ImpactAlpha Open | December 10, 2024

ImpactAlpha Open: Private equity ‘shares the wealth’ with workers + clean energy funds raising capital

Dennis Price
ImpactAlpha Editor

Dennis Price

Hi there, Agent of Impact! 

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In this week’s Open:

  • Private equity + employee ownership
  • Clean energy funds raising capital
  • Impact and returns in the care economy
  • Deal spotlight: Impact blowups and due diligence challenges

Let’s dig in. – Dennis Price

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

  • Private equity giants share (a little bit of) the wealth. As employee ownership strategies attract attention as a powerful way to build working-class wealth, private equity giants that have launched ownership plans are facing follow-up questions: How much ownership are they actually sharing? And with whom? ImpactAlpha’s Roodgally Senatus and Snehal Shah look at how much – and where – money has flowed, so far. Take a look.
  • 22 funds financing employee-ownership transitions. Higher impact ownership strategies have proven more challenging to finance. “There is often a trade-off between the percent of employee ownership and the return to investors,” according to a new report from Ownership Capital Lab and Transform Finance.The report identifies nearly two-dozen funds raising a collective $670 million that finance companies’ transition to at least 30% employee-ownership, reports ImpactAlpha’sDavid Bank.See who’s who.
  • The Liist: Clean energy funds, big and small. Impact managers on this month’s Liist of funds that are actively raising capital highlight the diversity of opportunities for capital to plug into the global clean energy transition. Women-led MAC Global Partners is planning a $600 million fund to make growth equity investments in clean energy companies in Europe and North America, while Fortis Green Renewables is in the market with its first fund to finance small-scale green energy developers in East Africa. Check them all out.
  • Catalytic capital at British International Investment. In the past decade, BII has deployed nearly $1.9 billion in catalytic capital for impact, inclusion and opportunities for commercial investors in emerging markets. The performance of the UK development finance institution’s Catalyst portfolio is break-even – meeting the organization’s requirement to preserve capital, reports ImpactAlpha’s Jessica Pothering. That will allow BII to move additional capital into investment-deprived sectors, geographies and enterprises. Get catalytic.
      
  • Why the care economy is ripe for returns and impact. The $648 billion annual care economy “remains overlooked by most private investors,” Jenna Bussman-Wise of Tesser Capital Management, and Pooja Eppanapally and Safo Ngunga of Women of the World Endowment, write in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. Tesser and WOWE are out with a new guide for investors looking to find impact – and returns – in the sector. Read more.

This Week’s Calls

🔌 Plugged In: Impact Investing in 2025. Include Ventures’ Taj Eldridge wears a lot of hats – literally and figuratively. Eldridge will join ImpactAlpha contributing editor Sherrell Dorsey to talk green jobs, making climate cool, and impact investing in the years ahead. “If we keep the conversation on the economics and the value of climate action, I think we will be okay in the next administration,” Eldridge tells ImpactAlpha. Bring your own take and your questions to this lively session, TODAY Dec. 10, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. Sign up now.

📞 Agents of Impact Call: Napoleon Wallace and the Reconstruction of Black Wealth. ImpactAlpha’s first documentary production charts Napoleon Wallace’s quest to build a network of organizations in North Carolina to foster Black wealth building and multi-racial prosperity – while living with the challenges of advanced ALS. We’ll screen the 20-minute video and discuss equity and ownership with Wallace through his text-to-voice “eye pad.” Join Napoleon’s friends and other Agents of Impact for this exclusive showing, Thursday, Dec. 12, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. RSVP today.

Agents of Impact

🏃🏽‍♀️ On the move

  • TruFund Financial Services appointed Stephaniee Kabore, formerly with myAgro, as senior vice president and chief financial officer. 
  • Ariel Smilowitz, previously with BlackRock, joined PwC as director of its governance insights center.
  • Mirova selected Raphael Lance, the sustainable investing firm’s head of energy transition infrastructure funds, to lead its new real assets division. The group combines Mirova’s energy transition infrastructure, natural capital and private equity businesses.

The Week’s Podcasts

🎧 This Week in Impact: How much is enough for employee ownership?

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: The tale of two different ownership economy models for increasing employee wealth; lessons learned from 10 years and $1.9 billion of catalytic investments from British International Investment; and, the untapped potential for investment and innovation in the US care economy.

The Week’s Deal Spotlight

🔍 Impact investors were not all there in monitoring AllHere.

Once again, impact investors that are quick to tout their success stories have gone silent when one of their portfolio companies blows up. Federal prosecutors in New York last month charged Joanna Smith-Griffin, CEO of AllHere Education, the AI-powered edtech company that filed for bankruptcy in August, with securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. “Unfortunately, as a registered investment advisor we are unable to comment on specific investments,” ReThink Education’s Amy Nelson told ImpactAlpha by email. ReThink led Boston-based AllHere’s $4 million seed financing in 2020 and appointed two members to AllHere’s board. 

Get in the Game

💼 Step up

  • World Education Services is hiring a remote senior manager of investments.
  • Finance in Motion seeks an investment officer/manager in renewables in Frankfurt.
  • Royal Bank of Canada is recruiting a research associate for its sustainability strategy in New York.

Sign up to Impact Careers get the top impact investing job listings and internships right in your inbox. Register for free.

🤝 Meet up

Don’t miss these upcoming impact investing events:

  • ReFED will accept applications for its Catalytic Grant Fund, which provides grant capital to nonprofits and for-profits for early-stage food waste solutions, until Tuesday, Jan. 21. It is hosting an informational webinar Wednesday, Dec. 11.
  • Convergence XXI, Criterion Institute’s month-long online convening on the future of gender-lens investing, is set to begin on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
  • Katapult Future Fest has canceled its 2025 Oslo-based conference. “Sometimes, stepping back is the boldest step forward,” the group wrote in note to its community. “We want to create space for an emergence of thought, to build a platform for scaled impact and long-term sustainability.”

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