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In this week’s Open:
- The Liist: Signals for impact fundraising in 2025
- Inside catalytic transactions
- Agricultural drones take off in India
- Deal Spotlight: Riding the MAHA wave
Let’s jump in. – Dennis Price
Must-reads on ImpactAlpha
- The Liist: Glimmers of hope for impact fund managers. Despite a bleak fundraising environment – Andy Kuper of LeapFrog Investments called it “one of the most challenging fundraising cycles for private equity this century” – impact fund managers see reasons for optimism. To get a sense of what lies ahead, Jessica Pothering we sifted through the funds and trends featured on last year’s Liists. Read more.
- Inside catalytic transactions. 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).
- Agricultural drones take off in India. Investors see a role for aerial drone technology in strengthening livelihoods and generating rural job opportunities in India, reports Shefali Anand. Uptake of the technology represents a potential step-change for Indian agriculture, which is composed mostly of small farms with an average size of five acres. Check it out.
- Climate tech in a changed landscape. Climate tech investment will shift shapes in the year ahead. Out: EVs and big battery deals. In: geothermal, nuclear and other clean, reliable power to supply the AI data center boom. Amy Cortese pulls the top insights from the Sightline Climate’s “2024 Climate Tech investment trend” report. Dive in.
- Plea from a BlueSky user. Governance will be the key differentiator in the new information landscape, as Ford Foundation’s Margot Brandenburg lays out in her piece on the range of mechanisms available to Bluesky, the social media platform emerging as the alternative to Elon Musk’s X, to protect its mission and its users. Hear her out. (Disclosure: Ford Foundation is an investor in ImpactAlpha.)
- Blend, derisk, scale, repeat for adaptation solutions (video). BlueOrchard believes it can attract institutional and commercial investors to climate adaptation interventions in some of the world’s most remote, low-income and climate-vulnerable communities, and it has the track record to prove it. “We have done that with blended-finance structures, where we combine different types of investors in different types of risk capital,” says Maria Teresa Zappia, BlueOrchard’s chief impact and blended finance officer who spoke with ImpactAlpha on the sidelines of the GIIN Investor Forum in Amsterdam in October. Watch the interview.
Agents of Impact
🏃🏽♀️ On the move
- US SIF appoints Stephanie Cohn Rupp of Veris Wealth Partners as board chair, along with eight new board members.
- Principles for Responsible Investment promotes Cambria Allen Ratzlaff to chief officer of responsible investment ecosystems.
- Traven Joseph, previously with Island Mountain Development Group, joins Raven Indigenous Capital Partners as an investment analyst.
The Week’s Podcasts
🎧 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 last 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.”
- 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.
Get in the Game
💼 Step up
- Norrsken VC seeks an investment analyst for a hybrid role in Stockholm.
- Brighteye Ventures is hiring a visiting VC analyst in Paris.
- Closed Loop Ventures is searching for a New York based analyst.
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:
- Jan 28: Mission Investors Exchange’s Katheryn Witt will moderate a virtual discussion on Tuesday, Jan. 28 about the potential of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund for impact investments, with Kresge Foundation’s Joe Evans, Krystal Langholz of Climate United, and Marla Bilonick of the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders.
- February 25-27: The Latin America Impact Investing Forum or FLII (Mérida, MX)
- Feb. 28: The deadline to participate in the GIIN’s 2025 Impact Investor Survey.
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