The Brief

The Week in impact investing: Tactical maneuvers

ImpactAlpha · February 21, 2025

TGIF, Agents of Impact! 

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In today’s Brief:

  • Roundup: Stirring courage
  • Chart: Renewable energy’s corporate off-takers 
  • Spotlight: Private solutions to green public transit

🗣 Stirring courage. Among the US Justice Department attorneys who have resigned rather than take actions they felt violated their oaths is Denise Cheung, who until last week headed the criminal division in the US attorney’s Washington, DC, office. As Amy Cortese reported, Cheung refused to open a criminal investigation intended to freeze $20 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds on deposit at Citibank. “I still do not believe that there is sufficient evidence to issue the letter you described, including sufficient evidence to tell the bank that there is probable cause to seize the particular accounts identified,” Cheung wrote in her resignation letter to her boss, interim US attorney Ed Martin. The GGRF funds were frozen this week, according to organizations that are no longer able to fund approved loans.

The possible demise of a decades-long effort to stand up a nationwide lending system for green community infrastructure projects is only one item on the long list of casualties in the first weeks of the Trump administration. “Listen: Our actions (or lack thereof) in the coming weeks and months could help determine not only whether the vital work we’ve done over the past decades will endure, but whether democracies around the world will survive – and whether the free market systems we all took for granted will survive with them,” NextBillion’s James Militzer wrote in a personal cri de cƓur that argued the US social impact sector is “failing catastrophically to meet the moment.” From companies, investment firms and publications – presumably including ImpactAlpha – he sees “the usual articles about new investments, job posts, impact reports, etc. In other words: business as usual. It’s as if nothing were even happening.”

What it will take to right the ship of state is not yet known, but there can’t be many Agents of Impact who think nothing is happening. In Africa, the freeze on foreign aid has made even more urgent longstanding efforts to establish more resilient local financing ecosystems, as ImpactAlpha’s Lucy Ngige reported. “It’s really up to us to figure out how we take responsibility for how we move forward as a continent,” Amma Gyampo of the Ghana Venture Capital and Private Equity Association told her. In a guest post, Leslie Maasdorp, the new head of British International Investment, described efforts to mobilize pension and insurance funds to stem the climate catastrophe and acknowledged, “Development finance institutions like BII need to change the way they do business.” TPG Rise’s Jim Coulter, who is raising billions of dollars across multiple climate funds, remains bullish on climate and urged investors to ignore the noise from Washington, DC, and “pay attention to what’s happening on the ground,” as Amy reported. In an open letter to climate and energy transition leaders, Generate’s Scott Jacobs urged them to get on a war footing for the new policy environment and keep focused on customers “who are not looking back on decarbonization, resilience and cost savings measures.” To finance such projects, he welcomed co-investments from institutional investors, as I reported to kick off ImpactAlpha’s new LP/GP newsletter, which we’ll publish each Tuesday.

One thing that does seem important is to not accept the defeat of a new approach to business and finance that was never broadly implemented in the first place. “I don’t know exactly what we need to do. But it seems crystal clear what we can’t do, and that is to continue with the status quo,” Aunnie Patton Power wrote in her own manifesto. If massive inequality and manifest dissatisfaction have provided openings for bad actors, so too do they provide opportunities to showcase shared prosperity and real solutions. “Now is not a moment for caution, it is a moment for courage,” Patton Power continued. “More than ever, we need to step boldly into real risk and demonstrable impact, challenging the deeply flawed structures of traditional finance that have perpetuated inequality and stifled innovation for far too long.” – David Bank 

The Week’s Podcast

🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Emerging markets, small businesses, and climate investors charting paths forward amid the political upheaval. How the emergence of “co-investment” illustrates the shifting dynamics between LPs and GPs in private equity and infrastructure funds. And, David reports on his trip this week to Salt Lake City, Utah, for the ribbon-cutting of the Impact and Prosperity Epicenter at the University of Utah.

The Week’s Chart

Renewable energy offtakers. Data centers and the broader electrification of homes and businesses helped propel US power generation last year to a two-decade high, according to the Sustainable Energy in America Factbook. Wind and solar accounted for 71% of the total.  “We are on the cusp of an American energy expansion,” said Lisa Jacobson of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, which produced the report with BloombergNEF. Tech companies in search of clean energy to power their AI data centers drove much of the growth. Of the record 28 gigawatts of renewable energy contracted by corporations in 2024, 84% was from tech firms. Amazon remains the largest US corporate offtaker, announcing deals for close to six gigawatts of electricity. Meta, Google and Microsoft were also among the top renewable energy buyers. Big Tech has also been forging agreements for nuclear energy, such as Microsoft’s deal to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, as well as yet-to-be-commercialized fusion power. Said Jacobson, “Renewable energy and natural gas are the growth sectors of the energy industry, and, when paired with energy efficiency technologies, will be fundamental in meeting demand growth.” – Amy Cortese

The Week’s Spotlight

Startups seek the spotlight with mobility solutions. Wind power, EVs and
 trains? Along with renewable energy, public transportation finds itself in the Trump administration’s sights. This week, the US Department of Transportation revoked federal approval for New York City’s congestion pricing plan to cut traffic and pollution in midtown Manhattan and to raise billions of dollars to upgrade the city’s aging transit infrastructure. The agency also announced a review of a long-planned California high-speed rail line between Merced and Bakersfield that was promised $4 billion in funding by the Biden administration. Amid the political fray, mobility startups are pursuing solutions for congested cities and corridors. “Congestion isn’t a political issue. It’s bad for the environment, it’s bad for local economies, it’s also bad for our quality of life and for public health,” said Alex Esposito of Circuit, an electric transit startup that moved nearly two million passengers in more than 40 US cities last year, helping to avoid over 1,100 tons of emissions.

  • Green shuttles. Circuit offers on-demand electric public shuttle minibuses to city and local governments. Riders request rides via an app. Most of Circuit’s rides are free, but some charge up to $2 per passenger. Circuit generates most of its revenue from advertising on its shuttles and partnerships with governments, real estate developers, hotels and businesses. The Florida-based startup raised $17 million from Impact Engine, MKB, Tribeca Venture Partners and other investors. Circuit also counts the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, Citi Impact Fund, Third Sphere, Vermont-based VC Gaingels, and Forefront Venture Partners as investors.
  • Electric ride-sharing. Electrifying public transit has been a key objective of New York Governor Kathy Hochul. She launched a $100 million zero-emission transit funding program to help transit providers outside of New York City electrify their fleets. “We must explore every avenue to reduce greenhouse emissions from this vital sector,” she said. The NY Green Bank, part of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA, this week provided a $60 million loan to Brooklyn-based Revel, which offers electric ride-sharing via its iconic blue mopeds and cars. The funding will help Revel triple its network of public fast-chargers in the city this year. NYSERDA, through a Clean Transportation prize competition, has backed solutions like Dollaride, which is electrifying a network of dollar vans in Brooklyn and Queens. Circuit was a winner of the 2022 Clean Transportation program, and has used the funding to expand service in the neighborhoods and towns of Williamsburg, Southampton, New Rochelle and Montauk. 

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.

Jigar Shah, the climate tech veteran who led the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs office, joined Powerhouse Ventures as a venture partner (read and listen, “Jigar Shah on building a $140 billion ‘bridge to bankability’ for the energy transition”)… Per FranzĂ©n, head of EQT AB’s private equity business, will become CEO of the European buyout firm in May, replacing Christian Sinding, who is stepping down
 Reinvestment Fund welcomed Chris Warman, previously with Baltimore Community Foundation, as its Baltimore market director.

SJF Ventures welcomed three venture fellows: Harvard Business School’s Ryan Dant, Sarah Renfro of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, and UC Berkeley’s Marcus Wong
 Low Income Investment Fund promoted Eliisa Frazier to vice president of impact capital initiatives
 The National Cooperative Bank appointed Hannah Schoolfield as a digital banking specialist, and Nwaka Mogekwu as a commercial loan portfolio manager
 Ninety One added Leong Kae Xiang, previously with Clifford Capital, as a director focused on green infrastructure debt investments in Asia.

That’s a wrap. Have a wonderful weekend. 

– Feb. 21, 2025