The Brief | January 10, 2025

The Week in impact investing: Reality premium

ImpactAlpha
The team at

ImpactAlpha

TGIF, Agents of Impact! 

  • Roundup: Mitigating disinformation risk
  • Podcast: Unpacking the Liist of actively raising funds
  • Spotlight: Riding the MAHA wave

🗣 Disinformation risk. Freedom of speech underpins free societies and productive markets. So too does trusted information rooted in reality. “Timely, accurate, relevant information enables people to participate in public life, to claim their rights, and to make informed choices about themselves, their environment and society,” states Media Development Investment Fund, which invests in independent journalism as a pillar of social cohesion and economic growth around the globe. With Meta’s decision this week to join Elon Musk’s X in lifting guardrails on content in the name of free speech, unchecked mis- and disinformation is set to flood the zone. Call it disinformation risk. 

The inevitable countertrend: A premium on investment strategies built on the most material, most accurate and most comprehensive information and analysis available. ESG investing may be under attack, but at its most fundamental, the practice is about taking into account the crucial social, environmental, governance and economic context, data and risks. Diversity, equity and inclusion, also under fire, offers strategies for companies and investment firms to draw more widely from talent pools and business ecosystems (as Costco says it will continue to do). Sure, investing in impact, climate and inclusion is about values, but it is also about value, as in creating it in the real world, based on solid information. 

Those fleeing ESG, climate and impact strategies may be underpricing the value of operating with a more complete picture. Check out Jessica Pothering’s analysis of ImpactAlpha’s long-running Liist database, which highlights actively raising funds. One insight: While VC fundraising has cooled, emerging managers with unique insights into overlooked markets are gaining traction with investors. Or page through the details of more than 200 transactions leveraging catalytic capital compiled by the investor network Toniic, including Meraki Impact’s investment to close a capital gap for smallholder finance in Brazil, (as showcased in our new series with Toniic). BlueOrchard’s track record in microfinance let it build its new climate adaptation strategy, BlueOrchard’s Maria Teresa Zappia explains in an interview with ImpactAlpha. Governance will be the key differentiator in the new information landscape, as Ford Foundation’s Margot Brandenburg laid out in her piece on the range of mechanisms available to Bluesky, the social media platform emerging as the alternative to Musk’s X, to protect its mission and its users. Amid the noise, good information leads to good investment decisions and good outcomes – in reality. – Dennis Price

Other must-reads on ImpactAlpha:

The Week’s Podcast

🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up the week’s top stories with ImpactAlpha’s Jessica Pothering. On the show: Glimmers of hope for impact fundraising, catalytic capital in Brazil, and investing in drones to lift agricultural productivity in India.

  • Listen to the new episode of This Week in Impact. Get the podcast in your feed by subscribing on Apple or Spotify.

The Week’s Deal Spotlight

Sustainable food and ag investors line up to Make America Healthy Again. Last year’s US election is creating surprising opportunities for impact investors looking to disrupt the food and agriculture industries. The odd pairing of President-elect Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. means a foe of Big Food and Big Pharma is likely to be the new leader of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has said he wants to “Make America Healthy Again” by ridding our food supply of pesticides, food additives, ultra-processed foods and other hallmarks of industrial agriculture that have contributed to a spike in chronic disease. “With more attention being put into the food system, there are a lot of opportunities there,” says Meifan Shi of Toronto and New York-based Waterpoint Lane, which secured $6 million this week for its first food and ag sustainability fund. “When you look at the issues within the food system, the ingredients and the way food is being processed and travels through the entire supply chain, there are so many things that need to be changed.” 

  • Regenerative ag. The new attention coincides with a rush of innovation in healthy and sustainable food and agriculture. Companies with solutions in alternative proteins, regenerative farming, sustainable fertilizers and food waste solutions represented a rare bright spot in a tough fundraising year. A new report from Sightline Climate found nearly 250 food and land use startups raised capital in 2024, making the sector second, in terms of volume of deals, only to energy in the climate tech space (see, “Climate tech investors retool for a changed landscape”). Agricultural conglomerates such as ADM and private equity giants such as Bain Double Impact are seeking opportunities in regenerative agriculture.
  • Future of food. Waterpoint writes early-stage checks of around $250,000 for startups developing tech-enabled solutions that have potential to drive efficiency and sustainability across the agrifood value chain. Among the seven companies in Waterpoint’s portfolio is New York-based Starfish Technologies, which offers a real-time food traceability system for food businesses, and Myland, a Phoenix-based soil regeneration startup.
  • Keep reading, “Sustainable food and ag investors line up to Make America Healthy Again,” by Roodgally Senatus on ImpactAlpha. Catch up on all of this week’s dealflow reporting.

The Week’s Talent and Jobs

đŸ’Œ See and share more than a dozen new impact jobs posted this week on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub and view hundreds of more jobs in impact investing and sustainable finance. Have a job listing to post? Submit it here.

Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter stepped down as executive director of content for SOCAP Global. She will focus on her role as founding general partner of IMPAQTO Capital and a consultant at Skoll Foundation
 Warburg Pincus promoted Leela Ramnath to managing director and global head of sustainability strategy
 Trillium Asset Management promoted Lisa Hayles to director of sustainability and stakeholder engagement
 Principles for Responsible Investment promoted Cambria Allen Ratzlaff to chief officer of responsible investment ecosystems.

Aligned Climate Capital’s founding partner Lawrence Rodman retired at the end of 2024
 US SIF appointed Stephanie Cohn Rupp of Veris Wealth Partners as board chair, along with eight new board members, including Boston Trust Walden’s Kimberly Gluck, Nakia Maddox Eubanks of Trillium Asset Management, and Rebecca Adamson of First Peoples Worldwide
 Potlikker Capital added David LeZaks of Food System 6 to its board of directors
 StĂ©phanie Bernier-Monzon, former head of communications at Impak Finance, joined Rally Assets as a communications senior associate.

Traven Joseph, previously with Island Mountain Development Group, joined Raven Indigenous Capital Partners as an investment analyst
 Beyond Capital Ventures promoted Shiddhi Gupta from investment fellow to investment analyst
 HSBC promoted ZoĂ« Knight to global head of sustainability and integration
 Kai Preugschat of Qatar Development Bank joined Acre Impact Capital’s advisory board
Coalition for Green Capital named Richard Kauffman, a CGC board member and Generate Capital chair, as its next CEO. Kauffman takes over from Reed Hundt, who has held the role since 2009. 

Pete Stavros’s Expanding ESOPs tapped Daniel Massey, previously with BerlinRosen, as head of strategy and communications
 Crosscut Ventures welcomed Jon Ylvisaker, previously with Yield Capital Partners, as partner of its new energy transition investment business
 Ninety One recruited Alper Kilic from Standard Chartered Bank as head of alternative credit
 Ownify promoted Allie O’Shea to product and marketing vice president
 Rob Tashima was promoted to managing director of pipeline and partnerships at Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation.

Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England and chair of impact investing at Brookfield Asset Management, is mulling a run to become Canada’s next prime minister
 Paul Helmsing, previously with Wire Group, joined De Hoge Dennen to manage its impact fund portfolio
 Taylor Rowe, previously with CIV:LAB, joined Energy Impact Partners
 BlackRock promoted Nicoline Good to corporate sustainability vice president
 Emily Thaden replaced Paul Bradley as CEO of Roc USA. Bradley will become CEO of Integrity Community Solutions
 Catalyze tapped Regina Green, previously head of Goldman Sachs’ Launch with GS, as managing director of investments

That’s a wrap. Have a wonderful weekend. 

– Jan. 10, 2025