The Brief

The Brief: How fund managers are diversifying for returns and impact in Brazil

ImpactAlpha · April 30, 2025

Greetings Agents of Impact!

☎️ Today’s Call: Writing a playbook for shared prosperity. Join Damien Dwin of Lafayette Square, Keepingly’s Daniel Smith, Capitalize Good’s Andrea Levere, and InnSure’s Charlie Sidoti on today’s Agents of Impact Call to explore strategies for shared prosperity, today at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. There’s still time to RSVP.

The plays. Read about some of the strategies in the growing “Playbook for shared prosperity.” Lower the cost of capital for companies that raise workers’ living standards and increase their economic mobility. Preserve home ownership to build generational wealth. Negotiate community-embedded insurance to lower costs and increase coverage. Provide enterprise capital to build effective nonprofit businesses. Dig in.
And more. Rebuild whole blocks of urban neighborhoods and sell them back to long-standing residents. Organize owners of manufactured homes into co-ops to buy the mobile home parks where they live. Stake low-wealth business owners to purchase the commercial property where they operate. Enable broad ownership and operation of turn-key, high margin businesses. Lease houses and centers to child care operators with an opportunity to purchase. Read on.
Add your own. Contribute a strategy to the playbook through this short form.

In today’s Brief:

In Brazil, fund managers diversify for returns with impact
Affordable home financing in Mexico
Nonprofit Finance Fund secures green loan
Investing to rebuild communities in conflict

Featured: Impact in Latin America

Fund managers in Brazil help impact ventures turn big challenges into bigger opportunities. Brazil’s impact and climate fund managers are connecting investors to resourceful entrepreneurs underserved by capital markets. “You have really good entrepreneurs here, smart people looking to solve the problems,” says Tatiana Sasson, Lightrock’s impact lead in Latin America. The $5.5 billion impact private equity firm, backed by Liechtenstein’s royal family, has deployed $700 million in Latin America, which includes backing for more than a dozen ventures delivering solutions for “people, productivity and planet.” The track records of the ventures demonstrate “it’s possible to deliver strong returns with impact,” Sasson told ImpactAlpha in a video interview on the sidelines of the FLII convening in Mérida, Mexico. Once known for a few bespoke impact funds, Brazil now hosts dozens of impact and climate managers who are raising larger funds, investing across asset classes, and adding best practices in governance and transparency.

Fueling the energy transition in Brazil. São Paulo-based eB Capital, which manages $1 billion across more than five funds, is in the market with its second energy transition and decarbonization fund. Guilherme Quintal joined eB Capital last year from the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. His mandate: Showcase transition opportunities in Brazil to international investors, and especially to Middle Eastern investors with a growing appetite for green assets. “We believe there is a new economy coming now, around green energy and energy transition,” Quintal told ImpactAlpha (watch the interview). In 2023, eB Capital invested roughly $50 million in Bioo, which turns animal waste into biomethane, a substitute for natural gas.

Finding impact alpha in Latin America. Half of the population in Latin America lacks access to a bank account. More than half the children in the region are unable to read or understand a simple text. A third of people face barriers in access to healthcare. “In terms of opportunities, it’s huge,” Sasson told ImpactAlpha (watch the interview). Lightrock has backed accessible bus charter company Buser, alternative credit scoring fintech platform Creditas, and agribusiness lender Agrolend.
Delivering impact across asset classes. To meet a growing demand from impact investors, São Paulo-based Vox Capital is diversifying beyond venture capital into other asset classes such as fixed income investments. “Every investment has an impact,” Vox’s Daniel Izzo told ImpactAlpha (watch the interview). “At this current moment in our history, we should be caring about the impact of every penny that we deploy.”

Latam talent and asset light ventures. São Paulo-based Eqwow Ventures – for “equal” – has a straightforward thesis: “Latam talent, asset light, and quickly expands regionally and internationally,” the venture firm’s Monica Blatyta told ImpactAlpha (watch the interview). Eqwow is focused on healthcare, financial inclusion and energy efficiency. To ensure firms deliver on financial and impact goals, Eqwow looks for firms with best practices in governance and transparency, and helps them deliver better results with ESG experts and proprietary software.
Keep reading, “Fund managers in Brazil help impact ventures turn big challenges into bigger opportunities,” by Dennis Price at ImpactAlpha. This month’s edition of ImpactAlpha Latin America drops later today. Opt-in to receive the speciality newsletter at no additional cost.

Dealflow: Affordable Housing

Vinte unit secures $24.4 million for affordable home financing in Mexico. For 25 years, Vinte has been developing housing that is both sustainable and affordable for Mexico’s low- and middle-income families. Its three-year-old financing arm, Xante, has secured a convertible note from IDB Invest to buy back homes in Vinte’s planned communities, upgrade and remodel them as necessary, and sell them to new homeowners. The renovation work is outsourced to small and mid-sized contractors, boosting local businesses. IDB Invest says the investment aims to strengthen Mexico’s secondary housing market “to help ensure a more efficient and equitable use of existing housing.”

Affordable housing. Vinte’s communities house more than 50,000 Mexican families in nine states. The publicly-listed company last year secured $58 million in debt financing from the International Finance Corp. to acquire Javer, another real estate developer. It also secured 500 million pesos ($25.4 million) through a sustainable bond issuance backed by German development finance institution DEG, and unnamed pension funds and local institutional investors. The bond will finance the construction of 1,200 new homes. The capital raise and acquisition will advance the company’s goal of having 90% of its new and existing homes certified under the EDGE green building standards.
Check it out.

Nonprofit Finance Fund secures $25 million green loan from NY Green Bank. The New York-based impact lender will use the loan from NY Green Bank’s $250 million Community Decarbonization Fund to expand green lending activities in New York state’s underserved communities. NFF will support clean electrification and energy storage projects that accelerate the Empire State’s low-carbon transition. “Everyone benefits when housing, schools and other community hubs incorporate technologies that save energy and reduce emissions,” said NFF’s Erangi Dias. NFF will back projects in all phases of development, offering long-term, lower-cost capital to borrowers.

Place-based investing. NY Green Bank, a specialized clean energy and decarbonization fund, is part of New York state’s Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA. It offers flexible loans and grants to bridge private financing gaps for green developers and project managers. NY Green Bank’s Community Decarbonization Fund, launched in 2023, has closed eight loans totaling $158 million for clean transportation, building electrification and community solar projects.
Check it out.

OmniRetail lands $20 million to expand B2B commerce with informal retailers in Nigeria. Informal shops supply over 70% of food, beverages and personal care products in Africa. These small retailers grapple with fragmented supply chains and lack of access to affordable credit. Lagos-based OmniRetail helps more than 900 consumer products efficiently move from manufacturers to informal retailers. The startup partners with Nigeria’s Bank of Industry to provide collateral-free credit of up to two million naira ($1,200) to meet inventory financing and working capital needs. Retailers can access digital payment and transfer services and manage their inventory and other sales functions via a mobile app. OmniRetail has so far served 144,000 retailers across Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, more than three-quarters of whom are women; over half are unbanked.

B2B commerce. Nigerian venture capital firm Timon Capital and Norfund co-led OmniRetail’s $20 million Series A round, which was kickstarted last year by Goodwell Investments and Alitheia Capital’s joint uMunthu II fund. Ventures Platform, Aruwa Capital and Nigerian food processing company Flour Mills of Nigeria also participated in the latest round. The funding will support OmniRetail’s expansion beyond the dozen cities it operates in and help it diversify into personal care, home care and cold storage.

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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

Dutch nonprofit investor IDH backed Ugandan coffee processor JKCC to boost local coffee production. (ImpactAlpha)
Blooming Health raised $26 million in a Series A round, backed by Insight Partners and Afore Capital, for its social care marketplace and AI bot that connects users to critical social services. (Blooming Health)
IDB Invest and the Japan International Cooperation Agency agreed to loan $20 million to Ecuador’s Banco Solidario to drive access to capital for female business owners. (IDB Invest)
Brooklyn-based Near Space Labs scored $20 million in Series B funding from Bold Capital Partners, Third Sphere, Climate Capital and other investors for its fleet of zero-emission stratospheric robots. (Near Space Labs)

Impact Voices: Beyond Aid

In Colombia, investments rather than aid helped local economies recover from conflict. A decade ago, the team at Acumen wondered whether impact capital had a role to play in helping rebuild rural communities in Colombia that were reeling from decades of armed conflict. Such work is historically the domain of humanitarian assistance and NGOs. “What we had was conviction: that patient capital, placed in the hands of mission-driven businesses rooted in the community, could help bridge the gap between peace and prosperity,” writes Acumen’s Virgilio Barco in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. “A decade later, we have evidence. It couldn’t be more timely.” A new report in collaboration with 60 Decibels, highlights the local impact of six of Acumen’s 19 investments in Colombia. Across the companies, most of which serve rural farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs, more than three-quarters of customers said their incomes have increased. More than half said they gained greater ability to make decisions in their lives – “a critical but often overlooked outcome of economic empowerment,” shares Barco. “In places fractured by war, farmers spoke of renewed optimism, collaboration and economic momentum.”

Community healing. Acceso is connecting farmers directly with buyers. CortePaz offers technical assistance to help farmers boost yields and crop quality. Selva Nevada is buying native fruits from Indigenous communities and helping preserve biodiversity. “We’ve long believed that supporting businesses rooted in communities – cooperatives, associations, grassroots enterprises—would lead to broader community healing,” writes Barco. “This was the first time we had the data to prove it.” One challenge the research surfaced is companies’ gender impact; women are still seeing fewer financial benefits than men, highlighting the need for more targeted interventions around structural inequalities.
Why it matters. The disintegration of USAID, the US’s development assistance agency, is an extreme example of a long-term trend: shrinking humanitarian and development budgets from wealthy “donor” countries (see, “USAID crisis forces a reckoning – and remaking – of international development“). Countries in the Global South are looking to mobilize more sustainable, and especially local, financial resources for economic resilience and growth. Writes Barco, “Our work has shown that impact investing can succeed where traditional aid is retreating.”
Keep reading, “In Colombia, investments rather than aid helped local economies recover from conflict,” by Acumen’s Virgilio Barco on ImpactAlpha.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

The Institute for Sustainable Finance at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business appoints Thomas Walker as executive director… KC Boas, previously with BlackRock, joins the Aspen Institute’s financial security team as a retirement savings initiative lead… The Workforce & Organizational Research Center, or WORC, welcomes Ownership Works’ Anna-Lisa Miller as an advisory board member… IIX seeks a capital raising consultant.

The Impact Investing Institute is looking for a communications and program coordinator in London… Also in London, William Blair is on the hunt for a global ESG and sustainability analyst… Jumpstart Refugee Impact Fund has an opening for a fund development manager in Toronto… American Student Assistance is recruiting an impact investing intern in Boston… The Conservation Fund is hiring a strategic giving operations manager… Impact Finance Center will host, “Who’s Who in impact investing 2025,” Thursday, May 1.