Beats
Agents of Impact | April 26, 2024
Trenton Allen, Sustainable Capital Advisors: Bringing green infrastructure to Black and Brown communities (Q&A)
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is seeding green projects in primarily low-income communities by sending $27 billion through a network of nonprofit lenders. …
Dealflow | April 26, 2024
The Week’s Dealflow: April 25, 2024
ImpactAlpha’s deal news coverage for the week: Agrifood investing. Netherlands-based B Corp. Mosa Meat inked €40 million to begin tastings for its lab-grown beef products… …
Deploy! | April 25, 2024
Lenders face a steep learning curve in deploying capital for green community infrastructure
Green project developers and project finance skills have always been in short supply. Now, with $27 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awards …
Impact Voices | April 25, 2024
Lessons from the Kellogg Foundation’s $310 million in mission-driven investments
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
Inclusive Economy | April 25, 2024
Addressing the broken child care system with impact investments
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
Financial Inclusion | April 25, 2024
Indian home lender Altum Credo’s $40 million round gives investors a partial exit
Pune, India-based Altum Credo provides mortgages for first-time homebuyers underserved by other financial institutions. Its digital underwriting and loan disbursement process offers five …
Latin America | April 25, 2024
IDB Lab backs small businesses in Paraguay and health access in Ecuador
The Inter-American Development Bank’s experimental venture funding group IDB Lab provided a $3 million anchor investment for iThink VC, an investment firm that …
Climate Finance | April 24, 2024
The climate transition and investment opportunities for family offices
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
Return on Inclusion | April 24, 2024
FreeCap’s ‘decarceration index’ highlights companies outcompeting with fair-chance hiring
The US economy is generating more jobs than there are workers to fill them. To address shortages and compete for talent, companies like …
Impact Tech | April 24, 2024
Next Billion raises capital to invest in digital infrastructure and services in Latin America, Asia and Africa
The investment firm Next Billion Capital Partners funds tech ventures supporting access to basic services in emerging markets. It reached a first close …
Inclusive Economy | April 24, 2024
Deal spotlight: Connect Humanity blends finance to bring broadband to remote communities
The lack of high-speed Internet service in rural and mountainous regions of the US exacts a socio-economic toll, limiting access to jobs, education, …
Podcasts | April 24, 2024
Franchising indoor farms to build a billion dollars in Black wealth (podcast)
When one door closes, another one opens. For Zarû Systems’ Loren Taylor, that second door may open onto a self-contained modular vertical farm …
Blockchain/AI/IoT | April 23, 2024
With stakes in Anthropic, impact investors seek a seat at the AI table
Not long after last fall’s boardroom drama at OpenAI thrust issues of governance, stakeholders and mission into the debates over artificial intelligence, Omidyar …
Blockchain/AI/IoT | April 23, 2024
How impact investments in Anthropic can strengthen responsible innovation in tech
In the realm of AI discourse, much attention is directed towards fostering responsible development of the technology itself (e.g. Is it free from …
Dealflow | April 23, 2024
Upstart Co-Lab raises $15 million to invest in an inclusive creative economy
Upstart Co-Lab raised $15 million in a mix of mission and program-related investments and recoverable grants from 14 investors. Investors include the Andy …
Inclusive Economy | April 23, 2024
Tangent secures early funding to democratize referrals for UK tech workers
Less than 10% of the UK’s tech talent comes from lower-income backgrounds compared to nearly 30% in finance and 23% in law. An …
Deploy! | April 22, 2024
Greening down payment assistance to create better homes and better mortgages
Editor’s Note: Community Finance Brief is a newsletter from Matt Posner of Court Street Group, occasionally syndicated on ImpactAlpha. An enduring and perhaps …
Low-carbon transition | April 22, 2024
Science Based Targets Initiative meets realpolitik on the path to Net Zero
An apparent reversal by one of the main arbiters of corporate climate action plans has roiled climate activists and advocates and highlighted tensions …
Deploy! | April 22, 2024
For this Earth Day, the White House delivers a $7 billion message: Solar for All
“Cheaper, faster, better” is not just for affluent households or wealthy neighborhoods. Hundreds of millions in annual cost-savings from ever-cheaper solar energy, not …
Africa | April 22, 2024
IFC writes a $300 million check to Standard Bank for low-income housing and renewable energy in South Africa
South Africa is in the midst of a critical, years-long power crisis. The country also needs nearly four million new units of low-income …
Muni Impact | April 22, 2024
Michigan raises $53 million to green its healthcare services
Editor’s note: ImpactAlpha has partnered with HIP Investor to highlight upcoming bond issues with social and/or environmental significance. Disclaimer: Nothing in this post or on …
Dealflow | April 19, 2024
The Week’s Dealflow: April 19, 2024
ImpactAlpha’s deal news coverage for the week: Agrifood investing. Astarte Capital and Silvipar raised $325 million for sustainable forestry in Paraguay… Brazil’s goFlux …
Emerging and Growth Markets | April 19, 2024
Deal spotlight: African banks help Acre Impact Capital bridge gaps in infrastructure finance
It’s taken three years for Mauritius-based Acre Impact Capital to reach a first close for its first infrastructure finance fund. The firm is …
Climate Finance | April 18, 2024
A ‘dual debt-climate challenge’ for the world’s poorest nations
The Atlantic hurricane season looms large this year, following 2023’s record number of billion-dollar disasters in over four decades of data collection. For …
Catalytic Capital | April 18, 2024
Prime Coalition launches Trellis Climate to plug gaps for first-of-a-kind climate tech projects
Boston-based Prime Coalition has spent more than a decade identifying funding gaps for early stage climate tech and marshaling risk-tolerant capital to fill …
Climate Finance | April 18, 2024
Spring Meetings yield green shoots of development finance reform at the World Bank
It’s been less than a year since Ajay Banga took over as president of the World Bank; he immediately faced intense pressure to …
Dealflow | April 18, 2024
Medulance scores $3 million to bring medical emergency response services to India’s smaller cities
Indian healthtech investor Alkemi Growth Capital led a $3 million Series A investment in Medulance, a company founded in 2017 to make emergency …
Creative Economy | April 17, 2024
Shutdown of Participant challenges other investors to drive impact through film
When Ava DuVernay made her 2019 series, “When They See Us,” about the five Black teens convicted of a rape they didn’t commit, …
Ownership Economy | April 17, 2024
Colorado is demonstrating how states can accelerate conversions to employee ownership (video)
When Jared Polis became Colorado’s governor in 2019, he created an employee ownership office to incentivize and provide support for retiring owners to …
Capitalism Reimagined | April 17, 2024
Impact CEOs are navigating macro uncertainty with purpose
Purpose, it turns out, is durable. CEOs of Seventh Generation, Vital Farms and other purpose-driven companies who gathered at Big Path Capital’s annual …
Sponsored | April 17, 2024
Innovative startups are changing the landscape of health impact everywhere. Are investors aware?
Editor’s note: This guest post is sponsored by Impact Ventures by J&J Foundation, which supports ImpactAlpha’s Investing in Health coverage. In partnership with …
Clean Energy | April 17, 2024
Quilt raises $33 million to launch its sleek heat pump
Heat pump sales in the US are expected to ramp up, as states implement generous financial incentives in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. …
Climate Finance | April 17, 2024
Astarte Capital and Silvipar raise $325 million for sustainable forestry in Paraguay
Paraguay is one of the poorest countries in South America. It also has one of the highest rates of tropical deforestation in the …
Return on Inclusion | April 16, 2024
The brilliant case for impact investing in America’s HBCUs
Editor’s Note: This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Impact Voices | April 16, 2024
How innovative financing structures can help close California’s housing gap
The way housing is financed and constructed in the United States has experienced little change in decades, leading to skyrocketing costs, barriers to …
Investing in Health | April 16, 2024
SEAF provides impact-linked capital to Dawa Mkononi for pharmaceutical access in Tanzania
Impact investment firm SEAF (for Small Enterprise Assistance Funds) launched its Daraja Impact initiative with support from AlphaMundi Foundation and the Swiss Agency …
Climate Finance | April 16, 2024
Pula lands $20 million to offer livestock insurance to smallholder farmers
Insurance tech startup Pula launched in 2015 to provide crop insurance to small scale farmers, 80% of whom lack access to products that …
Smallholder Agriculture | April 15, 2024
For these tech startups and investors, the next big thing is climate adaptation for smallholder farmers
In India, Mati Carbon is providing smallholder farmers with crop inputs that fertilize plants and sequester carbon. In Kenya, SunCulture is helping farmers …
Impact Voices | April 15, 2024
Elevating impact reporting to raise the performance of impact fund managers
“One million lives touched.” “800 jobs created.” “50,000 acres of land restored.” Capital allocators often see these types of punchy headlines in the …
Impact Management | April 15, 2024
Six impact performance reports that go beyond the basics to give investors needed insights
Impact Frontier’s Impact Reporting Norms target a leverage point in the impact investing system: impact reporting. They promise to provide greater clarity and …
Return on Inclusion | April 15, 2024
New York Life acquires stake in minority-owned firm Fairview Capital
Fairview Capital, a minority-owned investment management firm that specializes in backing diverse and emerging managers in venture capital and private equity, has invested …
Climate Finance | April 15, 2024
Unwritten snags $3.5 million for ‘transition risk intelligence’ software for investors
The impact of climate change on infrastructure, properties, agriculture and human health could cost the global economy some $3 trillion per year by …
Impact Voices | April 15, 2024
How Mati Carbon is using the carbon markets to address farmers’ adaptation finance gap and boost their incomes
Ashish Kumar is a long-time climate investor and a market / ecosystem builder. He is a strategic advisor to Mati Carbon. This month, …
Deploy! | April 12, 2024
Private sector sees opportunity in federal ‘green bank’ fund
The EPA’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is intended to bring in at least seven times as much in private capital for …
Dealflow | April 12, 2024
The Week’s Dealflow: April 12, 2024
ImpactAlpha’s deal news coverage for the week: Agrifood tech. Demark’s Reduced raised $6 million to upcycle agricultural waste into new food products through …