The Brief

The Brief: FinDev Canada shakes up the stodgy world of development finance

ImpactAlpha · December 9, 2025

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☎️ Agents of Impact Call: Tackling advisor roadblocks. Clients want to do more with their money. Advisors want to do more with their clients. Financial advisors who engage with clients about their values and offer credible impact strategies can deepen their relationships and prepare for the Great Wealth Transfer. Join CapShift’s Liz Sessler, ImpactPHL’s Cory Donovan, Westfuller’s Randall Strickland and Glenmede’s Julia Fish, in conversation with ImpactAlpha’s David Bank, this Thursday Dec. 11, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. RSVP today.

In today’s Brief:

  • Why FinDev Canada was designed to close deals fast
  • Tapping the public bond markets for CDFI lending
  • Missing an opportunity to mitigate methane

With FinDev, Canada tries to show that development finance can be fast and efficient. “Brash newcomer” is not a description usually associated with stalwart, if stodgy, development financial institutions. The quasi-public investors of rich countries anchor many of the private equity, private debt and bank lenders in emerging markets but have been criticized for being slow, risk-averse and opaque. FinDev Canada, the newest DFI, is trying to be nimble, quick and effective. “We wanted to take advantage of the fact that we had a blank slate,” Paulo Martelli, an architect of FinDev Canada, told ImpactAlpha. “Why would Canada set up another DFI to do the same thing as everyone else?” DFIs were being called on to do more with their capital even before the demise of USAID and declining budgets for other foreign aid donors multiplied the need, and the opportunity, for institutions that can move capital quickly. FinDev Canada has made more than 60 commitments since it launched in 2018 and manages little more than $1 billion, a fraction of its peers’ portfolios. FinDev is able to move quickly in part by trusting its peers’ due diligence in joining co-investments. It can complete transactions in weeks, not months, and disburse funds in hours, not weeks, Martelli says. “We need to have a degree of urgency about what we do.” 

  • Investment mandate. The reauthorization of the US’ DFI, the International Development Finance Corp., is held up in Congress, partly over how tightly to maintain its focus on low- and middle-income countries (for background, see “Bipartisan plans for a bigger, bolder Development Finance Corp.”). Overseas development assistance – more traditional foreign aid – for 2025 is projected to fall up to 17% from last year. British International Investment, the Netherlands’ FMO, and other DFIs are moving to an “originate to share” model and deploying more catalytic capital (see and listen to, “BII wants to make climate investing in emerging markets safe for institutional LPs”). Canada was the last G7 nation to establish a DFI, launching FinDev decades after peers like BII (formerly CDC Group) and FMO. Last week, it committed $20 million to Locfund Next, a provider of local-currency financing to microfinance institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • Closing speed. The shortcomings of development finance are well documented. A report by the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers found that “DFIs are too conservative and too slow – they take senior debt rather than equity, have unreasonable 200-page due diligence forms, and limit their mandates to certain geographies leaving gaps in the market.” Closing deals fast is an important feature of the FinDev strategy, Martelli says. “For projects operating on tight timelines or waiting on other financing to close, that efficiency can determine whether a deal happens at all.” In Vietnam, FinDev joined Japan’s DFI and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. on a financing facility for HD Bank’s lending to agribusinesses and women-owned businesses. In Thailand, it contributed to a package led by the Asian Development Bank to expand Gulf Energy’s solar and battery storage portfolio. “We had a chance to be quick and efficient and use all the lessons learned,” Martelli says.
  • Keep reading, “With FinDev, Canada tries to show that development finance can be fast and efficient,” by Erik Stein. 

Dealflow: Community Finance

Reinvestment Fund taps the bond market for $70 million for housing, education and HBCUs. The Philadelphia-based lender was one of the first community development financial institutions, or CDFIs, to tap the public bond markets with a rating from S&P. Proceeds from $69.5 million in new general obligation bonds will finance affordable housing, early childhood education and other projects in underserved communities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Georgia. That includes expanding its green financing portfolio and capitalizing its Growing Housing Developers Initiative, which provides growth capital for affordable housing developers. Some of the capital will also go towards the CDFI’s HBCU Brilliance Initiative, which has loaned over $50 million to historically Black colleges and universities since 2018. The buyers of the bonds include six institutional investors and three individuals.

  • Capital markets. The ability of CDFIs to tap public markets for community infrastructure is a game-changer. Capital Impact Partners earlier this year issued $123 million in taxable bonds to repay its debt and expand lending and investments. The Trump administration has targeted federal funding and support for the more than 1,400 CDFIs, many of which are the only lenders in low-income and rural areas. “When national policy hits a roadblock, our longstanding relationship with scores of municipal, county and state governments increase in importance,” Reinvestment Fund’s Donald Hinkle-Brown told ImpactAlpha. 
  • States stepping up. To expand the lending capacity of CDFIs, the Washington State Department of Commerce last week awarded $5.6 million to 11 local CDFIs. The grants, made through the agency’s Equitable Access to Credit program, will support lending for affordable housing, small businesses and early childhood education in Washington communities overlooked by traditional lenders. Grantees include Enterprise Community Loan Fund, the Community Impact Loan Fund, Northwest Access Fund, which lends to seniors and people with disabilities, and Taala Fund on Washington’s Quinault Indian land.
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • Save the Children’s venture fund invested in Indonesia’s PrimaKu, a pediatric health data startup that tracks children’s development, vaccinations and nutrition. (e27)
  • Swedish startup Melt&Marble raised €7.3 million ($8.5 million) from Industrifonden, German skincare company Beiersdorf, Finnish dairy producer Valio and others to bring to market its fermented animal-free fats. (TFN)
  • Île-de-France Reindustrialisation Fund, Asterion Ventures, 360 Capital and Taranis invested €30 million ($35 million) in French startup Spark Cleantech, which converts methane from heavy industry into hydrogen and solid carbon. (CentraleSupélec)
  • S2G Investments led a $25 million investment in Chilean company Oxzo, which manufactures automated aeration systems for fish farms. (We Are Aquaculture)

Signals: Policy Corner

US weakens methane reduction rules as natural gas stages a comeback. Methane, a potent, if short-lived greenhouse gas, is the latest flashpoint between a US administration hellbent on advancing oil and gas interests, and advocates for cleaner air and power sources. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency delayed by two years the landmark methane rule put in place by the Biden administration that required oil and gas producers to upgrade equipment, identify and plug leaky wells, and monitor and track their emissions. It is expected to try to eliminate the rule altogether. The EPA itself estimates the delay will lead to some 3.8 million tons of natural gas over 10 years being flared, vented or leaked, rather than captured and sold. “The 2024 methane standards are already working to prevent that pointless waste of American energy, while reducing pollution, protecting people’s health, and lowering risks from weather disasters fueled by climate change,” says Rosalie Winn of Environmental Defense Fund, one of 13 environmental groups suing the EPA. Oil and gas companies in 2023 alone, she notes, “wasted enough natural gas to cover all heating and cooking needs” of every home in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Texas. 

  • States take the lead. The move comes as hyperscalers are building new natural gas plants to fuel their AI ambitions, creating new sources of methane leaks. Methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. New Mexico in 2021 enacted methane rules similar to the Biden rule that is now being delayed; it also required oil and gas operators to develop gas capture infrastructure. The rules, said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in October, cut the state’s oil and gas facility emissions in the Permian Basin by half compared to Texas, and yielded $125 million in captured natural gas and $27 million in tax and royalty revenue (for context see, “How New Mexico’s $67 billion fund is using oil and gas revenues to build a clean energy economy”).
  • Competitive disadvantage. The EPA has also proposed gutting the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which for 15 years has required large US emitters, including energy producers, to report on CO2, methane and other emissions. Investors and even oil and gas companies support the regulation, which has provided standardized data that US businesses rely on to reduce risk and compete globally, writes Andrew Logan of the nonprofit Ceres in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. As the EU rolls out tough new emissions limits for importers, “relaxing US methane regulations will not protect our domestic oil and gas sector. It will leave American companies less competitive in a transitioning global market,” says Logan. Read his whole post.
  • Keep reading, “US weakens methane reduction rules as natural gas stages a comeback,” by Amy Cortese. 

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

CalSTRS welcomes Nick Abel, previously with Wespath Institutional Investments, as director of sustainable investment and stewardship strategies… Jodie Tapscott returns to Morningstar Sustainalytics as head of climate and nature solutions… Waheera Mardah, formerly with the New York City Economic Development Corp., joins JPMorgan Chase as vice president of corporate responsibility. 

Joe Sarci joins Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco as senior vice president and chief information officer… Anthropic seeks an international policy analyst in San Francisco… The Conduit is recruiting a senior director of impact programs.. The Fidelity Foundations is looking for a vice president of programs in Boston.

The Social Impact and Development Communication Center has an opening for a communications officer… The New York City Economic Development Corp. is accepting applications for its second Catalyst Fund, a $25 million strategy that will invest in impact-focused debt and equity fund managers. The deadline to apply is Jan. 30, 2026.

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

Thank you for your impact!

– Dec 9, 2025