The Brief

The Brief: Tesla settles with shareholders over diversity data

ImpactAlpha · February 10, 2025
AP Photo/Chris Szagola.

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

  • Playing offense on diversity and inclusion  
  • Emerging America opportunities
  • TPG sees value in solar

From Tesla to Target, stockholders and customers stake out the business case for diversity and inclusion. Tesla’s Elon Musk is spending his time in Washington, DC, making a show of purging the US government of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Back in Austin, Texas, the board of Musk’s electric car maker has agreed to push the company, at least gently, in the opposite direction. “We had a win at Tesla,” Nia Impact Capital’s Kristin Hull tells ImpactAlpha. The Oakland, Calif.-based impact asset manager has pressed Tesla for years to more closely monitor how it manages its employees, and specifically, to address widespread allegations of racism at its battery gigafactories. Nia Impact was set to bring its latest resolution, co-sponsored by Amalgamated Bank and Proxy Impact, to Tesla’s shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in June. This month, Tesla’s board reached an agreement with the shareholder advocates, and told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had agreed to additional disclosures on the company’s human capital management practices. “The board actually has committed to implement what we asked for,” Hull says. Even such limited transparency lays the groundwork for accountability at a time when government oversight is weakening. “It appears the board is making commitments such that it can now be held accountable for company conduct and efficiencies when it comes to human capital management moving forward,” she says. “We will be withdrawing our resolution.”

  • Divergence on diversity. Diversity strategies at corporations, investment firms, nonprofits and universities have come under increasing attack since the 2023 US Supreme Court decision curtailing affirmative action in college admissions. Conservative activists have weaponized DEI to try to roll back pledges that were made in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis in 2020. Since President Donald Trump’s election, corporations including Meta, Walmart, McDonald’s and Target have scaled back their DEI strategies. Last week, Accenture, which takes billions in US government contracts, became the latest company to proactively ditch its diversity goals. Target, based in Minneapolis and once a leader in equitable hiring initiatives and inclusive policies, is now facing nationwide 40-day boycott effort. Other corporations, including Apple, Microsoft and JP Morgan Chase, have stood firm on their efforts to engage diverse communities, noting increased productivity, improved workplace culture and lowered risks. Costco, with more than double the annual revenues of Target, urged shareholders to oppose a shareholder proposal that challenged the company’s diversity efforts. More than 98% of shareholders opposed the resolution.
  • Data disclosure. In December, Representative Nikema Williams of Georgia and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, along with eight other House members, sent letters to 20 large corporate pension funds requesting disclosure of the diversity of their asset managers. In asset management, firms led by women and people of color manage less than 1% of global financial assets, a fraction that hasn’t budged in years. “The limited representation of minority-owned asset management firms restricts the flow of capital to diverse communities, thereby hindering economic growth and opportunity,” they wrote in a letter addressed to Ford’s CEO Jim Farley that was shared with ImpactAlpha.
  • Playing offense. Last year, two impact funders, Fearless Fund and Founders First, both settled conservative-led lawsuits that charged that the organizations’ race-specific grant-making and lending strategies amounted to racial discrimination against white people. Settling the suits, rather than fighting them, avoided costly legal battles that could have set damaging precedents. Now, Southern Poverty Law Center has asked the attorneys generals of Louisiana, Florida and Georgia to investigate and take action against venture capital funds within their states that appear not to fund any women- or Black-led businesses. “We’re trying to send a message,” says Robert Raben of the Diverse Asset Managers Initiative. “If you can’t curate by race, you can’t curate (by race).”
  • Keep reading, “From Tesla to Target, stockholders and customers stake out the business case for diversity and inclusion,” by Dennis Price on ImpactAlpha. 

Dealflow: Returns on Inclusion

O15 Capital Partners raises $370 million to invest in under-resourced companies and communities. The Atlanta-based investment firm reached a final close for its first Emerging America Credit Opportunities Fund, which provides debt to small and medium-sized businesses in the US that “are underserved by the capital markets,” O15’s Colin Meadows said in a statement. The Black-led firm will extend private credit to healthcare, services and education companies, mostly in the US Southeast. “By looking where other market participants are not, we are able to source compelling, proprietary deal flow while creating stronger local economies and more equitable communities,” said Meadows. O15 also has about $30 million for co-investment facilities that can make equity investments.

  • Early deals. O15 has announced four deals since launching the firm three years ago. In October, it invested $25 million in debt and equity in Lone Peak Dental Group, a pediatric dentistry provider that serves low-income patients via clinics and offices in 15 states. Atlanta-based Engineered Recycling Systems provides recycling equipment to the paper industry. Texas Endovascular provides imaging, procedures and treatments to patients with vascular conditions through clinics in low- and middle-income areas. O15 also provided $43 million to help edtech provider Echo360 refinance its debt. The firm’s fund was supported by pension funds, foundations, banks and family offices, O15 said.
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TPG Rise Climate takes solar developer Altus private in $2.2 billion deal. You wouldn’t know it from the stock performance of publicly-traded solar companies, but solar installations rose 35% globally last year. Invesco’s Solar ETF, a broad gauge of the sector, dropped by 40%. The “ongoing disconnect” between share price and strategic opportunity led Stamford, Conn.-based Altus Power, one of the largest commercial-scale solar providers, to explore options for raising capital last fall. The company has agreed to be acquired and taken private by TPG Rise Climate. “This partnership strengthens our ability to serve both our community solar and commercial clients with clean electric power at a time when demand for power is expected to grow substantially,” said Altus’s Gregg Felton. Altus Power, he said, will be better positioned to scale and innovate as a private company.

  • Solar premium. TPG’s Rise Climate Transition Infrastructure strategy made a $2.2 billion offer, a 66% premium to Altus’ share price as of Oct. 15, which was near its 52-week low. Altus “has established itself as a leader in commercial-scale clean power solutions with an exceptional track record of growth,” said TPG Rise Climate’s Scott Lebovitz. TPG, with $229 billion in assets under management, has secured $2 billion in commitments for its first Rise Climate Infrastructure Fund, an infrastructure impact fund with a $6 billion fundraising target (see, “Private equity megafirms scoop up fresh billions for climate impact”). The firm has also raised a combined $6 billion for its second TPG Rise Climate Fund and for its emerging markets-focused TPG Rise Climate Global South Initiative.
  • Shine on. 

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • Cargill is acquiring an additional 50% stake in Brazilian biofuels producer SJC Bioenergia, giving the agricultural commodities giant full ownership as it looks to tap into Brazil’s expanding biofuels market. (Bloomberg)
  • Maryland-based X-Energy raised $700 million from Segra Capital Management, Jane Street, Ares Management, Emerson Collective and others to develop small-scale nuclear plants in the US. The firm also has backing – and a pre-purchase agreement – from Amazon. (Reuters)
  • The International Finance Corp. and Indonesia’s OCBC NISP bank provided a $53 million sustainability-linked loan to real estate developer Nirvana Wastu Pratama to encourage the company to boost green building practices and cut the carbon footprint of its existing portfolio by 42% by 2030. (ESG News)
  • The Asian Development Bank provided a guarantee for one billion yuan ($137.2 million) to Hong Kong-based China Water Affairs Group, a publicly-listed water company, to finance sustainable water and wastewater infrastructure projects. (WFW)

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:

John Morton is stepping down in March as managing director and head of Americas at Pollination… Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation taps Mandy Price, previously with Kanarys, as managing director… Former US Senator Joe Manchin has been named as an advisor to Apollo Global, including on energy markets, and will join the board of the firm’s retirement services unit, Athene Holding… Kiva recruits Beatriz Ospina, former head of international members and programs coordinator for Latimpacto, as investment manager.

Anthony Bugg-Levine joins Axum as a part-time senior advisor… Equilibrium is looking for a sustainable infrastructure portfolio management associate in Portland, Ore… The Community Foundation for Greater Richmond seeks a chief impact officer in Virginia… Growald Climate Fund has an opening for a senior portfolio manager in Boston… Open Society Foundations is recruiting a risk officer and a program manager in New York… Also in New York, Rethink Capital Partners is hiring a marketing manager. 

The Good Climate Governance Project is on the hunt for a climate finance director in Boston… The Solutions Project is looking for a social media manager in Oakland, Calif… Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. seeks a venture investment director… Capstone has an opening for an energy policy director in Washington, DC… Also in Washington, Ashoka is recruiting a plant and climate leadership group member and field catalyst… Heading for Change is partnering with Invest for Better on a 10-session virtual course for accredited investors on investing with a climate and gender lens. 

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– Feb. 10, 2025