The Brief

The Brief: Inclusive wealth-building via ‘entrepreneurship through acquisition’

ImpactAlpha · September 29, 2025

Greetings Agents of Impact!

🔌 PluggedIn: Building an inclusive future for climate and capital. VC Include’s Bahiyah Yasmeen Robinson joins ImpactAlpha’s Sherrell Dorsey to discuss the future of fund management. Through VC Include, Robinson is unlocking pathways for diverse leaders to drive impact alpha and accelerate climate solutions at scale. Get PluggedIn, Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. RSVP now.

In today’s Brief:

  • Wealth building strategies at Neighborhood Economics
  • Connecticut Green Bank’s green bonds
  • At Climate Week NYC, global energy transition rolls on

Expanding ‘entrepreneurship through acquisition’ for inclusive wealth creation in the US and Canada. As many as 142,000 small and mid-sized businesses in Canada are expected to be sold or shut down as their current owners retire or cash out. That creates an opportunity to create wealth for women and other underrepresented entrepreneurs via specialized buyout funds that purchase such businesses and put them in the hands of a new generation of CEOs. The Business Development Bank of Canada is launching the Thrive Entrepreneurship through Acquisition Fund, or Thrive ETA, with C$50 million (US$36.5 million) to enable 60 women to purchase and operate existing businesses in Canada – and keep them away from American buyers across the border. “We believe that by putting women at the helm of those existing businesses, many of them will over time be transformed to become more impactful for their community, more inclusive and more environmentally responsible,” says Sevrine Labelle of the Thrive Lab for Women, which will manage the Thrive ETA fund. 

  • Neighborhood economics. Entrepreneurship through acquisition is a promising play in the “Playbook for Shared Prosperity,” ImpactAlpha’s growing compendium of strategies that reduce prices, raise incomes, build wealth, support families and restore communities (add your favorite play). New Majority Capital’s Havell Rodrigues will present the |entrepreneurship through acquisition” strategy at this week’s Neighborhood Economics gathering in Chicago. New Majority Capital has backed nine entrepreneurs in acquiring solid, cashflow-generating businesses. Boston’s Search Fund Accelerator helps diverse cohorts of aspiring entrepreneurs become equity-owning CEOs. San Francisco-based Village Search Partners has helped a dozen women launch search funds to purchase businesses in Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Washington, DC, and other US cities. Regenerative Capital Group is helping purpose-driven impact entrepreneurs acquire social enterprises in British Columbia.
  • Buying back the block. The path to shared prosperity may run through community ownership of commercial real estate. In Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood, hundreds of local residents who invested in the Chatham Plaza shopping center are set to earn a five-fold return on their investment. Neighbors that invested as much as $5,000 received payouts of over $28,000, says Lyneir Richardson of Chicago TREND, which acquired the property for $2 million in 2022. Chatham Plaza recently sold for $3.2 million. “I remember a guy going, ‘Man, I hoped it would work, but I didn’t know it would work out this well,’” Richardson tells ImpactAlpha. The sale, he says, “was proof of concept that we could acquire, we could actually create value.” With the Brookings Institution, Richardson has produced “A playbook to buy back the block.”
  • Capital call. At Neighborhood Economics, ImpactAlpha contributing editor Napoleon Wallace will introduce his Partners in Equity co-founders Talib Graves-Manns and Wilson Lester. “We’ve seen underestimated entrepreneurs become owners in their own neighborhoods, turning fragile dreams into generational wealth,” Wallace says. Wallace is the subject of ImpactAlpha’s mini-documentary, “Equity and ownership” (watch it here). “The firms and communities we stand with are undervalued, the markets are underserved, and the demand is real. Justice is not just the moral case. It remains the strongest investment case America has,” Wallace says. “So let’s name the agenda clearly: Build wealth, not as a side program, but as a central pillar of economic renewal. Embed equity, integrity and investment as a matter of both justice and performance. And scale bottom-up solutions that create prosperity we all share.”
  • Keep reading, “Expanding ‘entrepreneurship through acquisition’ for inclusive wealth creation in the US and Canada,” by Roodgally Senatus. Note: “Equity and ownership” is an official selection at the Raleigh Film & Art Festival in North Carolina, Saturday, Oct. 4, at 7:30pm local time. Order your free tickets today.

Dealflow: Low-Carbon Transition

Connecticut Green Bank’s bond financing for green infrastructure and home solar. Connecticut launched its Green Liberty Bond program in 2020 to mobilize private investment in green infrastructure and climate-resilient businesses and communities in the state. The bonds are issued by the Connecticut Green Bank, a semi-public institution founded in 2011 and the first state-level green bank in the US. The bank has raised more than $80 million from retail and accredited investors through two previous bond issuances. The third bond is targeting roughly $18 million and will be used to refinance the Residential Solar Incentive Program for Connecticut households.

  • Home solar. The Residential Solar Incentive Program, or RSIP, offers financial incentives for households that add solar panels to their roofs. It sells energy credits generated from those rooftop panels to utilities, which buy them to meet their green energy goals. Revenues from those purchase agreements underpin the green bond issuances. Proceeds from the latest Green Liberty Bond will also fund a reserve to ensure the bank can service its debt. The offering is open to all investors, including retail investors, starting at $1,000.
  • Greening small businesses. The Connecticut Green Bank is also out with its 14th Green Liberty Note, which allows retail investors to help the state’s small businesses and local municipalities finance energy upgrades and make energy efficiency improvements through the state-wide Small Business Energy Advantage program (for background see, “Liberty Notes let retail investors invest in Connecticut’s green transition”). The one-year notes start at $100 on the Honeycomb Credit platform.
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Singapore’s Loom Carbon secures early funding to repurpose textile waste. The majority of textiles in the fashion industry are mixed with plastics, which makes them more difficult to recycle than single-material textiles like cotton or wool. Loom Carbon uses pyrolysis to break down mixed-textile waste into oils, gas and pigments that can be reused in fashion, cosmetics and other industries. The company secured $300,00 from the Singapore Fashion Council, a trade association that offers funding and startup acceleration services for businesses supporting sustainability and circularity in the fashion industry. Loom will use the capital for its first commercial plant, which will be able to process 20,000 tons of waste per year. 

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • Abu Dhabi-based Ignite Power acquired Engie Energy Access, the Africa-focused off-grid solar division of French utility Engie. It will be renamed Ignite Energy Access. (Renewables Now)
  • Women Innovation Fund invested in Uganda-based Denebola Technologies, which provides affordable health insurance and telehealth services to rural women. (Denebola Technologies)
  • Germany-based enaDyne raised €7 million ($7.6 million) from Apex Ventures, Energy Capital Ventures, Possible Ventures and Antares Ventures to convert carbon dioxide into new fuels and chemicals. (enaDyne)
  • Bharat Intelligence secured pre-seed funding to address farm labor shortages by connecting India’s smallholder fruit and vegetable farmers with skilled workers when additional help is needed. (Bharat Intelligence)
  • UK-based fintech venture Triver inked £114 million ($152.8 million) for its ultra-fast small business loan underwriting and disbursement. (Financial IT)

Overheard at Climate Week NYC

Global energy transition rolls on, with or without the US. The messaging point at Climate Week NYC was clear: The business case for renewable energy and decarbonization will not be derailed by short-term policy disruptions. The focus now, as we previewed in our Climate Week opener, is on efficiencies to help the ecosystem address the many obstacles in its way. Throughout the week, VCs and philanthropic funders huddled in closed door meetings to hammer out collaborative efforts. “You’re starting to see that ethos of collaboration come back to the fore because of all the headwinds,” Rob Day of Spring Lane Capital told ImpactAlpha at the firm’s crowded Climate Week party. Spring Lane is one of a dozen or so venture firms that helped launch the All Aboard Coalition, a prominent example of the new spirit of cooperation (see, “All Aboard Coalition mobilizes co-investments in climate tech as federal funding falls”).

  • Curb-cut effect. The new pragmatism extends to mission-focused community funders. With federal “green bank” funding tied up in legal battles, community-focused green lenders are looking to sharpen their models and stand on their own. “We need to figure out how to do it in the hardest places,” Kresge Foundation’s Aaron Seybert told ImpactAlpha. That means financing “small, sub-250-kilowatt deals” in states with low-cost conventional energy, high regulatory burdens and no state incentives, he explained. “If we make it work for the most difficult, most challenged places, then it will truly be sustainable.”
  • AI for good. Most of the week’s two dozen sessions on artificial intelligence tackled the surging energy demand, as well as AI’s potential to reduce emissions through better efficiency. The two-day “Tech Together” gathering, hosted by the Siegel Family Endowment, Omidyar Network, Heising-Simons Foundation, GitLab Foundation and Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, focused instead on how to shape algorithms for better outcomes for people and the planet. Alliances of “philanthropists, investors, technologists and public interest advocates can catalyze bold partnerships that support technology in the public interest,” Volker Turk, UN Commissioner for Human Rights, told attendees. The UN launched a “global dialogue” on AI governance that will convene 40 scientific experts to assess and advise on risks posed by AI. 
  • Emerging markets. How to channel more climate capital to emerging markets? At a session hosted by Climate Policy Initiative, the $7 billion asset manager Finance in Motion argued that secondary markets are needed so lenders can move sustainable assets off their balance sheets. At a separate panel, speakers explored how to tap diaspora talent and capital to build venture ecosystems from the ground up. WE&Capital, a fund manager focused on the Middle East and Africa, asks Pakistani professionals living abroad to mentor founders and facilitates co-investments. 

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Join ImpactAlpha at these upcoming partner events:

  • Oct. 3: Swiss Impact Investment Association’s Impact Summit, Lausanne.
  • Oct. 7: Ownership Economy Summit, New York. ImpactAlpha subscribers can use the code IA-2025OESummit for 30% off.
  • Oct. 7-9: GIIN Impact Forum, Berlin. The first 50 ImpactAlpha subscribers to sign up can get 15% off with the code Berlin-IMPACTALPHA. 
  • Oct. 13-15: GAIL Impact Summit 2025, Mexico City. ImpactAlpha subscribers can take 30% off the ticket price using the code MS25NP.
  • Oct. 27-29: SOCAP25, San Francisco.

LISC Fund Management adds Brian Maddox, previously with KeyBank, as vice president of fund development… LeapFrog Investments adds Prudential Financial’s Charles Lowrey to its global leadership council… Social Finance welcomes Yiping Li, former fellow at the US Department of Justice, as a data analytics senior associate… Acre Impact Capital adds Sue Barrett, formerly with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to its advisory board.

Galvanize Climate Solutions is looking for an investment associate and a vice president or principal in New York… Candide Group seeks a home and place director in Oakland, Calif… Camco Clean Energy is hiring an inclusive finance associate in Luxembourg… Acumen is on the hunt for a program lead in Nairobi… AgDevCo is recruiting a part-time board member in London.

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

Thank you for your impact!

– Sept. 29, 2025