Norselab’s Meaningfulness Report 2024: $23.5M in net positive impact — who benefits?

We just published our fifth annual Meaningfulness Report, and this year we go deeper into questions that matter in impact investing. What is impact investing in 2025? How do you measure impact meaningfully? Who ultimately benefits when capital is deployed intentionally?

Bringing clarity to what “impact investing” means

Impact has matured. It is no longer a disputed concept. In 2025, it stands out as a practice with clear principles: intentionality, measurability, accountability, along with a growing consensus on what it takes to drive measurable outcomes. The report explores this more in depth, allowing readers to get a current perspective on the meaning of impact investing.

Norselab's 2024 Meaningfulness Report

Can you put a dollar value on impact?

The monetary valuation of impact is a hot debate in the field, and the new report tackles it head-on. Reducing impact to a single number can flatten complexity, but it also has the advantage of speaking the language of finance. At Norselab, we say: it’s not either/or. We use monetary valuation as one lens to consistently quantify our impacts across different sustainability dimensions, relative to the capital we deploy.

But we never mistake the dollar value for the whole picture. Behind every figure is a more nuanced story about people, systems, and long-term change, which the report displays through case studies, interviews, and details of individual investments’ theories of change and impact metrics.

113% increase in net positive impact

In 2024, our investments created an estimated USD 23.5 million worth of net positive impact, a 113 percent increase from the previous year. This is driven by the group’s growth in assets under management, combined with investments in companies that create more impact per revenue than in 2023.

For every million USD invested in our funds, we generate 59,162 dollars in net positive value for society, up from 38,487 dollars in 2023. While these numbers don’t capture the full complexity of our impact, they indicate the scale of societal value creation that capital can contribute to.

A sharpened outcome focus

Norselab’s approach to impact is anchored in our proprietary philosophy, Meaningfulness. This approach rests on three core principles:

• The product creates impact
• The impact is net-positive
• It solves a real challenge

While continuing to ensure that this approach is consistently integrated into all investment decisions, this year, we have emphasized investigating the link between companies’ activities and the long-term positive outcomes we seek.

Who benefits - and how?

Real impact means real people’s lives change. Behind every dollar of societal value are beneficiaries: individuals, communities, and industries.

• With Plateful, surplus food became 3.8 million meals, reducing emissions and getting more food resources to our tables.
• With BioCirc, agricultural waste was turned into clean energy and fertilizer, helping reduce methane emissions, replace synthetic fertilizer, and strengthen energy security in European countries.
• With Rift Labs, advanced LED lighting helped vertical farms increase energy efficiency by 30%, reduce land and pesticide use, and improve yields in more sustainable food systems.

These aren’t stories of incremental change. They’re examples of a shift to business models that generate meaningful outcomes.

Strong returns for Norselab’s impact funds

In a year when parts of the market walked back on sustainability, our results reinforced what we’ve always believed: meaningful investing can deliver strong financial and impact returns.

In 2024, our two high-yield credit funds returned 16.20% and 25.17% — debunking the myth that impact means giving up returns. The report offers an interview with the personality beyond the returns, credit portfolio manager Tom Hestnes. “At Norselab, impact doesn't mean limitations. When done right, it’s a competitive advantage”, Hestnes shares in the interview.

As the impact space evolves, we’ll keep pushing the boundaries of how to measure what really matters — and challenge the industry to move beyond intent, toward outcomes.

This is a marketing communication. It does not constitute solicitation of, or an offer to participate in, any investment. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Returns can be negative as well as positive. An investment in any Norsleab fund carries certain risks, including the risk of loss of principal, and is suitable only for qualified, professional investors who fully understand the risks of such an investment. Please refer to the fund prospectus before making any final investment decisions.