The Brief: New pathways to growth in emerging markets

Greetings Agents of Impact!

☎️ Tomorrow’s Call: Municipal impact investing for shared prosperity. Innovative strategies are helping small cities and rural jurisdictions tap municipal bonds and integrate impact investments into public finance strategies. On this Agents of Impact Call we’ll explore strategies to reverse entrenched patterns of disinvestment and help municipalities, bond banks and other authorities to grow their resource base. Join Lourdes Germán of Public Finance Initiative, Michael Gaughan of the Vermont Bond Bank, Damon Burns of Finance New Orleans, Eric Glass of Clarion Call Capital and Brian Boland of Delta Fund, for this week’s Call, Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. There’s still time to RSVP.

• Background reading: “Can philanthropic bond guarantees expand access to capital for smaller cities and rural areas?,” by Dennis Price.

In today’s Brief:

• Emerging ecosystems of local capital in Africa
• Youth employment and the green transition in India
• Social co-benefits of carbon removal
• Money + operational talent = execution capital 

Featured: Looking Ahead to 2026

African asset owners and fund managers chart local ‘pathways to growth’. Retreat, retrenchment and recalibration were the three Rs of development finance in 2025. If 2026 is to be the year of revival for development growth capital, it will be because local pensions, insurance funds and wealthy families step up to strengthen local financing ecosystems for local needs. Much of the attention for such local asset owners is focused on financing growth-stage companies that generate the bulk of much-needed employment for young and growing populations across emerging markets. “2025 has been a year where the ‘tourists’ left and the builders stayed,” says Lelemba Phiri of South Africa-based ATG Samata, a gender-lens fund that invests throughout Africa. “I’m thinking about how the African ecosystem has successfully transitioned from a hype-cycle to a build-cycle.”

• Local leadership. The market transition was born of necessity. This year began with the dismantling of USAID and its $40 billion annual development assistance budget, sending shock waves through emerging economies in Africa, Asia and Latin America. But in private-sector development circles, it didn’t take long for whispers to begin circulating among local practitioners and even some international investors: Might markets weaned off foreign aid be better off in the long run? Local pensions like Uganda’s National Social Security Fund, for example, see advantages in financing job-creating small businesses – newly employed workers could become savers in the pension schemes. Ghana’s Ci-Gaba Fund of Funds, a $75 million blended finance initiative, was developed by Impact Investing Ghana to unlock local institutional capital. “The key focus has been on deepening local participation in private equity and venture capital,” says Dinah Hammond of Savannah Impact Advisory, which manages Ci-Gaba. Its intent: “to ensure that Ghanaian institutional investors are not only observers but active co-investors in Africa’s growth story,” Hammond says.
  
• Youth employment. This year’s eruption of youth protests in Nepal, Peru, Bangladesh, Madagascar and elsewhere forced emerging market investors to consider how their capital is working for, or against, the interests of young people. The youth agenda includes climate issues, employment opportunities, or health and wellbeing. World Bank president Ajay Banga called on markets to match “the energy of young people” with “the right investments” at the bank’s annual meeting in October. “If we focus not just on need, but on opportunity, I think we can unlock a tremendous engine of growth.” A small group of impact investors is pushing for greater adoption of “child-lens” investing as a means to improving outcomes for all generations. VC and impact investors in India, where more than 40% of its 1.4 billion people are under 25, are touting the job-creation opportunity of the climate transition. “That should be our focus: growth of jobs with clean technology,” said Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 representative, at last month’s Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association’s green summit. Read ImpactAlpha contributor Shefali Anand’s report from Delhi. 

• Carbon co-benefits. Notwithstanding US President Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine global climate cooperation, most countries, and companies, have pushed ahead on their climate ambitions. Carbon-avoidance credits struggled with credibility challenges, but efforts to remove carbon from the atmosphere saw “unprecedented growth” in the first half of the year. Mati Carbon won the $50 million grand prize in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition with its “enhanced rock weathering” approach, which is helping smallholder farmers in India, Zambia and Tanzania restore soil health while boosting its carbon-storing capacity. Mati shares with farmers the profits it makes from selling carbon-removal credits to companies like Shopify. Copenhagen-based Mash Makes is producing biofuels for Danish shipping companies and biochar for Indian farmers. “We want to make sure that every potential for impact – whether social, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions – is pursued,” Mash Makes’ Jakob Bejbro Andersen told ImpactAlpha. “The demand is completely outpacing supply right now.”
  
• Keep reading, “African asset owners and fund managers chart local ‘pathways to growth’,” by Lucy Ngige and Jessica Pothering. Catch up on all of our 2026 lookaheads.

Dealflow: Impact in Africa

Secha Capital expands operator-investor model with investment in electronics maker Barracuda. The Johannesburg-based private equity investor in South African growth-stage businesses has made a name for itself providing team members to its portfolio companies to provide operational support. For local electronics manufacturer Barracuda, Secha put a new CEO in place to guide the next phase of growth. Barracuda provides contract manufacturing of functional circuit boards for the automotive, utility, agriculture and defense industries and is expanding into aerospace. Aengus Stanley of Shade Tree Capital, a co-investor in the deal, will join the company as CEO. Secha’s Seshan Chettiar will also join Barracuda’s management team. “The next decade in South Africa won’t be defined by capital alone; it will be defined by execution capital – money that arrives with an embedded chief executive operator-investor, an operating playbook, and a deep focus on delivery,” said Secha’s Brendan Mullen. Barracuda’s founders Rob Steltman and Ryan Webb will focus on customer relationships and engineering and operational projects.

• Human capital. Secha Capital was launched in 2017 by two former consultants from Bain & Co. to provide capital and management support for consumer goods, agribusinesses and other small and growing companies in South Africa’s core economic sectors. “Building human capital and management capabilities is a huge need,” Mullen told ImpactAlpha at the time. Secha is investing out of its second fund; its portfolio includes lithium battery manufacturer IG3N; hydroponics vegetables producer and supplier Cultura Fresh; and FarmTrace, which provides farm management software.
  
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

• RSF Social Finance issued more than $19 million in loans to seven mission-driven businesses focused on healthy food, sustainable wellness products, recycled construction materials and clean energy. (RSF Social Finance) 

• UK-based impact investor Resonance launched a £10 million ($13.3 million) fund backed by Unity Trust Bank, Enterprise for Development and Ceniarth UK Foundation to finance social enterprises in England. (Resonance)

• Paris-based agtech startup ReSoil secured €4 million ($4.3 million) from French investors Banque des Territoires, InvESS Île-de-France Amorçage and Generali Investissement à Impact to scale its platform helping farmers transition to regenerative agriculture. (Global AgInvesting)

• SET Ventures led Oslo-based Spoor’s €8 million ($8.6 million) Series A financing to expand AI-powered bird and bat monitoring software for wind farm operators. EnBW New Ventures, Ørsted Ventures and Superorganism joined the round. (EU Startups)

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Vision Ridge Partners welcomes Jeff Bishop, former CEO of Key Capture Energy, as an operating partner… Ford Foundation’s Sarita Gupta and Ellie Bertani, CEO of GitLab Foundation, have been appointed co-chairs of the Families and Workers Fund… Ballmer Group adds Shelby Clayton as an executive assistant on its national impact team.

Asset Funders Network welcomes Katy McLeod Leopard as a part-time Memphis program officer… Charlotte Cipolletti Power was promoted to vice president of AI and impact at Vista Equity Partners… Samuel Efosa-Austin, previously with INCO, joins Impact Investors Foundation as head of partnerships and fundraising.

Aspen Institute’s Education and Society Program is accepting applications from youth advisory partners to join its Rising Generations Strategy Group, a national cohort of education, civics, policy, military and nonprofit leaders shaping the future of K-12 education… 

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

Thank you for your impact!

– Dec. 16, 2025