Antonis Schwarz is an impact investor, activist and philanthropist of Greek-German origin. He was European Community Manager for The ImPact, a non-profit network of families who are committed to make more impact investments, more effectively. In the past, he has worked at Ashoka, a global organization supporting social entrepreneurs, Bonventure, the first German venture philanthropy fund, as well as Yunus Social Business, a global social business accelerator
Aleksandra Andrianova breaks down his vision and his goals.
Nowadays we are challenged by different environmental and societal pressures such as the global warming, waste of water, land contamination, rising inequality and injustice. Many of these challenges became complex and must be addressed from a holistic perspective so as to meet the needs of present generations without endangering the ability of next generations to meet their own needs.
Antonis Schwarz has made it to his mission to transfer his wealth into philanthropy and social investments to counteract the world’s latest challenges. Being a strong believer in the power of activism, he founded the Guerrilla Foundation, an organisation supporting social movements and activists working towards bringing about major systemic change across Europe.
Growing up in Munich, Antonis intended to change the way his private and family’s wealth is invested towards the well-being of people and planet with satisfactory financial returns. His mother was Greek, his father was part of the Schwarz branch that founded a pharmaceutical company named Schwarz AG in the Odenwald after World War II. A company belonging to the 80 largest German stock corporations listed on the MDax stock market index. Later, in 2006, the family sold their pharmaceutical company to their Belgian competitor UCB for around EUR 4.4 billion and Antonis became one of the heirs of the family’s fortune at the age of 18. Instead of spending the obtained funds, he decided to use his inherited wealth to challenge the systems and to make the world a better place.
To advance his visions, one of Antonis’ goals was to create an impact portfolio which he also presented to our NEXT Community. In general, impact investing follows a strategy seeking to generate financial returns while also creating a positive social or environmental impact. It results from our increasing social and environmental problems such as the global warming, pollution, overpopulation or hazardous materials use. The main objective is to provide capital to address our today’s global challenges. As a result, investors pay attention to a company’s commitment to corporate social and environmental responsibility or the duty to positively serve society as a whole.
Antonis’ portfolio uses an opportunistic investment strategy, looking for the highest lever for systems transformation while focusing on topics such as combating climate change. The majority of funds are invested in VC funds and private debts allocated towards various sustainable Development Goals with a main geographical focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Europe. This strategy enabled him to move his desired transformations by creating, for example, more than 580 new jobs, saving around 15’207 tones of CO2 and generating 19’100 MWh of renewable energy.
Impressively, younger generations are taking more and more proactive steps towards making impactful investments. Nevertheless, Antonis Schwarz believes that tackling issues at the roots also means going beyond impact investing. Through initiatives like the “Good Move”, the co-founding of a digital platform named Vouliwatch, a Greek parliamentary monitoring organization, enabling Greek citizens to engage with legislative politics as well as the co-founding of the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth, an academic research and training institution at the University of Zurich, Antonis aims to share his journey to motivate wealth owners and Next Generations to dive into impact investing, philanthropy and advocacy to positively impact our future.
Let’s create a world that is fairer, more prosperous and respectful!
For our “German NextGens” who are keen on making a positive difference: You might be interested in joining Antonis’ Schwarz digital “Stammtisch” taking place every two months.
You want to be a part of it? Feel free to contact Dennis!
Email: dennis.koenig@bergos.ch
