Johannes Weber: Impact investing without integrity is just investing

Impact investing was never meant to be complicated. Use capital intentionally to solve a problem for people or the planet. That was the deal.

For a while, it worked. LPs and GPs found each other, funds were raised, startups were backed, and the industry realised its vision to generate returns while meaningfully improving the world.

That phase is over.

What began as a “vibe shift” in the US has quietly spread across Europe. In its wake, impact investing has started to become a flexible label, stretched to fit almost any deal that needs moral cover in a tougher market.

I’ve seen hardcore impact funds turn into chameleons. One day a clear climate mandate, the next: “bigger, better, faster, more deals that just happen to be green.”

I’ve even heard an impact fund proudly pronounce on stage: “Camouflage is the new green.” Let that sink in.

The intentionality has gone, and with it impact investing’s raison d’être.

Drawing the line on defence

Perhaps the most stark sign of moral decay in the impact world has been the mainstreaming of defence and security investments.

I’ve been a soldier in a war zone. People who insist there’s a clean line between “defensive” and “offensive” technologies rarely understand how those tools are actually used. A landmine can be described as defensive. I’ve seen one kill a child. That experience shapes why we back companies like Open Bionics – and why I struggle with funds that slide from education or climate straight into security and defence, while keeping the same impact branding intact.

One impact fund has gone full shape-shifter: from edtech to security and defence, raising a €150m fund in the process.

If this pivot weren’t so serious, it would be almost entertaining.

Just a few years ago, I had to listen to countless emerging fund managers explain why they

quit their old jobs to start impact funds - because they could “no longer tell their kids they weren’t helping save the planet as they witnessed plastic on the beach of their Maldives family resort.”

What do they tell their kids now?

But perhaps the worst part is that this retreat makes no sense.

Our social and ecological crises have only intensified. Climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, inequality, and fragile supply chains are systemic pressures already shaping daily life. And yet parts of the impact investing world are responding by lowering their own standards.

Taking a stand

The silver lining to all this is that the solutions we need to avoid systemic collapse already exist. The technology is there. And so are founders willing to commit their lives to solving real problems.

What we need are thousands of practical, locally adapted solutions – and investors prepared to fund them with patience and conviction.

To LPs who remain sceptical: yes, you can invest for impact and generate returns. Ananda was the first impact VC to fully return a fund to its investors. Integrity and performance are not opposites.

The fix isn’t complicated. It requires integrity. It requires remembering why impact investing existed in the first place. Because no amount of IRR will make a hollow mission meaningful.

It’s time to stop camouflaging and get back to building things that truly matter.