community, we’ve seen leaders rise to meet this moment, directing capital toward solutions that improve lives and build a more sustainable future.
“Still, these moments of progress exist alongside sobering realities. In 2025, foreign aid fell to its lowest levels in years, contributing to thousands of deaths from preventable disease. Global economic growth has slowed, development goals are regressing and climate events are becoming more frequent and intense.
“These are hard truths. But they also highlight the urgent need for action and the critical role impact investors play in demonstrating resilience, commitment and leadership. This is exactly the kind of moment our community was built for: when capital must show up with purpose.”
The report also notes the rising importance of private capital in filling development finance gaps:
“Pullbacks in official development assistance and humanitarian aid have left major funding gaps. While impact investing is not structured to replace this funding … significant market gaps may offer opportunities for impact investors who are willing to engage with them.”
A geographic imbalance
Yet beneath the top line optimism, a clear geographic imbalance is emerging.
Overall, 70% of impact AUM was directed to high-income regions, particularly in Northern America and Europe, with upper-middle-income and lower-middle-income regions receiving the remaining 30%, despite the growing opportunities in emerging markets.
“The high rates of investment in northern America and western Europe were consistent with investors preferring to keep their dollars at home,” the report noted. For example, 75% of impact AUM allocated by organisations headquartered in Northern America was invested in Northern America.
Asia’s expanding role
Impact capital continues to deepen its footprint across East, South and Southeast Asia, where allocations have grown at double-digit rates in recent years.
“Asia’s growth is being fuelled by persistent social and environmental needs, a maturing network of local intermediaries, and expanding government-backed sustainability agendas,” says the GIIN.
Between 2019 and 2025, investments in East Asia rose 27% annually (CAGR over six years) and by 24% in Southern Asia – the strongest regional growth outside the US and Europe – while allocations to Southeast Asia were up 15%.
Asia continued to show sustained impact investing momentum with allocations to Southern Asia rising by a further 24% over the challenging 2024-25 year, and by 10% and 8% in East Asia and Southeast Asia, respectively.
The drivers are clear: large underserved populations, maturing regulatory frameworks, increasingly capable local intermediaries, and policy and sustainability alignment supports capital seeking both return and impact.
Importantly, Asian investors are not merely recipients of impact capital but are increasingly the source of it. The GIIN notes that 12% of global respondents were headquartered in Asia, a sharp increase from previous years, reflecting the rise of regional fund managers, blended-finance platforms, and local family offices committed to climate and inclusion outcomes.
Oceania: A shrinking share
In contrast, Oceania recorded the sharpest multi-year decline of any region.
Impact allocations to Oceania declined at a compound annual growth rate of 21% between 2019 and 2025, representing a sustained contraction in impact capital flows over the six year period. Over the 2024-25 year, allocations fell 15%, from US$1,815.2 million to US$1,549.1 million.
Oceania accounted for just 3% of global impact investors surveyed. And, of all respondents, just 2% are allocating more than 75% of their impact AUM to the Oceania region, compared to 10% allocating more than 75% of their impact AUM to Asia.
GIIN’s methodology indicates an ongoing decline in impact investment flowing to Oceania, with the single-year fall confirming that investment flows to the region have not yet stabilised or rebounded in line with global trends.
Overall, Oceania stands out as the only region where impact investment has consistently fallen over the past six years.
The full report, State of the Market 2025: Trends, Performance and Allocations, can be accessed here.
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