Portugal Social
Innovation Mission Unit
PSI is a government initiative created and negotiated with the European Commission in 2014 as part of the programming for Portugal 2020 aimed at financing Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship intervention initiatives to stimulate the sector and promote social investment in Portugal. PSI has been both a catalyst and a market builder in the sector through funding and facilitating the social investment and impact ecosystem. With an initial allocation of €150 million, PSI achieves their mission by mobilizing funds from the European Social Fund (ESF). In this context, PSI is an Intermediary Body with delegation of authority agreements for the 2020 Operational Programmes (OP) that concur to the four financial instruments manage by PSI, three grant based instruments created for social sector organizations and social entrepreneurs, including one outcomes based model of Social Impact Bonds and one financial instrument, the first public impact investment fund (the first of its kind created with European funds) aimed at stimulating the social impact market to enable credit institutions and equity investors to directly participate in social innovation and social entrepreneurship projects. There are 581 applications approved so far, representing 79 million EUROS funding approved with a social co-investment of 35 million EUROS mobilising 418 entities creating impact for 376 734 people.