Introduction

Uli Grabenwarter is the Deputy Director – Equity Investments at European Investment Fund (EIF). In this capacity, he oversees EIF’s activities in Impact Investing, Technology Transfer and Venture Capital, with EIF being Europe’s biggest Fund-of-Funds Investment platform in that space.

Previously, and until mid-2014, he was responsible for EIF’s strategic development in the equity space and in this context has led the build-up of the Social Impact Accelerator, the first pan-European social impact investing fund-of-funds, which in 2014 has integrated EIF’s mainstream investment activities. From 2010 to 2012 he conducted a 20 months research project on impact investing in collaboration with IESE University of Navarra in Barcelona and the Family Office Circle Foundation based in Switzerland, analysing best-market-practice for impact investing in the private equity and venture capital space.

He is a visiting Professor for Private Equity and Venture Capital at IESE University. Prior to his research project on impact investing Uli was Head, Equity Fund Investments at EIF after having worked for several years at the European Investment Bank and at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in corporate finance, project finance, finance consulting and audit. He shared many of his thoughts and observations on the private equity and venture capital industry in the bestselling Euromoney book, “Exposed to the J-curve – Understanding and Managing Private Equity Fund Investments” and numerous articles and white papers.

He co-authored the research publication “In search of gamma – an unconventional perspective on Impact Investing” (IESE Publishing 2011) and a series of articles on impact investing, social entrepreneurship and its role in the current and future economic landscape. Uli is also chair of the European Impact Investing Luxembourg Platform (www.impact-investing.eu) and a member of several expert groups on impact investing and impact metrics across Europe. Uli holds a Master’s degree in Business and Finance of the University of Graz.