Greetings Agents of Impact!
In today’s Brief:
- What’s in store for the DFC?
- More reliable marine carbon capture
- Early-stage climate tech in India
- Rediscovering impact’s catalytic edge
Featured: Policy Corner
Bipartisan plans for a bigger, bolder US International Development Finance Corp. on hold due to authorization lapse. When the axe fell in the US development sector this year, the US International Development Finance Corp. remained standing. The development finance institution, revamped during President Trump’s first term, looks set to play a key role as an international investor, especially after the decimation of USAID, which provided grants, technical assistance and other support to projects, companies and funds in emerging markets. This week, the Senate confirmed Ben Black, the son of Apollo Global Management’s billionaire co-founder Leon Black, as the Trump Administration’s choice to lead the agency. The younger Black has highlighted the need for the Development Finance Corp., or DFC, to serve as a “substantive economic counterweight to China.” The White House, in contrast to the axe it has taken to many other agencies, has sought to quadruple the agency’s lending cap, an idea embraced by leaders of both parties. All would seem to be humming along, except… the DFC’s mandate quietly expired on Oct. 6. With the authorization lapsed and the government shut down, the DFC’s investments – which had slowed while staff waited for leadership to be confirmed – have ground to a halt.
- Expanded purview. Even with a temporary extension for the DFC along with the rest of the government, Congress needs to hash out the details of the agency’s reauthorization. Existing plans in the House and the Senate would turn the DFC into a much larger and more flexible agency, raising the DFC’s lending cap from $60 billion to at least $240 billion. A Trump administration proposal would give the DFC authority to lend and invest in high-income countries – a seeming departure from its mission of encouraging development in low- and middle-income countries. However, previous proposals, including a bill in the House last year, also contained this provision to enable the DFC to target poor regions in wealthier countries or near strategic deals. What has changed: the context surrounding the proposals. In an era of transactional foreign policy, with a president who dreams of an American sovereign wealth fund, the big question is how the DFC would use its new powers.
- New world. Since Trump’s reelection, investment decisions have taken on a stronger political slant. DFC staff and investment seekers have been asked to detail benefits for the US in deals, such as support for US jobs, the ability to counter strategic competitors, and mitigation of the influence of “malign actors.” For his part, Black seems determined to move the DFC closer to Wall Street, including by opening an office in New York and pursuing more deals with Wall Street investors. Allowing the DFC’s authorization to lapse even for a short period will damage its credibility as a financial institution and partner. Still, with support for the agency from the White House and both parties in Congress, the most likely outcome seems to be a bigger, faster, more flexible DFC. What remains to be seen is whether an agency designed to mobilize capital for development can retain that purpose.
- Keep reading, “Bipartisan plans for a bigger, bolder US International Development Finance Corp. on hold as agency’s authorization lapses,” by Kristin Kelly Jangraw.
Dealflow: Decarbonization Tech
Investors from Asia-Pacific back Vycarb to capture marine carbon. The Brooklyn-based company is tackling the promising opportunity of water-based carbon capture and storage. Oceans, which cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, are the world’s biggest carbon sink. Vycarb’s technology captures CO2 from bodies of water with high concentrations of carbon and processes it into bicarbonate through a filtration system. Bicarbonate, which appears to be a stable way of sequestering carbon, can then be released back into water systems. The company has applied its approach in New York’s East River, where it is studying the environmental impacts of its process and testing its CO2 measurement sensors.
- Measure better. Most marine carbon removal, or mCDR, is accounted for based on models that gauge how much CO2 can be captured through tested chemical reactions. “Models don’t reflect reality,” wrote Vycarb’s Garrett Boudinot. “They’re built on major assumptions… and while the models’ simplicity makes them easy to rely on, it also makes them wildly inaccurate.” One model Vycarb tested would have overstated by 100x how much CO2 its process sequestered. The company is developing its own sensors that account for natural variability in water conditions to assess how bicarbonate reacts when released in real time. “To succeed,” said Boudinot, “mCDR – and CDR writ large – must prove that carbon is being removed and stored in practice, rather than in theory.”
- Seed equity. The company raised $5 million in seed equity with backing from Australia-based decarbonization investor Twynam; MOL Switch, the venture arm of Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines; and Japanese oil and gas company Idemitsu. SGInnovate, the Singaporean government’s innovation initiative, invested, citing “global demand for deployable, measurable carbon capture and storage technologies and Singapore’s goal of reaching net zero emissions.” Norway-based Hatch Blue and California-based Clocktower Ventures also participated in the round.
- Check it out.
Theia Ventures raises more than $15 million for its first climate tech fund. The Bangalore-based investment firm was launched by Priya Shah to invest in early-stage climate technologies that aren’t yet on many investors’ radar. Shah has raised more than $15 million – past the halfway mark of the fund’s $30 million goal. British International Investment anchored the fund with a $5 million investment. Other backers include Germany-based Allocator One, the Cisco Foundation and Australia-based Vitality Capital Partners. Theia is aiming to invest in about 20 startups with checks of $500,000 to $1 million; it is reserving 50% of its capital for follow-on investments. It has completed at least 10 deals, including cooling system developer OctoLife, battery recycling company Metastable Materials, and waste-to-textiles maker Canvaloop. “It’s an education process getting investors to understand the investment potential of such under-invested sectors,” Shah told ImpactAlpha in April (see, “Catalytic investors look to India’s huge market for outsized climate impact”).
- Family funding. Theia was seeded with capital from wealthy Indian individuals and families, including automaker Anand Mahindra, Meher Pudumjee of Thermax Group, Pramit Jhaveri, the former CEO of Citibank India, and the families behind JM Financial and Vimson: Shivanand Salgaocar Group. Such investors are cautiously stepping into impact investing (see, “Moving India’s family offices from ‘episodic’ to ‘sustained’ impact investors”). “They’re excited to have a window into technologies that can be applied to and utilized by their industries,” said Shah. BII’s investment, meanwhile, aligns with the organization’s growing focus on climate opportunities in large, fossil fuel-dependent Asian economies like India, Vietnam and Indonesia (listen to ImpactAlpha’s recent podcast interview with BII’s Leslie Maasdorp).
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:
- Seattle-based Membrion, a tech spin-out from the University of Washington, raised $20 million for its modular industrial wastewater treatment units that allow companies to treat contaminated water and recover minerals on-site. (GeekWire)
- Wavemaker Impact in Singapore invested in Philippines-based Valtor Solutions to help Southeast Asian architects and property developers plan low-carbon designs and source the appropriate materials. (e27)
- Ho Chi Minh City-based private equity firm Excelsior Capital Vietnam secured $15 million from Swedfund for its second fund for mid-sized businesses developing infrastructure, promoting financial inclusion and driving job creation. (Swedfund)
- Singapore-based Robust International secured a $25 million investment from Impact Fund Denmark, the country’s development finance institution, to expand local sourcing and processing of sesame and cashew nuts in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Mozambique. (Impact Fund Denmark)
Impact Voices: Catalytic Capital
Impact investing needs to rediscover its catalytic edge. Most impact investors are not deploying the amounts of catalytic capital required to move the sustainable development needle, Leah Pedersen of Convergence Blended Finance writes in a guest post. “In our current climate of diminished foreign aid and increased opportunity to direct private investment to developing markets, there’s no greater time for impact investors to embrace taking risks,” she says. “Instead, it seems most shy away from investing in ways that intentionally mobilize the larger commercial capital required to increase investment flows and rapidly scale up impact outcomes.” Three-quarters of investors in the Global Impact Investing Network’s 2025 survey say they target risk-adjusted, market-rate returns (see, “Survey of GPs, LPs and advisors shows impact investors to be hopeful but cautious“). Less than half have recently participated in a blended finance deal. Most impact investors who do participate in blended deals are leaning on development finance institutions to derisk the transactions, Pedersen says. “Impact investing in 2025 has largely come to resemble traditional commercial investing in seeking top-quartile returns.”
- Bright Spots. To deliver on the promise of impact, Pedersen argues, investors must offer more out-of-the-box thinking. One way: taking pooled pari-passu positions with development finance institutions to enable “large, risk-intolerant investors like pension funds to invest more in emerging and developing markets.” Another idea: Help establish more accurate benchmarks for additionality. There are bright spots. Ceniarth has taken flexible, first-loss positions in 10 blended finance deals worth $16.7 million in the past three years. BlueOrchard has committed $46 million in the same period, including junior equity and unsecured debt positions. Calvert Impact Capital has played a crucial anchor role, often absorbing first losses to attract larger investors, as seen in its backing of the Off-Grid Energy Access Fund in Africa. To reclaim its leadership role, argues Pederson, the impact field must embrace more intentional risk-taking and innovative structuring to meet the moment.
- Keep reading, “Impact investing needs to rediscover its catalytic edge,” by Convergence’s Leah Pederson.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Stacy Swann is appointed as managing director and chief of blended finance of IDB Invest… Julia Wang, previously with Upwage, joins New Majority Capital as chief of staff… Jenelle Harris is promoted to head of social impact programs at Visa… The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta adds Erika Ellison, former education consultant, as chief operating officer… The Joseph Rowntree Foundation welcomes Shan Nicholas as interim group CEO.
The Clean Fight has several openings in New York, including an energy storage program fellow, a partnerships manager, a senior analyst, a fall marketing and outreach intern and a fall and winter programs intern… Also in New York, AXA Investment Managers is looking for a global health investing associate, and Churchill Asset Management has an opening for a responsible investing intern.
Ecotrust is hiring a vice president of communications and development… The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability is recruiting a nature finance specialist… TPG is looking for a senior associate of impact reporting and analytics in Washington, DC… CalSTRS is on the hunt for an investment director for sustainable investment and stewardship strategies… Africa Impact Investing Group is recruiting a chief executive officer.
👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.
Thank you for your impact!
– Oct. 9, 2025
