The Brief: Standing up to Trump, Brazil’s Lula seeks climate investment

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In today’s Brief:

• Brazil previews its project pipeline for climate investors
• Building food and agriculture startups from scratch in Kenya
• Greening buildings and food systems in Guatemala
• Measuring the impact of climate adaptation and resilience

Featured: Climate Week NYC

Brazil seizes the climate spotlight to showcase investment opportunities ahead of COP30. One president went before the UN on Tuesday and ranted against climate action, calling climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.” Another president told world leaders his country is already facing historic climate-related floods, fires and drought. The world “is weary of neglected carbon emission reduction targets and of financial aid to poor countries that never arrives,” Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told the UN’s General Assembly. “Brazil is going to host COP30 in 2025 and is convinced that multilateralism is the only way to overcome the climate emergency.” Lula’s 25-minute speech offered a counterpoint to President Donald Trump’s nearly hour-long ramble, which pointedly sought to reverse the accelerating adoption of renewable energy in many countries around the world. Lula proudly told world leaders that his country generates 90% of its electricity from renewable sources, has reduced Amazon deforestation by 50% in the past year and is increasing the ambition of its climate goals to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above historical levels. “Brazil is emerging as a source of opportunities in a world that is being revolutionized by the energy transition,” Lula declared. “Our vision of sustainable development is based on the potential of the bioeconomy.” Lula and Trump met and even embraced briefly after the speeches and plan to meet next week. “At least for about 39 seconds, we had excellent chemistry,” Trump told reporters.

• Conservation compensation. COP30 is the next “conference of the parties” to the Paris climate accord, and will gather in November in the northern Brazilian city of Belém, a gateway to the Amazon basin. Brazil is using the arrival of more than 50,000 delegates, advocates, experts and investors to show off its climate achievements – and to attract billions in climate investment. Lula on Tuesday announced a $1 billion investment in the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, envisioned as a permanent endowment to compensate governments for maintaining or restoring forested areas. If it mobilizes the targeted $125 billion from public and private investors, the facility could generate $4 billion annually in conservation payments, while providing investors with steady returns. PIMCO, Bank of America and Barclays have signaled they would support the fund. Lula’s commitment “primes the pump of this innovative new financial mechanism, which could ultimately represent Belém’s crowning achievement,” said The Nature Conservancy’s John Verdieck. “If anyone can achieve a breakthrough on COP, it is Brazil.”
  
• Project pipeline. The Brazil Climate Summit during Climate Week NYC provided a one-day crash course on investing in Brazil and a rich pipeline of the country’s projects and investment opportunities. Marcelo Marangon of Citi’s Brazil division flagged a “robust pipeline of transactions” across sustainable agriculture, reforestation and remediation. Just Climate, the climate-solutions arm of Generation Investment management, has zeroed in on natural capital solutions in Latin America. Chile and US-based Reciprocal this week released its map of innovative climate and nature investment opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean (see, “The world’s untapped climate innovation launchpad”). At the summit, Capital for Climate presented candidates for institutional investors, including Biomas, which is aiming to restore five million acres of native vegetation. InPlanet is deploying enhanced rock weathering to permanently capture carbon in tropical soils. “The conditions are here – renewable power, feedstock, technology,” said Converge’s Marina Cançado, who organized the summit. “What we need now is the financing stack that allows these projects to scale before COP30.”
  
• Keep reading, “Brazil seizes the climate spotlight to showcase investment opportunities ahead of COP30,” by Erik Stein and David Bank. 

Sponsored by UNICEF Venture Fund

The rise of femtech in emerging markets. India-based CareNX’s Fetosense app is using AI and smartphones to reduce the likelihood of stillbirths by making fetal monitoring accessible to expecting mothers anywhere. A new wave of startups with innovative products and services designed specifically for women and girls is transforming lives in emerging markets. Such solutions are an untapped engine of social and financial returns, UNICEF Venture Fund’s Sanna Bedi writes in a guest post on ImpactAlpha.

• Open call. “When innovators design with women and girls in mind, they unlock solutions that improve health outcomes, strengthen financial agency and create safer, more inclusive communities,” she writes. And because the femtech sector is undervalued and under-invested, it offers “enormous potential for financial returns and transformative social impact.” The UNICEF Venture Fund’s five-year femtech initiative includes an open call for innovations that has attracted more than 1,100 submissions from 85 countries.
  
• Keep reading, “The rise of femtech in emerging markets,” by Sanna Bedi of UNICEF Venture Fund.

Dealflow: Venture Studios

Kenya’s Pyramidia Ventures secures $2 million to build companies addressing food security. The Nairobi-based venture studio, launched in 2021, builds startups tackling sticky challenges in Africa’s food and agriculture chain (see related, “These DIY investors are notching impact and exits with studios that build ventures from scratch”). Pyramidia has launched five businesses and seeded them with up to $250,000 each. Its portfolio includes the fish supplier Womega; precision crop spraying and drone company Acre Insights; and silk producer Savannah Seritech. The venture builder clinched $1.8 million in investment capital from angel investors and the Dutch Good Growth Fund, which also added $200,000 for technical assistance. DGGF, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by Triple Jump, approved its convertible note and technical assistance in March.

• Capital efficiency. Irrigation services provider Stable Foods, one of Pyramidia’s earliest ventures, has gone on to secure investments from Invest International, Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund and Mercy Corps Ventures. Spirulina producer Nasaru Naturals secured funding from the DOEN Foundation. The studio model “provides a more capital-efficient way to build innovative and scalable business models,” Pyramidia’s Ruth Bertens told ImpactAlpha. “Investors value our model as a way to generate a high-quality pipeline for later-stage capital.”
  
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Banco Industrial raises $415 million to green buildings and food systems in Guatemala. The financial institution closed the debt package with backing from the International Finance Corp., along with FinDev Canada and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Canadian and Japanese development finance institutions. Banco Industrial will use the capital to grow its sustainable lending portfolio, focusing on green buildings and climate-smart agriculture. The bank, one of the oldest financial institutions in Guatemala, says its green lending push is aligned with the national government’s commitment to cut its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions by up to 23% from a 2005 baseline. Banco Industrial will also build up its small business loan book, with a focus on female borrowers.

• Financing firsts. The deal marks FinDev Canada’s first in Guatemala. About 30% of the DFI’s portfolio is based in Latin America. Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, is also becoming more active in the region (for background see, “Financing sustainable growth in Latin America”). In February, JICA created and funded a billion-dollar fund, in partnership with IDB Invest, to spur private sector investment in Latin America and the Caribbean. The IFC, JICA and FinDev also inked a $150 million investment in Honduras’s Banco del País to boost financing for small businesses, female entrepreneurs and green projects in energy, water and sanitation.
  
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

• Impact Shakers Ventures, which invests in diverse-led impact startups in Europe, invested in Berlin-based Evela Health. Evela, Impact Shakers’ second women’s health investment, provides personalized care for women going through menopause. (Impact Shakers Ventures)
  
• Cambridge, Mass.-based Fourth Power notched $20 million in Series A equity to roll out its modular thermal energy storage facilities. The round was backed by Munich Re Ventures, DCVC and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. (Fourth Power)
  
• Pune-based Blue Energy Motors secured $30 million to ramp up production of electric heavy duty trucks. The company also makes vehicles powered by liquid natural gas, and a portion of the funding will also be used for its LNG-vehicle production line. (YourStory)

Impact Voices: Impact Management

Investors warm to climate adaptation and resilience – and look for ways to measure the impact. With the growing intensity of climate impacts and increased politicization of emissions reduction, climate-oriented asset owners and allocators are beginning to diversify from climate mitigation strategies to include adaptation and resilience, or A&R. But how do you measure the potential to strengthen infrastructure, or the potential to make communities more resilient prior to investment? While “greenhouse gas reduction impact has accepted metrics like CO2-equivalent, or methane reduced or removed, the appropriate metrics for A&R are still debated among investors,” Prime Coalition’s Keri Browder writes in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. “This complicated work takes time, resources and a willingness to engage more deliberately with local stakeholder groups.” 

• Case studies. Browder runs Prime’s Project Frame impact measurement and management initiative, which is testing what robust impact measurement for adaptation and resilience could look like through early case studies. Last October, the community’s Asia-based working group, co-led by Climate Collective, began debating best practices for assessing A&R solutions. Two pilots are being evaluated using Prime’s “human thriving assessment framework,” which weighs the impact of investments on housing, food security and health. These efforts aim to establish methodologies that can be applied across diverse technologies and geographies and help investors measure resilience outcomes as rigorously as emissions reductions. Philanthropic capital will be needed to catalyze best practices, says Browder, just as it was for emissions-focused impact frameworks.
  
• Keep reading, “Investors warm to climate adaptation and resilience  – and look for ways to measure the impact,” by Prime Coalition’s Keri Browder.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

LeapFrog Investments adds Serhat Aydogdu, previously with Just Climate, as a climate associate director in its London office… AccelR8 Ventures appoints Ryan Macpherson, formerly with Autodesk, as a partner… Bluefront Equity welcomes Maria Benedicte Færevaag, previously with Norne Securities, as an investment associate… LISC’s Detroit division adds Linda Nosegbe of the Gilbert Family Foundation to its local advisory committee.

Leo Peyronnin, previously with Omidyar Network, joins Zeal Capital Partners as an associate… Overture Ventures appoints Julius Genachowski, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and ex-Tesla executive Rohan Patel, as venture partners. The firm also adds four advisors: Google’s Kate Brandt, Dan Brunner of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Venrock’s Ray Rothrock, and Neil Catterjee, former chairman of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 

Roc USA is searching for a legal counsel for lending, capital structuring and housing compliance… Environmental Resources Management is looking for a climate change consultant in Lima… Also in Lima, BlueOrchard Finance is recruiting an investment and origination intern… IDB Lab has an opening for an investment consultant in Washington, DC… Media Development Investment Fund is hiring a Latin America-focused senior investment officer… IDB Invest has an opening for a head of agribusiness and forestry.

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

Thank you for your impact!

– Sept. 24, 2025