Overcoming financial barriers with circular business

‘Money makes the world go round’, the new report on financing the circular economy, provides directions for overcoming financial barriers that circular businesses encounter. Answers lie in collaboration throughout the value chain and creating financial instruments to invest in a chain or network of businesses rather than in a single business. This way, risks and rewards can be shared and incentives to collaborate arise with the aim of creating a circular chain in which all participants earn a piece of the pie.PGGM took the lead in organizing the working group FinanCE, consisting of PGGM, Intesa SanPaolo, Rabobank, ING, ABN AMRO, EIB, EBRD, Circularity Capital, RSM Erasmus University, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, KPMG Luxembourg, Banking Environment Initiative of Cambridge, Circle Economy and Sustainable Finance Lab.The FinanCE working group was founded in order to understand the implications of the circular economy on business models and corresponding financing of circular business. The motivation behind this is the need for funding of circular business in order to take off and accelerate the transition. The report identifies opportunities for financial institutions to learn how to recognize and to invest in the winners of the future. The most important opportunities are: increased profitability through higher asset utilisation, risk mitigating potential of circular businesses, and long-term relationships that increase margin stability.