“Undreamt-of sums of capital” will create a transformation in the social investment market over the next five years, Sir Ronald Cohen predicted yesterday.

In his keynote speech at the European Venture Philanthropy Association conference in Luxembourg, Sir Ronald (pictured) said: “We are now on a wave of social entrepreneurship which will resemble the wave of business entrepreneurship of the last few decades.”

With this anticipated flow of funds from the capital markets, Sir Ronald warned that an increased focus on performance would be needed: “There’s been a sea-change over performance. You have to focus on metrics now, everyone is asking.”

Sir Ronald also spoke of the key role of the Big Society Bank to be launched next year, the purpose of which he said “is to make sure the intermediaries grow up”. He went on to say that “an organisation with a real balance sheet and innovative people can really transform things for not-for-profits”.