“I started in 2007, right after the urban riots we had in France in 2005 in the banlieux. And I thought we may be able to do something using the leverage of entrepreneurship, solving the main issue in those districts, unemployment.”
Cornieti decided to invest in an innovative company, Ecolotrans, located in a deprived neighbourhood of Paris. Its CEO, Yacine Kara, was spearheading green transportation with a fleet of electric refrigerated trucks.
“At that time, you had a few electric trucks, but the fridge had to be powered by the battery. So on an electric truck, you do two miles and it stops. So he came up with an interesting solution. From five trucks, we supported him to have 50. He hired and trained young people from a poor neighbourhood and we made a multiple of three on that investment.”
The startling success of Ecolotrans in both social and financial terms led Cornieti and Impact Partners to make 60 more investments in poor areas. However, he quickly realised he was investing less and less in the banlieux.
“If you invest in a company in a poor district, the day that company has better financial means, they move to a better location. So we thought, what businesses would be a success and stay in the district? And we thought: shops. In 2017, we launched the Local Strategy, and today we form two shops per week, we’ve created more than 400 shops in those poor districts, and 5,000 jobs.”
From small beginnings, Impact Partners is now the main social investor across Europe.
“Today, many investors want social investment. It’s a new frontier. And we are the only one to undertake that social strategy in Europe, at least for the size of funds we are currently managing.”
Now, Cornieti has gone a step further, creating the media platform Impact.Info to showcase socially innovative entrepreneurs and give them some much-needed visibility.
“In Europe we have great entrepreneurs, and they are never interviewed. And we thought OK, if we can’t get journalists interested, let’s create our own media. So it’s a new media for those entrepreneurs willing to make a difference, a social one, and with Impact.Info, we want to highlight those great adventures in English and in Spanish.”
