NESsT announces today that Ioana Samoil has been named NESsT Country Director of Romania, highlighting the impact investor's deepening focus on accelerating Romanian social enterprises that create dignified jobs for individuals from excluded communities, including refugees, migrants, women, at-risk youth, the LGBTQIA+ community, and others facing systemic barriers to economic opportunity.
In May 2025, we were delighted to host an in-person meeting in Olsztyn, Poland, bringing together NESsT portfolio enterprises, partners from IKEA Social Entrepreneurship, and members of the NESsT regional and global teams.
When structured effectively, blended finance can connect entrepreneurs who need support with investors who care about impact. To make this model easier to understand, NESsT has created an infographic that clearly shows how blended finance works in practice and highlights its role in the Amazon impact ecosystem. This visual tool breaks down complex financial ideas into simple language, making it valuable for entrepreneurs, policymakers, partners, and anyone interested in advancing the Amazon bioeconomy through innovative financing.
NESsT announces today that it has joined the Sustainable Connections Institute (Conexsus), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in AmazonBeEco, an unprecedented four-year initiative to support the sociobioeconomy in the Pan-Amazon region.
As we kick off celebrations for Pride Month 2025, we’re revisiting the recent efforts of the NESsT Violet Fund that have helped drive our work to bring vital financial and technical support to enterprises that are advancing equality for the LGTBQIA+ community in Central & Eastern Europe.
NESsT announces today that Ioana Samoil has been named NESsT Country Director of Romania, highlighting the impact investor's deepening focus on accelerating Romanian social enterprises that create dignified jobs for individuals from excluded communities, including refugees, migrants, women, at-risk youth, the LGBTQIA+ community, and others facing systemic barriers to economic opportunity.
Movimento Black Money (MBM) aims to transform the economic reality of the Black community in Brazil through entrepreneurship, education, and financial services. NESsT welcomed MBM into its portfolio to initially support Mercado Black Money, an online marketplace for Black-owned businesses, sustaining its growth with capital and business mentorship. Google for Startups announced Movimento Black Money as one of the 12 new Brazilian startups that will receive equity-free funding through its Black Founders Fund.
