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Background / Context

The PAINT Project (Platform for Additionality and Intentionality) is an initiative funded under the ESF-2024-SOC-IMP call, aiming to develop an AI-powered tool to improve impact performance intelligence in the impact investing sector. The project seeks to address critical gaps in assessing intentionality and additionality, two essential components of impact investing, by providing standardized, comparable, and actionable insights that improve investment decision-making, transparency, and trust across the ecosystem.

Scope of work

The project is structured around several work packages, each addressing a key stage in the development of this digital solution.

These phases aim to:

• Work Package 2: Empathize – Supporting the design of research questions and analytical frameworks to identify user needs, market gaps and pricing expectations, based on qualitative data collected by consortium partners.

• Work Package 3: Definition – Providing feasibility insights from a social enterprise perspective to ensure the operational applicability of the proposed Additionality & Intentionality framework.

• Work Package 4: Ideation – Contributing to the validation of the PAINT standards and assumptions, particularly regarding economic feasibility, cost drivers, and potential functionalities.

• Work Package 6: Business Plan – Contributing to pricing logic, financial modelling, investment strategy and inputs to the final business plan.

Activities and deliverables

Work package 2 – The Empathize Phase

As part of Work Package 2 (“Empathize Phase”), the expert will contribute selectively to the qualitative research activities by providing a market and financial perspective to help shape the PAINT tool’s value proposition.

The contribution of the expert will focus on activities that directly inform functional requirements, user appetite, and pricing considerations.

Specific contribution will include:

– Supporting the design of questionnaires and survey tools for stakeholder consultations, ensuring that questions capture financial, operational, and decision-making realities of investors and social enterprises.

– Analyzing interview and survey transcripts provided by the consortium.

– Synthesizing insights related to functional needs and decision criteria, willingness to pay and operational challenges and constraints affecting adoption of the PAINT tool.

These inputs will help translate market evidence into actionable guidance for the conceptualisation work in WP3 and WP4 for the design of the PAINT tool’s value proposition, business model, and pricing logic, ensuring they align with the real practices and incentives of the impact investing ecosystem.

Deliverables

– Input note with proposed research questions and structure for interviews and surveys.

– Market Insights brief (1 – 3 pages): Summarizing key findings from surveys and interviews (user needs, willingness to pay, operational challenges) to feed into the consortium’s publication on the state of the art of Additionality & Intentionality in the sector.

Work Package 3 – Definition Phase

As part of Work Package 3 (“Definition Phase”), the expert will focus on ensuring that the proposed PAINT standards and framework for Additionality and Intentionality (A&I) are usable by social enterprises.
The contribution of the expert will concentrate on validating the practicality of the standards for social enterprises and supporting the preparatory set-up of the PAINT Alliance, to ensure strong market alignment and early ecosystem engagement.

Specific contribution will include:

– Validation of market feasibility

o Identify and clarify the main challenges faced by entrepreneurs when applying Additionality and Intentionality (A&I) criteria — including data availability, measurement consistency, and integration into investment strategy and monitoring processes.

o Provide targeted recommendations to ensure that the proposed standards and functionalities are practical and feasible for social enterprises.

o Providing short feasibility feedback to support the transition from WP2 insights into hypotheses to be validated in WP4.

The overarching objective of these activities is to translate the qualitative insights gathered in WP2 into concrete, actionable recommendations, ensuring that the PAINT standards and proposed functionalities are realistic, usable, and ready to be validated during the Ideation Phase (WP 4).

Deliverables

– Synthesis Note on PAINT Standards and Functional Feasibility (4 – 6 pages)

Summary of:

o Main operational and financial challenges faced by social enterprises when applying A&I criteria.

o Recommendations on the most relevant and feasible functionalities from a social enterprise perspective for the PAINT tool.

Work Package 4 – The Ideation Phase

As part of Work Package 4 (“Ideation Phase”), the expert will contribute to the development, validation, and consolidation of the PAINT Framework and Standards, ensuring that they are financially viable, operationally realistic, and relevant for investors and social enterprises, through active participation in consultations and technical discussions within the PAINT Alliance.

The contribution of the expert will focus on validating the feasibility and applicability of the PAINT standards from a financial and operational perspective and ensuring that the value proposition is consistent with the business realities of impact investors and intermediaries.

This phase will involve testing and refining the proposed functionalities and assessing their feasibility and value from an investor’s perspective.
The expert will help ensure that the proposed Additionality & Intentionality (A&I) Framework is ready for technical validation and stakeholder engagement through the PAINT Alliance.

Specific contribution will include:

– Validation of the PAINT Framework and Standards

o Review and advise on the key economic and operational assumptions discussed within the PAINT Alliance that influence the feasibility of the proposed functionalities, such as cost implications for users and scalability potential.

o The validation process will also include testing preliminary economic and financial assumptions (e.g., potential pricing logic, data maintenance costs, scalability factors) to inform the development of the financial model and business plan in WP6.

o Contribute to the refinement of the PAINT Standards by identifying which features and functionalities (e.g., due-diligence templates, scoring grids, portfolio dashboards) are most viable and aligned with real investment processes.

o Participate in internal validation sessions to identify which business and functional hypotheses should be tested as priorities in the prototype phase (WP5).

The overarching objective of these activities is to ensure that the PAINT Framework and Standards are not only conceptually sound but also financially and operationally viable, paving the way for their testing and future implementation – turning it into a tool that investors and intermediaries can realistically adopt and pay for.

Deliverables

– Validation Note (1–3 pages): Summarizing financial and operational feedback from PAINT Alliance consultations on the applicability and feasibility of the PAINT Framework and Standards, with a focus on what functionalities and services are viable from a business and cost perspective.

– Feasibility and Assumptions brief (1–3 pages): Consolidating the validated economic and operational assumptions (e.g., cost drivers, scalability factors, pricing logic) to inform both the prototype testing in WP5 and the financial model development in WP6.

Work Package 6 – The Business Plan Phase

As part of Work Package 6 (“Business Plan Phase”), the expert will contribute to consolidating the PAINT tool’s business model and defining its long-term financial and growth strategy.
The role of the expert will focus on ensuring the economic feasibility, scalability, and investment readiness of the platform, translating the consortium’s technical and conceptual outputs into a clear and credible business plan.

The specific contribution will include:

– Revenue and Pricing Model:

o Defining quantitative pricing scenarios and validating financial assumptions based on data from WP2 and functionalities defined in WP4–WP5.

o Validating financial assumptions (costs per feature, maintenance, hosting, updates) based on quantitative and qualitative data provided by the consortium

– Financial Model and Sustainability Scenarios:

o Contributing to the definition of growth scenarios, including key operational milestones and financial implications for the PAINT financial model.

o Developing the strategic hypothesis to reach these goals and its impact on revenues and costs for the financial model.

o Building the core assumptions and structure of the financial model in coordination with DT Global, including cost categories, projected revenues, margin evolution, and 3–5 year sustainability outlooks.

o Defining several financial scenarios (conservative, expected, optimistic) to support strategic decision-making on platform management and investment needs.

– Investment Strategy:

o Identifying potential institutional and private investors, development partners, and strategic alliances that could support scale-up or post-project sustainability.

o Advising on the capital structure (grant, concessional, or private capital) and the preparation of investment materials (short one-pager, key messages for pitch deck).

o Providing guidance for future fundraising materials (not including execution of fundraising activities)

– Input to the Final Business Plan:

o Providing targeted feedback and contributions to the consortium’s final Business Plan, ensuring the integration of realistic financial assumptions, market-based growth strategies, and investor-oriented framing.

These activities will ensure that the PAINT digital tool is backed by a credible, data-driven, and investment-ready business plan, enabling its long-term sustainability beyond the project lifecycle.

Deliverables

– Input to the consortium’s final Business Plan Document, integrating recommendations related to the growth strategy. It will also include the growth scenarios including key operational objectives, milestones to be reached and their financial implications for the financial model.

– Development of the Financial and Investment Model, outlining projected revenues, key cost assumptions and funding scenarios, including monthly budget and 5 years forecast, indicative capital requirements (amount, type, and use of funds).

– Indicative mapping of potential investors and strategic partners for outreach and scaling.

– Content contribution to investor outreach materials (validation of key messages, one-pager and pitch deck).

Coordination and reporting

The expert will work in close collaboration with DT Global and the rest of consortium partners (Comillas University, SIC4Change, GSII, among others).

• Regular coordination meetings, virtual or in-person, as appropriate, will be held to ensure alignment and review progress.
• The expert will report progress and deliverables through short written updates to the Project Coordinator on a regular basis.

1. Profile of the expert

Criteria type: Description

Qualifications: The expert must be fluent in English and Spanish.The expert must hold a Bachelors degree in Finance or a similar field. A Masters Degree will be an advantage.

General professional experience: The expert must have more than 10 years of work experience in the field of Finance

Specific professional experience: At least 5 years of experience working in the field of impact investingExperience in developing go-to-market strategies for entrepreneurs or businesses is desirableExperience in advising companies and/or funds in capital raising is desirableExperience in impact fund structuring is desirableExperience in impact measurement is desirable

Please send your application to [email protected], before Friday December 19th. When applying, please submit CV in EU format.

We thank all applicants for their interest. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.