ImpactAlpha, Oct. 30 – Two years ago, ImpactAlpha recognized Kesha Cash as an Agent of Impact for her cutting-edge investment thesis: the billion-dollar opportunities in tech solutions that drive ownership, opportunity and empowerment in communities of color. Now, Cash has the scratch to prove out that thesis, closing one of the largest funds ever raised

The Week in impact investing: Courage

Featured: The Week's Agent of Impact, Kesha Cash of Impact America Fund

How a portfolio of inclusive businesses prioritized the poor through COVID

The spread of COVID-19 and the economic devastation in its wake have shown just how necessary for-profit approaches are to serving the poor and vulnerable. In 1970, economist Milton Friedman’s landmark essay asserted that creating shareholder value is the sole purpose of a business—rejecting the idea that a business should promote “desirable ‘social’ ends.” Last

Acceso acquires Exensio to boost small farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean

ImpactAlpha, Oct. 29 – Acceso is acquiring Mexico City-based Exensio to boost the information flow to small farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean. Smallholder farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean make up roughly half of the region’s 130 million farmers; most lack access to basic agricultural information to enhance productivity. The combined company

The Brief: Small business financing lessons, Draper Richards Kaplan in Europe, PayPal’s bets on Black and Latinx managers, information and emergency funding for small farmers

Featured: Financing small businesses in emerging markets: lessons from the COVID crisis

Q&A with DPI’s Runa Alam: How Africa’s impact ventures became essential during Covid-19

As the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread around the world in early 2020, gloomy predictions about the coronavirus’s effects on Africa also made headlines. Human-rights groups feared that the lack of infrastructure and gaps in health services could result in a widespread public health crisis. The economic outlook for Africa turned bleak as the lockdown

European impact investors launch $40 million emergency fund for smallholder farmers

ImpactAlpha, October 29 – Belgium-based impact investor Incofin estimates that COVID disruptions to the global food supply chain have cost each of the world’s smallholder farmers $500 in income. Incofin is partnering with German development bank KfW and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to provide relief to cooperatives, agri-processors and exporters