Greetings Agents of Impact!
In today’s Brief:
- GreenieRe aims to derisk climate tech with “venture surety bonds”
- European investors step up for Ukrainian innovators
- Japanese LPs support financial inclusion in India
- As You Sow’s Andy Behar on ExxonMobil’s proxy vote power play
Featured: Catalytic Insurance
GreenieRe sees ‘impact insurance’ surety bonds as the key to scaling climate tech. Investors are helping capital-intensive climate tech startups navigate the tricky shift from promising technology to commercial success. The latest tool in their arsenal: insurance. “A lot of folks are talking about insurance and its criticality to this particular scaling gap,” says Lara Pierpoint of Trellis Climate, a catalytic funder created by Prime Coalition to help startups build first-of-a kind plants (see, “Prime Coalition launches Trellis Climate to plug gaps for first-of-a-kind climate tech projects”). The capital gap for such scaling is estimated at some $150 billion. At Climate Week NYC, Trellis teamed up with impact-focused reinsurer GreenieRe to launch VenSurety, an initiative that is developing “venture surety bonds” to free up liquidity for climate startups ready to scale. “We want to establish a category that did not exist,” GreenieRe founder Jeff McAulay tells ImpactAlpha. “We think there is good risk that is being underserved.”
- Investable assets. VenSurety is backed by philanthropic capital from the Schmidt Family Foundation and Builders Vision, the family office of Walmart heir Lukas Walton. “Insurance is a promising tool that allows philanthropy to efficiently mitigate the minimum marginal risk layer preventing technologies from otherwise getting to scale,” says Kyle McEneaney of the Schmidt Family Foundation. GreenieRe’s goal is to create a new class of impact insurance – of which venture surety is one type – that investors can earn returns on. “We haven’t really seen insurance as an investable asset class for impact investors,” says McAulay. GreenieRe itself is capitalized with $200 million it secured in January from the Coalition for Green Capital, a recipient of the now-frozen Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program. As ImpactAlpha has reported, CGC was also able to push at least $2.7 billion out the door to a set of private equity partners.
- Roadblocks. As a reinsurer, GreenieRe acts as sort of a “revolving green insurance fund” that works with expert underwriters to boost their capacity and, over time, crowd in more insurers to underserved sectors. Surety bonds, which act as a financial guarantee, provide an esoteric safety net for all kinds of businesses, as long as they have a track record and established credit history. Climate tech startups generally aren’t able to access such protection. That creates unexpected roadblocks for all sorts of routine transactions involving counterparties. Among the initial projects in VenSurety’s pipeline is an industrial heat pump supplier in the US Midwest that is ready to sell to its first customers. Those big customers want a warranty, which would require the heat pump startup to reserve scarce capital to back the warranties. “They can come to us and pay a premium,” says Trellis’ Pierpoint, “and get to the point that they’re able to write these warranties.”
- Keep reading, “GreenieRe sees ‘impact insurance’ surety bonds as the key to scaling climate tech,” by Amy Cortese.
Dealflow: Economic Resilience
Ukrainian VC fund launches with €32.5 million from European institutions. Ukraine’s innovators are spotting and pursuing economic opportunities despite the continuing war with Russia. They’ll soon get early support from Ukraine Phoenix Tech Fund, a new venture fund focused exclusively on Ukrainian startups. UPTF is looking to raise €50 million ($53 million) to invest in seed to Series A tech startups. It has early commitments from the European Investment Bank’s EU for Ukraine Fund and several French institutions: investment bank Bpifrance, development finance institution Proparco, and Horizon, the family office of Henri Seydoux, the founder of drone company Parrot. UPTF’s Charles Whitehead called the fund “an engine to build a durable economy, an emerging capital market, and a bridge from Ukraine’s extraordinary engineering talent to global customers, partners, and markets.”
- Kyiv’s tech hub. Whitehead, who is based in New York, runs UPTF with Dominique Piotet, a serial entrepreneur based in Barcelona. Piotet’s resume includes leading Kyiv’s innovation hub, UNIT.City, from 2019 to 2022. UPTF will be based in the hub and will leverage Ukrainian venture builder eō Business Incubators for deal pipeline.
- Funding flows. In July, Kyiv-based Flyer One Ventures closed its fifth fund at €50 million, with backing from International Finance Corp. and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The fund invests in early-stage Ukrainian startups, but also invests more broadly in Eastern Europe. Last year, Horizon Capital, a woman-led Ukrainian private equity firm, raised more than $360 million for growth-stage software, agriculture and manufacturing companies exporting goods outside of the country (for background see, “How impact investors embrace political risk to keep progress flowing (video)”).
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Unleash Ventures brings Japanese investors to India’s financial inclusion opportunities. The Tokyo and Mumbai-based venture capital fund invests in startups in India that are improving the affordability and delivery of financial services. It has raised three billion rupees ($33.8 million) for its first fund from nearly three dozen investors in Japan. The fundraising milestone comes as Japanese investment firms, corporations and its development finance institution, JICA, are ramping up their impact investments in Asia, Africa and Latin America. “This fund represents a powerful bridge, channeling Japanese capital and expertise into India’s most promising fintech and financial service innovators,” said Unleash Ventures’ Natsuki Sugai. The fund is co-managed with Gojo & Company, a Japanese microfinance institution.
- First deals. Unleash has invested in seven companies toward a goal of 12 to 15. In the portfolio: Zype offers small personal loans to skilled frontline workers. Ayekart provides market linkages and financing to farmers, food processors and other businesses in the agri-food chain. CredRight is a financial services firm for self-employed workers and small businesses. Unleash writes checks of $500,000 to $2 million.
- Check it out.
Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:
- Nuveen’s Private Equity Impact group took a majority stake in Ally Energy Solutions, a distributed clean energy developer for commercial and industrial companies. Nuveen made the investment from its second Climate Inclusion Fund. (Nuveen)
- UK-based OXCCU raised £20.8 million ($28 million) to convert CO2, bio-waste and biogas into sustainable jetfuel. Its Series B round was backed by a long roster of investors, including the International Airline Group’s venture fund, Clean Energy Ventures, the University of Oxford, where the company was incubated, and the venture funds Aramco and Eni. (ESG Today)
- Modular nuclear energy developer Hadron Energy will go public by merging with GigCapital7 Corp., a special purpose acquisition company. (Hadron Energy)
- The African Development Bank is providing a 100% guarantee to Exim Bank Tanzania for up to $10 million in trade financing. The deal is meant to encourage new lines of credit for Exim from private investors by derisking a portion of Exim’s small business lending. (AfDB)
- Arlington, Va.-based Area 2 Farms raised $9 million from Slow Ventures, Seven Seven Six and Animo to build high-tech community farms so food can be produced closer to where it’s consumed. (Area 2 Farms)
Impact Voices: Fiduciary Future
Investors who refuse to take a loyalty oath to ExxonMobil should decline to join its ‘retail voting program.’ ExxonMobil’s management has been feeling the heat from proxy voters in recent years. Now management wants to do something about it. Earlier this month, the oil and gas company announced its offering of a “retail voting program,” an opt-in service that automates proxy voting for individual shareholders, with the stated goal of increasing retail investor participation in such votes. What the program actually does is lock retail investors – who hold nearly 40% of the company’s shares – into “blind faith support for management,” writes As You Sow’s Andrew Behar in his latest Fiduciary Future column. The shareholder advocacy nonprofit yesterday filed a letter criticizing the plan with the Securities and Exchange Commission. ExxonMobil’s program “attempts to game the system,” says As You Sow’s Danielle Fugere, guaranteeing retail shareholders’ votes for management. “Allowing the program to proceed would set a dangerous precedent that undermines the integrity of our markets.”
- Proxy war. In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Andrew Freedman of the law firm Olshan argues the move is a power grab by management. Morningstar’s Amy Arnott has also come out against the program. “The company claims this program is another way ‘to ensure your voice is heard,’” Arnott wrote. “I’d argue it’s another way to ensure the voice of the board is heard.” ExxonMobil frames the program as an alternative to As You Sow’s “As You Vote.” “Unlike Exxon’s scheme,” Behar writes, “frameworks like ours give retail investors transparency, nuance, and a consistent long-term voice that keeps management honest for long-term sustainable growth.” Why push the voting program now? “Because long-horizon fiduciaries, including pension funds, retail investors and 401(k) managers stewarding the retirements of tens of millions are insisting on a durable, risk-aware strategy,” he says. “Exxon appears to be trying to lock in a voting base to counterbalance institutions with a fiduciary duty to invest for the long term.”
- Keep reading, “Investors who refuse to take a loyalty oath to ExxonMobil should decline to join its ‘retail voting program,’” by As You Sow’s Andrew Behar.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Sérgio Pimenta, formerly with the International Finance Corp., joins Africa50 to lead its Infrastructure Acceleration Fund… Lindsey White joins Prime Coalition as assistant director of partnerships. Hannah Rome joins as senior manager of people and culture… Align Impact welcomes Robert Cain, previously with Girls on the Run NYC, as a client services associate.
Grameen America is recruiting a director of compliance… 2X Global is looking for a 2X Challenge lead… The Scottish National Investment Bank seeks an investment director in Edinburgh… M&G has an opening for a private markets sustainability coordinator in London… Transform Finance is hosting a webinar on social entrepreneurship through acquisition, Wednesday, Oct. 15.
👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.
Thank you for your impact!
– Oct. 1, 2025
