Greetings Agents of Impact! It’s that time of year. We’re taking a Brief break to recharge for the new year. Not to worry: Our algorithmic elves are preparing a complete set of holiday lists to bring you the best of our podcasts, guest posts, calls, deals and, of course, Agents of Impact like you. We’ll be back in your inbox on Monday, January 5. Until then, we wish you and yours a very happy and healthy holiday season.
In today’s Brief:
- Family offices step up impact investing in emerging markets
- Europeans’ shift to defense spending threatens social and environmental investments
- Artisan Tropics’ regenerative snack foods
Featured: Looking Ahead to 2026
Family offices in emerging markets are gravitating toward impact investing. Typically discreet, few wealthy families around the world are outspoken about their impact investments. But those that commit to such investment strategies are having outsized impact. That’s especially true in emerging markets, where impact investment opportunities need more early and catalytic capital. Their visibility helps set an example for other wealthy families and family offices, which collectively hold more than $3 trillion in assets worldwide. “The tipping point was USAID,” Vikas Arora of AVPN told ImpactAlpha at the impact network’s annual convening in Hong Kong, referring to the decimation of the agency this year. That spurred some Asian wealth holders to consider how to merge their business and philanthropic interests. In Singapore, Tsao Family Office, established by the family behind maritime company Tsao Pao Chee Group, has moved more than 50% of its capital to align with impact and sustainability strategies and has been instrumental in mobilizing the impact community across Asia. Kelvin Fu, of Singapore-based Gunung Capital, calls its impact lens “our family’s most valuable asset.” In India, Leena Dandekar and her children’s Raintree Family Office is modeling climate investing for other wealthy families. ImpactAlpha will be tracking the catalytic and increasingly sophisticated impact strategies of family offices across geographies.
- Pivot to Asia. Singapore has become something of a hub for impact investing, with a concentration of capital and an appetite for collective social and environmental benefit, as well as attractive tax incentives. Rumah Group, the family office of Stanley and Kathlyn Tan, invests in social housing in Southeast Asia. Ecca Family Foundation, linked to the family behind global jewelry brand Pandora, makes catalytic impact investments in Southeast Asia. Top of mind for families in the region are investments in nature, oceans and for Asia’s aging population, said Katy Yung of Sustainable Finance Initiative, a Hong-Kong network of family offices. A trend to watch: The emergence of co-investing and pooled vehicles, like the $75 million Asia Ocean Fund from Norway-based Katapult Ocean and Tsao Pee Chee’s in-house impact fund, Octave Capital. Another driver is family legacy and wealth, observed Ann Tan of the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth. “When you frame it as essential for future-proofing a family’s legacy, the mind and the heart open in a different way.”
- Regenerative capital. The family office Meraki Impact in Brazil is focusing on climate change and regeneration, while Mexico-based CO_Capital focuses on solutions to both poverty and climate change. Family office Napali, which has committed to sustainable and ethical practices, is helping mobilize Chile’s impact investing ecosystem more broadly. With help from partners like Aliança pelo Impacto in Brazil and Latimpaqto in Colombia, our monthly newsletter, ImpactAlpha Latin America, has tracked the region’s innovation in business models that conserve nature, restore land and strengthen local livelihoods and communities. The COP30 climate summit in Brazil may have disappointed (once again), but entrepreneurs, fund managers and families are charging ahead. They are developing sustainable textile supply chains for corporate buyers like Lululemon. Designing an inclusive energy transition that benefits Indigenous communities. Adopting practices for food staples, like cassava, and snacks that regenerate land and give farmer incomes a boost. And converting financial products, like “agribusiness receivables certificates” in Brazil, into tools for financing sustainable cacao production and Amazon reforestation. On tap: Brazil’s blended-finance fund to restore tropical forests; Vox Capital’s catalytic restoration fund; and new funds, fund managers and family offices increasing their allocations to impact.
- Keep reading, “Family offices in emerging markets are gravitating toward impact investing,” by Jessica Pothering.
Sovereignty and resilience are the watchwords as Europe navigates the new terrain. It’s been a wrenching year for the European Union. The Trump administration has bullied European leaders with tariffs and threats to long-standing defense alliances. Energy supplies remain precarious. And climate change is disrupting food crops to wine production. Europe’s watchwords for 2026: sovereignty and resilience. “This must be Europe’s Independence Moment,” declared the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen in her state of the union address in September. “To be able to take care of our own defense and security. To take control over the technologies and energies that will fuel our economies. To decide what kind of society and democracy we want to live in.” The shift in allocations to defense investing may cannibalize resources for social and environmental initiatives. “The EU has cut millions of euros in funding that used to go into the social economy, into social innovation. Private funds are struggling to fundraise,” Roberta Bosurgi, who stepped down last month as CEO of Impact Europe, told ImpactAlpha. “So where is the money going to come from to continue doing the work?”
- Defense paradox. Defense is now the fastest growing segment of venture capital in Europe, with investment flows four times higher than in 2019, as Susan Winterberg and Johannes Lenhard of VentureESG noted in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. European VCs are piling in, and several large pension funds in close proximity to Russia have updated their responsible investment guidelines to include such investments, particularly drones, satellites, software and other tech that has a dual civilian use. That has sparked fierce debate. “A few years ago, before Russia invaded Ukraine, there was a different view on weapons, but that has changed,” Britt Dinesen Christiansen of Insurance & Pension Denmark told ImpactAlpha. “We can see that there is a societal need for expanding defense and security investments.”
- Policy leadership. The EU has been the standard bearer on climate and impact-focused regulations – for now. A carbon tax on emissions-intensive products, such as cement and steel, kicks in in January. Another law, scheduled to go into effect in 2027, will require oil and gas companies selling into the bloc to quantify their methane emissions and to plug leaks. An update to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, which classifies funds based on their sustainability rigor, formally acknowledges impact investing the first time. On other policies, the EU has caved to pressure from critics who say the measures raise costs. The EU is delaying a deforestation law and, potentially, a ban on the production of gas-powered vehicles by 2035. At last month’s Impact Week in Malmo, Sweden, Jean-Marc Lieberherr Monnet, grandson of European Union architect Jean Monnet, put the moment in context. “We are in a time of darkness…but also a time of great opportunities,” Lieberherr Monnet said at the event’s opening session. “What we need is leadership, purpose, clarity and method. We need a transformation, but that won’t come through small incremental steps.”
- Keep reading, “Sovereignty and resilience are the watchwords as Europe navigates the new terrain,” by Danielle Rossingh and Amy Cortese on ImpactAlpha.
Dealflow: Regenerative Agriculture
DUX Capital backs Artisan Tropic’s regeneration-focused snack foods. To supply its line of snack foods, Charlotte, NC-based Artisan Tropic for more than a decade has worked with Colombian regenerative cassava and plantain farmers and now sells about $9 million in products each year in supermarkets in the US. It has until now financed its growth entirely through revenues and debt. That appealed to the Austin-based venture capital firm Dux Capital, which this week wrote one of Artisan Tropic’s first equity checks. “We’ve made a lot of investments in family-owned companies,” Dux’s Susana Espinosa de los Reyes told ImpactAlpha. “Their risk management [is] very different from other founders.” Dux investment of $250,000 will support Artisan Tropics expansion in US supermarkets. The company has so far raised $1.7 million toward its $4 million fundraising goal. Artisan is planning to rebrand as Reelie in January.
- Revenues over rounds. Artisan Tropic was founded by Camilo and Margarita Guzman, Colombian immigrants with a history of successful food entrepreneurship. They previously ran Rikkos, a snack distribution company, exiting to Grupo Bimbo in 2021. In both businesses, they made a virtue of necessity, bootstrapping growth because they lacked access to affordable equity investment. Dux’s investment will enable Artisan to retire some of its debt, finance its rollout in US-based supermarket chain Costco and expand with Whole Foods, Sprouts and Target.
- Returns on inclusion. Artisan refinanced $3.5 million in debt recently through impact lender RSF. Dux is primarily interested in companies run by underrepresented founders that often don’t get a seat at the venture capital table. “Venture capital is a really small industry. Everybody comes from the same business schools,” Espinosa de los Reyes said. Overlooked entrepreneurial talent is “where we really see the opportunity in terms of investments and giving alpha to our LPs.” That lens resonates with its LPs, many of whom “are also immigrants or come from a family of immigrants,” she added.
- More.
Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:
- Africa GreenCo, which pre-purchases solar power from developers and resells it to utilities and power users in Africa, secured a $6 million loan from Impact Fund Denmark. The European Commission provided a € 50 million guarantee. (Impact Fund Denmark)
- Colombian fintech Monet has closed a $24 million Series A round to scale its digital lending platform for informal workers and micro-businesses in Colombia. Impact investor Ventures Comfama participated in the round. (Startup Researcher)
- Bioweg, in partnership with Technische Universität Berlin, has raised €1.5 million ($1.8 million) from SPRIND, Germany’s federal agency for disruptive innovation, to develop a platform that recovers rare earth elements from industrial waste. (EU Startups)
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Betty Moore Foundation appoints Aileen Lee as president, replacing Harvey Fineberg… Norrsken VC promotes Fabian Erici to partner… Earthshot Ventures is looking for an analyst in the Bay Area… The Tennessee Center for Employee Ownership seeks a co-executive director of operations and programs… The Leadership Now Project is hiring an investment and impact manager in New York.
CenterSquare Investment Management is recruiting a real estate research and sustainability senior analyst… Prime Coalition is on the hunt for a partnerships and operations manager… Gary Community Investment has an opening platform and analytics specialist… Spring Point Partners is looking for a senior director of finance.
Sustainable Capital Advisors has an opening for a research and analyst fellow… MSCI Inc. is hiring a climate specialist VP… Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship at NYU School of Law is conducting a survey on impact investment dispute resolution. The survey is open through Jan. 16.
👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.
Thank you for your impact!
– Dec. 23, 2025
