SIFI Launches Strategic Research Collaboration with ETH Zurich and Tameo

The SDG Impact Finance Initiative (SIFI) has launched a strategic research collaboration with ETH Zurich (Department of Management, Technology, and Economics – Centre for Sustainable Finance), led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Giroux, and Tameo, led by CEO Safeya Zeitoun, to advance transparency, effectiveness, and field-building in blended finance and impact investing.

This collaboration is part of SIFI’s Ecosystem Window, a strategic pillar designed to position SIFI as a trusted insight provider, ecosystem convener, and catalyst for systemic change. It reflects SIFI’s ambition to complement catalytic capital deployment with data-driven research and actionable insights that enhance the performance and credibility of impact finance.

The joint research agenda will focus on:

• Reducing barriers to impact investing for institutional investors
• De-risking structures and blended finance design
• Bottlenecks to private capital mobilisation
• Data transparency and fund architecture
• Investor engagement and institutional participation

ETH Zurich will lead the academic research, develop frameworks for de-risking instruments, conduct benchmarking surveys, and host a policy convening to disseminate early results. Tameo will expand its PAIF database to include 30–50 blended finance vehicles, generating structured data on fund layering, return patterns, and mobilisation ratios. SIFI will coordinate the partnership, fund Year 1 implementation, and lead outreach through dedicated stakeholder workstreams involving DFIs, philanthropic actors, and private capital providers.

The Ecosystem Window is designed to evolve into a long-term platform for generating data-driven and research-backed guidance, supporting strategic policy engagement, and building the infrastructure needed for a more transparent and efficient impact finance market.