Impact4Art to Support Creative Businesses with €1.9 Million

Because the cultural sector in Italy needs revitalization, the fund Impact4Art was created.

It is well known how the socio-health emergency generated by the spread of COVID-19 has imposed a long and dangerous setback on the entire Italian cultural sector, the aftermath of which is still evident, with significant repercussions for institutions, professionals, entrepreneurs, and users active in the sector.

Contraction of demand/supply resulting from partial or complete suspension of activities, on the one hand, and growing employment difficulties and precariousness, on the other, are still affecting a large number of cultural and creative enterprises.

According to the Federculture 2022 Report, during the pandemic there has been a sharp decline in attendance at cultural events: -81 percent in cinemas, -85 percent in theaters; -72 percent in museums, and -82 percent at concerts. The impact on employment was also significant: 55 thousand jobs were lost in two years.

Early data on cultural participation in the post-emergency period appear encouraging, but the upheavals that have taken place over the past two years with regard to how culture is produced and enjoyed will be difficult to reverse. Professionals in the cultural sector find themselves operating in new ways than in the past, and in this process of adapting to the “new normal,” Fondazione Cariplo and FSVGDA have decided to relaunch “Impact4Art” as an additional tool to support cultural and creative enterprise. You can apply for the second edition of the program on the Fondazione’s website.

“Impact4Art,” the investment program born from the common vision of Fondazione Social Venture Giordano Dell’Amore (or “FSVGDA”) and Fondazione Cariplo and structured to offer support for the growth and development of the best impact realities active in the cultural and creative sector, which are able to combine innovation and economic sustainability.

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What Impact4Art offers

The program-operational throughout Italy offers cultural initiatives set up as startups or businesses that have already started a new tool to support economic development, alternative or complementary to non-repayable disbursements (cd grant) accessible via a call for proposals and still little known at the moment: it is an equity investment made by Social Venture Giordano Dell’Amore Foundation in a logic of “impact investing,” therefore with minority equity stakes and calmed return objectives over medium to long time horizons (so-called “patient capital”).

The first edition of the program made €1 million available to the sector, while Impact4Art 2 will allow the Giordano Dell’Amore Social Venture Foundation to invest €1.9 million in initiatives with business models capable of generating cultural and/or social impact, either at the “seed” stage (newly established or start-up entities) or at the “scale-up” stage (established entities that want to grow further).

“Impact4Art represents a further step in this ambitious strategy to revitalize the cultural sector. We are aware that today’s cultural initiatives need diversified support: not only grants but also modern financing tools,” said Giovanni Azzone, president of Fondazione Cariplo.

“Impact4Art 2 will allow our foundation to invest in initiatives with economically viable business models, expanding the current portfolio dedicated to the Arts and Culture sector, which already includes OXA (BASE Milano), Music Innovation Hub, Kalatà, eArs, Alchemilla, Werea, Sharryland, Artonauti, and Centrica,” said Marco Gerevini, board member of Social Venture Giordano Dell’Amore Foundation.

Data from the first edition

During the first 18 months of the program’s life, a total of 24 applications were received with a total request of about €3.8 million. Specifically, 9 applications are for subjects in the seed stage and 15 subjects in the scale-up stage. Most of the candidate initiatives are S.r.l. innovative start-ups, are 3-5 years old and are operating in Lombardy.

As of May 2023, as part of the program, FSVGDA has individually invested €200,000 in 3 companies-Sharryland, Artonauti, and Centrica-that are within a portfolio of investments dedicated to the Arts and Culture sector worth a total of more than €2.5 million.

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(Featured image by TravelCoffeeBook via Pixabay)

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First published in StartupItalia, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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