Dutch pension funds impact investments report (2021-2025)

The Netherlands Advisory Board on Impact Investing has just released the latest edition of its Dutch Pension Funds Impact Investments report for 2021-2025.

One of the most cited barriers to scaling impact investments, as identified by Dutch pension funds, is the lack of investment opportunities that align with their thematic focus, offer an appropriate ticket size and demonstrate a sufficient track record. This challenge is closely followed by the lack of information and data sharing on market activities and trends.

Our 2025 report, ‘The Netherlands, global centre for impact finance’ estimates that the market for impact investments and Sustainable Development Investments (SDIs) in the Netherlands exceeds €200 billion. Despite this promising potential, investors often struggle to identify a suitable pipeline. A key challenge remains the mismatch between demand and supply of capital.

Impact strategies often require a different way of thinking. In response, we present an updated inventory of pension funds’ impact investments. This publication aims to provide a market update, and inspire pension funds, as well as their fiduciary and asset managers exploring impact investing opportunities, by showcasing how their peers are approaching impact investing in practice.

This document builds on the 2021-2024 inventory released by the NAB. The 2025 investments included cover the period from January to December, while each of the previous years is addressed in a dedicated chapter.

In 2025, impact investment ticket sizes once again showed significant diversity, reflecting a continuous shift away from traditional investment strategies. This trend demonstrates a growing willingness among various pension funds to invest with smaller ticket sizes, an area that has historically been perceived as a barrier. Several of the largest pension funds in the Netherlands are actively participating in these smaller-scale investments.

Overall, we see that the most targeted sectors are Energy Transition, Climate Action, Real Estate and Infrastructure. Investments in the energy transition often generate spillover effects in other critical areas such as innovation, decent work and economic growth, all of which play a vital role in the overall long-term success of these types of impact projects. The theme of ‘Impact at home’ has gained the most traction over the past year. For each investment, we provide a reflection on what we find noteworthy about the transaction.

Please note that the Assets under Management (AuM) of each organisation correspond to the AuM held in the year that the investment was deployed. If you feel we have overlooked anything, please contact us at contact@nabimpactinvesting.nl.

We hope you find this report informative and inspiring!

Click on the link below to read the full report:

Download the report