As one of the UK’s leading social impact investment companies, Resonance has worked with over 160 social enterprises since its formation in 2002. In 2025, it launched its £10 million Resonance Enterprise Investment (REI) Fund. The aim is to help organisations tackling some of most pressing challenges in the UK. These include health and wellbeing, economic inequality and the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Leila Sharland, Head of Growing Enterprises at Resonance, said: “Social enterprises are driving real change. However, they often face barriers to growth. The REI Fund is designed to remove those barriers. Our goal is to help these organisations expand their impact, improve lives and create a better living environment.”

The REI Fund, a five-year programme, saw Resonance’s first collaboration with a UK bank. Unity provided £1.2 million of the initial £1.6 million funding. The money will be used across the South West, North West and West Midlands. It’s supported by Enterprise for Development and The Ceniarth UK Foundation. It benefits from the Growth Guarantee Scheme, provided by British Business Bank. It also gets grant funding from Access – the foundation for social investment.

Leila added: “As a social impact investor we only want to work with ethical organisations. We learned about Unity through Responsible Finance. Unity and our relationship manager, Jason James, understand Community Development Finance Institutions. That was really important to us. Without Unity’s backing this fund might not have happened. We needed a big investor to come in. Unity was flexible and supportive.”

Impact

One of the first initiatives to benefit from the REI Fund was the Ivybridge Brewing Company in Devon. Established in 2018, this social enterprise creates employment, training and volunteering opportunities for adults with learning disabilities and autism.

Ivybridge believes everyone has the right to fulfilling work, and to contribute to their community. It has a passion for great-tasting beer and a commitment to making a positive social impact. This resulted in 650 hours of paid work for people with learning disabilities in 2024. It also provided 2,300 hours of work experience and training for its team. With the capacity to grow their operation, they needed funding to expand into a neighbouring building.

Leila said: “We invested £25,000 and helped to secure an additional £5,000 grant for Ivybridge.  They’ve expanded their existing taproom so they can employ more people and brew and sell more beers.”