FASE and Chi Impact Capital combine their unique strengths, expertise and impact mission to create the European Catalytic Impact Investing Fund II (ECIIF II).
Munich, Germany & Zurich, Switzerland / February 2, 2026
Creating systems change and a regenerative future is all about collaboration. This is why FASE and Chi Impact Capital (CHI), two leading European impact advisors, join forces to act as investment advisor for the European Catalytic Impact Investing Fund II (ECIIF II) together.
Both teams have a strong track record: Combined, they manage two funds with EUR 25 million and 37 investments and bring a very complementary skillset and strategy. FASE stands out with a portfolio of impact ventures focused on social impact and poised to become the “new Impact Mittelstand”. CHI displays strong performance with VC-type impact tech ventures creating environmental impact.
FASE’s Dr. Markus Freiburg and Ellinor Schweyer, CHI’s Dr. Christin ter Braak-Forstinger, and seasoned impact investor Pieter-Jan Van de Velde (picture, left to right) have known, valued and worked with each other for many years. With ECIIF II, the 4 founding partners and their teams will now take a broad, ecosystemic approach, backing both scalable impact ventures with transformative business models as well as mission-driven businesses that need more patient capital. The ECIIF II is the only impact fund in Europe that will benefit from a catalytic guarantee provided by the European Investment Fund. This will expand the investable universe of impact-driven businesses and allow to create both deep measurable impact and attractive financial returns.
“We all believe in our values and feel that now is the time to stand tall and pursue an independent path for Europe’s impact ecosystem,” says Dr. Markus Freiburg. Target sectors for the ECIIF II will be education & employment, health & care, circular economy & climate action, and food & agriculture.
FASE’s brainchild and ECIIF II predecessor, the “European Social Innovation and Impact Fund” (ESIIF), is now almost fully invested with 30 impact ventures across 4 future-oriented verticals and has performed very well to date. CHI’s focus is a perfect fit. Dr. Christin ter Braak-Forstinger and her team deeply believe in the need for systems transformation towards a regenerative economy and a more conscious form of investing. With their “Burning Issues Impact Fund” (BIIF), they have successfully provided professional investors with the possibility to create place-based and deep impact in Europe to support solutions achieving the most critical SDGs. The fund has made 7 investments to date, with a range of successful follow-on investments in 5 countries and is currently implementing its last new investment. “If you are not designing for systems interventions – you are just wrapping problems”, says ter Braak-Forstinger about CHI’s mission. This sets the stage to take things further together.
“I’m excited that we found the perfect partners with CHI to realize our vision with the ECIIF II”, shares Ellinor Schweyer, who’s behind the idea to join forces that took off quickly when she talked to Christin at a conference. ECIIF II is currently in an advanced stage of fundraising and has collected substantial anchor commitments, with the expectation of having a first close in Q2 2026. “We’re optimistic that investors will follow our unique approach and target visionary entrepreneurs tackling the world’s most pressing challenges”, confirms Pieter-Jan Van de Velde, whose 10+ years of impact investing and ecosystem-building experience with Trividend in Belgium are a big value add. “It’s high time to invest in the future, from climate resilience to circularity to social equity, and make purpose and performance go hand in hand.”
Contact
About the ECIIF: www.eciif.eu
For investors:
Ellinor Schweyer, Founding Partner, eschweyer@eciif.eu
Dr. Christin ter Braak-Forstinger, Founding Partner, christin@eciif.eu
For press & media:
Christina Moehrle, Communications Manager, cmoehrle@fa-se.de