What if the real constraint in impact investing isn’t a lack of capital… but how that capital is structured?

This is a compilation episode built from three conversations, each tackling a different part of the same question. What is catalytic capital? How do you create the conditions for it? And what happens when you deploy it at scale?

You’ll hear from Yasemin Saltuk Lamy, Head of Investment Strategy at Legal & General, who helped define impact investing during her time at J.P. Morgan and later led the Catalyst portfolio at British International Investment. She breaks down catalytic capital as capital that steps into spaces others won’t, and explains how structuring it as junior or first-loss capital can transform “too risky” opportunities into investment-grade assets for institutional investors.

From Stephen Muers, CEO of Better Society Capital, who shares how the UK built the infrastructure to support this kind of investing. Drawing on a unique funding model that includes dormant bank accounts and private bank capital, he explains how catalytic capital can be used to grow entire markets, not just individual portfolios, and why the UK’s social impact investment market has expanded more than 12-fold.

And from Michele Giddens, Co-Founder and CEO of Bridges Fund Management, who shows what execution looks like in practice. Starting with a £40 million fund anchored by £10 million of government catalytic capital, Bridges has gone on to mobilize over £2 billion in private investment while delivering competitive, often double-digit returns.

If you’re thinking about how capital can be deployed more intentionally, whether as an investor, policymaker, or operator, this episode offers a clear and practical lens into how catalytic capital works, and why it matters.

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