The Brief

The Week in impact investing: Fire and ice

ImpactAlpha · January 9, 2026

TGIF, Agents of Impact! 

Call No. 77: The real returns of impact-first fund managers. Big wins can come from unlikely bets. Fund managers able to support early stage, novel solutions in tough markets with fit-for-purpose capital and necessary support are delivering outsized impact, if not always “market-rate” financial returns. On this month’s Agents of Impact Call, Open Road Impact’s Caroline Bressan, Rhia Ventures’ Erika Seth Davies and other impact-first fund managers will explore the true costs – and returns – of impact-first investing, Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. RSVP today. 

In today’s Brief: 

  • Cautious optimism in a fiery year
  • Podcasts: Robert Raben on Agents of Impact + This Week in Impact
  • Flutterwave’s “payments superhighway” in Africa
  • ImpactAlpha’s 2026 lookaheads

🗣 Cautious optimism. “Some say the world will end in fire, some say ice.” The poet Robert Frost couldn’t have anticipated how apt the first line of his famous poem might seem in a week that included both a fiery raid in Venezuela and the killing in Minneapolis of Renee Nicole Good, herself a poet, by an agent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Of course, the world hasn’t ended. In Venezuela, Agents of Impact already are charting a path forward, as Erik Stein, Amy Cortese and I reported. “Cautiously optimistic” is how both Impaqto Capital’s Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter and Latimpacto’s Carolina Suárez Visbal described their initial response to the raid. “We think about the possibility of returning and applying everything we have learned and built over the years,” says Agile Impacts’ Adriana Mata, a Venezuelan living in Spain.

Persistence through adversity filled the pages and podcasts of ImpactAlpha this week. In our conversation, Raben Group’s Robert Raben sketched strategies to reinforce the value, and the legality, of diversity initiatives in business and finance. Catalyze’s Regina Green and Sabrina Bainbridge of Spring Point Partners made the case for working capital loans for emerging impact fund managers. Dana Stranz and Issie Corvi laid out ways to finance perpetual purpose trusts to protect companies’ missions and values. ImpactAlpha contributor Taylor Kate Brown spoke with Carolyn Kousky of Insurance for Good to explore innovative insurance options for climate-vulnerable communities. For ImpactAlpha Latin America, Erik spotlighted several wealthy Mexican families that are stepping up to impact investing even as others step back.

“The future will not be built by optimizing for commercial exits,” Aunnie Patton Power and Katie and Brian Boland wrote in response to the provocative post by Mulago Foundation’s Kevin Starr. “It will be built by investing in shared power, durable ownership, and structures that allow enterprises and communities to thrive over the long term.” There are signs such practical strategies for shared prosperity may be breaking through. None other than President Donald Trump this week, between his other activities, declared his opposition to stock buybacks, dividends and excessive CEO compensation by defense contractors, and to the gobbling up of single-family houses by private equity giants. And Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, worth a cool $159 billion, said he’s “perfectly fine” with California’s proposed billionaire tax, which could cost him $7 billion. We capped our series of lookaheads to 2026 (see below) with a roundup of the families, foundations and funds that are investing for impact first, making their priority the problem to be solved, not the profits to be made. With all that and more, we are cautiously optimistic about what is sure to be a wild year ahead. – David Bank 

The Week’s Podcasts

🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Impact investors chart a path for Latin America after the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; why working capital is essential for next-gen fund managers; and, how some insurers are adapting parametric and community insurance models for the increasing risks of climate change.

Agents of Impact: The arc of business and finance bends toward diversity, with Robert Raben. Polling suggests that support for “diversity, equity and inclusion” actually increased in 2025 – aided, ironically, by the ferocious backlash against DEI unleashed by the Trump administration. “Support for DEI has gone up 40% because it’s now branded, and the people who supported it all along now know what they’re supporting,” Robert Raben, a longtime DEI advocate and strategy consultant, says on the latest Agents of Impact podcast. As for the opponents, he says, “You have to ask, Why do they fight so hard? And they fight so hard because it’s working.”

The Week’s Spotlight

Flutterwave and Mono’s vision for an African ‘payments superhighway.’ It’s been nearly 20 years since the introduction of mobile money in Africa changed how people trade, transact and use financial services. The traditional banking system hasn’t kept pace with the financial needs and habits of both people and businesses. To enlist banks in the continent’s economic growth agenda, African fintechs are building the connective tissue linking mobile money, digital payments, e-wallets and traditional savings and credit accounts. This week, the Nigerian digital payments giant Flutterwave, acquired Mono, also based in Nigeria, which enables bank-to-bank transactions, identity verification and data sharing. “Our goal is to make open banking a true reality, establishing consent-based verification, payment and trust as the new standard across the continent,” said Mono’s Abdulhamid Hassan. The deal, said Flutterwave’s Olugbenga Agboola, “contributes to building what I call Africa’s ‘payments superhighway.’”

  • Interconnection. Bank account holders in the US can connect bank accounts instantly though services like Plaid. PayPal, Venmo and Zelle have made it simple and fast to send and receive money from a person or business that uses a different bank. In Europe, systems like IDEAL in the Netherlands and MBWAY in Portugal make account-to-account transactions free and instant and sending money between countries is as simple as tapping into a banking app. In Africa, connecting one domestic bank to another, much less banks in other countries, is glitchy and often insecure. “Payments, data and trust cannot exist in silos,” said Agboola. “Open banking provides the foundation.”
  • Partners for scale. Flutterwave’s digital payments infrastructure, which allows businesses to send and receive payments from credit card companies, mobile money and bank transfer, is used in 30 African countries (its growth has not been without challenges and controversy.) The deal gives Mono the business and financial runway “to wait for the open banking landscape to ripen,” observed Emeka Ajene of the fintech newsletter Afridigest. Mono’s Hassan said he hadn’t been looking to be acquired, but agreed to the deal “because of the opportunity to create something phenomenal together: a more complete financial operating system for African businesses.”
  • Keep reading, and catch up on all of this week’s dealflow reporting.

The Year’s Lookaheads

Looking ahead to 2026. The resurgence of impact first investing. Innovative fundraising solutions for LPs and GPs. Ownership, wealth building and fair gain-sharing. ImpactAlpha will be tracking these trends, and many more, throughout 2026. Be sure to check out all of our lookaheads. Some highlights: 

  • Investing in shared prosperity. Affordability is only the beginning. Expanding access to ownership and other wealth-building opportunities is likely to be high on the agenda in 2026. Look for shared prosperity that comes with innovation and economic growth to become an urgent policy priority and a compelling investment opportunity. Read on.
  • Local ‘pathways to growth’. Retreat, retrenchment and recalibration were the three Rs of development finance in 2025. 2026 may well be the year of revival for development growth capital, as local pension funds, insurers and wealthy families and individuals step up to strengthen local financing ecosystems and local businesses. Learn more.
  • LP stands for ‘leadership potential.’ While others beat a retreat from climate and diversity commitments, some family offices, pension funds and foundations are standing firm. In the coming year, LPs may replace asset managers that have abdicated corporate stewardship duties. Others will boldly back diversity initiatives and raise climate ambitions. Some are declaring their purpose as “impact first.” Keep reading.

The Week’s Talent and Jobs

💼 See and share more than a dozen new impact jobs posted this week on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub and view hundreds of more jobs in impact investing and sustainable finance. Have a job listing to post? Submit it here.

Louise Yeung, who served as the climate lead for New York City’s comptroller’s office and policy director for Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, was named the city’s chief climate officer… Joanna Cohen joined Builders Vision from MacArthur Foundation as the family office’s head of impact management and measurement… Sarah Pinto Peyronel left Emerson Collective, where she has served as a venture investing partner since 2018… Joshua Miguel Jongewaard became director of investments for Working Capital for Community Needs. 

Marisa Magallanez became president and CEO of the Albuquerque Community Foundation and New Mexico Community Trust… Abell Foundation appointed Fagan Harris, former chief of staff to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, as president and CEO. He succeeds Robert Embry Jr., who retired at the end of 2025… Community Ventures tapped Troy Hannigan as executive director, who steps in for David La Fontaine, who is retiring after 30 years with the organization.

Harry Davies, previously with the Catalytic Capital Consortium, joined Livelihood Impact Fund as impact investing director… Gary Lee was promoted to project finance manager at Trajectory Energy Partners… The California Coalition for Community Investment tapped Rachel Mueller, previously with Public Interest Advocates, as advocacy director… Aligned Climate Capital promoted Mary King and Zach Good to senior vice presidents, Seb Soltysik to associate, and Rachel Powlen to operations associate. 

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System appointed Shari Slate, previously with CVS Health, as chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer… The African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs recruited Amber Banks, former chief operating officer of the Carolina Small Business Development Fund, to be its next president and CEO… Melissa Hoover, previously with Democracy at Work Institute, became Apis & Heritage Capital’s managing director of ownership culture.

The Skillman Foundation welcomed Walter Cook, previously with Detroit Public Schools Community District, as learning and impact manager… Kate Murphy, former principal at Soros Economic Development Fund, joined Open Road as an investment officer… Social Finance added Jenny Hafers, previously with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, as senior associate of corporate finance and operations… Hamza Louizi, formerly with International Finance Corp., joined the Mennonite Economic Development Associates as director of fund investments for the Mastercard Foundation’s Africa Growth Fund.

That’s a wrap. Have a wonderful weekend. 

– Jan. 9, 2026