Greetings, Agents of Impact!
Featured: ImpactAlpha Original
50 deals that signal a growing impact investing market in Latin America. An increasing number of proof points are beginning to add up to a viable impact investing marketplace in Latin America. In the past year, ImpactAlpha has tracked more than 50 impact investments in Latin American companies. Investors and entrepreneurs gathered in Mérida, Mexico for the annual Foro Latinoamericano de Inversión de Impacto can point to Latin American and Caribbean ventures that are generating financial returns through social and environmental impact – and raising capital and realizing exits.
Ventures in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Central America are raising capital to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Entrepreneurs are finding new ways to close the financing gap for small businesses. Fintech firms are expanding access to financial services. Education ventures are creating new opportunities for the two-thirds of Latin America’s young people that don’t advance into higher education. And a growing number of companies are delivering products and services to the 15 million family farms (including 10 million subsistence farmers) in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Read, “50 deals that signal a growing impact investing market in Latin America,” by Dennis Price on ImpactAlpha.
Dealflow: Follow the Money
Mexican coding bootcamp Holacode secures backing from GINcapital. Holacode offers a five-month coding bootcamp to teach high-tech skills to young Mexicans who have been deported from the U.S. and to refugees from Central America. The venture fund of GIN Group, a Mexican human resources advisory company, backed the Mexican startup. Holacode aims to fill the tech skills gap in Mexico and to improve economic opportunities and mobility. The company says 90% of its first cohort of students secured jobs as software engineers, earning twice the average national income. As with other “income-share” models, Holacode students pay nothing upfront, and repay tuition based on employment and earnings. GINcapital’s investment follows backing from Mexican education-focused impact investor Connovo. Learn more.
Shell goes all in on solar-storage venture Sonnen. Germany-based solar-storage company Sonnen is being acquired by Shell’s New Energies group. Sonnen, which makes solar energy storage batteries, has developed “sonnenCommunity” to allow solar-powered residences to share power. Shell’s New Energies division invests in companies commercializing alternative fuels and energy sources. The acquisition comes nine months after Shell’s venture arm led Sonnen’s €60 million ($71 million) funding round. Read on.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
ImpactAssets is hiring directors of business development and impact investing strategy… The U.S. Treasury is soliciting applications under the Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act… Gillian Wilmot is the new board chair at European impact investment bank ClearlySo. Tracy Lewis and Joseph Krant also join ClearySo’s board… Elizabeth Burger and Ruby Veridiano join Social Venture Circle.
— February 20, 2019.
