Greetings Agents of Impact!
In today’s Brief:
- Tools and resources to stand with Minnesota
- Blue bonds to finance ocean health
- Ci-Gaba’s fund of funds for West African growth firms
- Practical advice for catalytic investors
Situational Analysis: Speaking Up
Stand with Minnesota. “What is happening in Minnesota won’t stop here,” Tonya Allen of Minneapolis-based McKnight Foundation, wrote this weekend after the shooting death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti at the hands of federal immigration agents. Allen, who last year helped rally foundation leaders to unite in advance of expected attacks from the Trump administration, urged philanthropic and impact investors “to call out the excessive use of force, the intense curtailment of civil liberties, and the ways these actions have attacked and undermined basic tenets of our democracy.” The group Stand With Minnesota offers a broad list of opportunities for engagement; McKnight has assembled tools for speaking up and is pointing funders to the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund to support targeted communities. McKnight last year raised its payout rate to go “all in on mission.” For impact investors, this is a time to double down in finding ways to invest that make for a better world,” Sorenson Impact Group’s Jim Sorenson told ImpactAlpha. “No one voted for law-abiding citizens being shot in the streets,” Fifty Years’ Seth Bannon posted on X. “If this crosses a line for you, now’s the moment to say it loudly.” – David Bank
Featured: Blue Economy
Issuers of ‘blue bonds’ seek to replicate growth of green bonds to finance ocean health. Oceans make up 70% of the Earth’s surface and store significantly more carbon and biodiversity than land-based ecosystems. Yet issuances of ‘blue bonds’ that target proceeds to protect and restore oceans, marine resources and coastal ecosystems total only about $30 billion. In contrast, nearly $4 trillion in land-based ‘green bonds’ have been issued over the past 20 years. Blue-bond backers are seeking to replicate green bonds’ growth. When Baltimore-based T Rowe Price secured a mandate from the International Finance Corp. in 2023 to build a blue bonds portfolio, it forecast issuances of under $2 billion per year. “We reached over $4 billion last year. It was much more than we expected,” says T Rowe Price’s Willem Visser. “It’s tiny, but it’s very much where the green bond market was in 2012.” T Rowe Price already has another $2 billion to $3 billion in issuances to close this year. “There’s just so much more traction,” says Visser. “Our objective is to help mobilize capital to the blue economy by working with issuers on bonds where 100% of the proceeds will be allocated to clean water and ocean-friendly projects.”
- High seas treaty. Good financial data is lacking; one estimate from several years ago pegged sustainable oceans and marine-ecosystem investing at about $25 billion annually – far below the $175 billion (at least) that’s needed each year. The takeup of blue finance could accelerate with a new international law on ocean conservation that came into force this month after two decades of negotiation. The UN Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction – the High Seas Treaty for short – has been signed by 145 countries and ratified by 83 (the US signed the treaty in 2023 but has not ratified it). The legally-binding agreement requires signatory countries to protect ocean biodiversity and implement sustainable marine ecosystem management. “We’re seeing a more educated asset-owner base,” says Visser. “The people who invest in our projects are more educated on sustainability themes, and they’re looking for diversification.”
- Market demand. Market enthusiasm about the latest issuance in the IFC portfolio, facilitated by T Rowe Price, a $300 million blue bond for Emirates NBD, a bank in Dubai, reflects growing interest in water and ocean-related impact investing from pension funds, family offices and foundations. The bond is part of a $1 billion, five-year issuance that also includes a $700 million green bond. Proceeds from the blue portion will be used to support desalination, sustainable water and wastewater management and other eligible projects under the IFC’s blue finance guidelines. Emirates NBD went to the bond markets to raise money to provide green and blue loans to its clients. “We continue to mobilize capital to stimulate and safeguard our region’s environmental priorities including preserving marine ecosystems, promoting more efficient water consumption and accelerating the energy transition,” said Emirates NBD’s Ahmed Al Qassim. Visser hopes such deals will serve as templates for other blue bond issuers. “The more transactions materialize, the easier it gets.”
- Ocean funds. “This whole area is completely underfunded and off the radar of mainstream investors,” says Sophie Robe of the impact advisory firm Fiind Impact, which shared its landscape review with ImpactAlpha. Larger ocean-focused funds include Pegasus Capital’s Global Fund for Coral Reefs, UBS and Rockefeller Asset Management’s Ocean Engagement Fund, and Climate Investors’ $1 billion second climate fund, for which oceans and freshwater are key themes.
- Keep reading, “Issuers of ‘blue bonds’ seek to replicate growth of green bonds to finance ocean health,” by Jessica Pothering.
Dealflow: Pathways to Growth
Ci-Gaba attracts Ghanaian pensions to a fund of funds investing in growth firms in West Africa. African pension funds and other institutional investors are starting, slowly, to play a more active role in building the continent’s economic engine: small businesses. Ghanaian pension funds have backed Ci-Gaba, a local fund of funds launched in 2023 to invest in small business fund managers in West Africa (see, “African investors warm to regional funds of funds to finance small business growth“). The fund, launched by Impact Investing Ghana, reached a first close of $30 million, with pension funds contributing two-thirds of the raised capital. UK government-backed FSD Africa Investments provided $7.5 million for the fund’s junior equity tranche, in US dollars, “helping to reduce foreign exchange exposure in the event of cedi depreciation between commitments to underlying fund managers and capital drawdowns,” an FSDAi representative told ImpactAlpha. Other investors in the fund include Small Foundation which provided $2.5 million, an undisclosed European development financial institution, and Argidius Foundation, which offered working capital. Ci-Gaba is aiming to raise $75 million, with 70% coming from African investors.
- LP / GP. Impact Investing Ghana, the Ghanaian national advisory board for impact investing, the Collaborative for Frontier Finance, philanthropic collaborations Growth Firms Alliance, and other groups have been working to shift policy, regulations and investor risk perceptions to unlock local capital for Africa’s small businesses (watch the Agents of Impact Call, “More of the right kind of capital for growth firms in Africa”). Ci-Gaba’s team is working on “expanding co-investment frameworks that enable pension funds to safely participate in alternative assets,” said Dinah Hammond of Savannah Impact Advisory, which manages Ci-Gaba. Ci-Gaba has invested in two funds and has a pipeline of 40 prospective managers.
Refurbi raises $4 million to bring refurbished phone marketplace to Mexico. Refurbi raised $4 million to expand its refurbished electronics marketplace from Colombia into Mexico. Latin American-tech fund Latin Leap led the seed extension, with participation from Epic Angels, PSM Impact Ventures, the Inter-American Development Bank and Banco Itaú. Bogotá-based Refurbi has helped more than 80,000 customers purchase refurbished devices, which account for less than 1% of Latin America’s mobile market, compared to up to 20% in Europe and the US. According to Refurbi founder Sebastián Jiménez, the problem isn’t pricing – it’s trust. “Consumers are afraid that the device won’t work properly or that no one will respond if something goes wrong,” he told ImpactAlpha. Refurbi sources used phones through trade-in programs, tests each device, discloses its exact condition, and backs purchases with a 14-month warranty. The company also has software to manage refurbishment operations for retailers, manufacturers, and telecom operators.
- Circular economy. The deal is the third third circular-economy investment in Latin America for Epic Angels, a 750-member network of female angel investors (for background see, “Mobilizing female angels”). The group has also backed MUTA, a B2B platform that digitizes recycling supply chains, and BioPlaster Research, a Yucatán startup that transforms invasive sargassum seaweed into biodegradable packaging. “Latin America’s circular economy opportunity is fundamentally different,” Epic Angels’ Maaike Doyer told ImpactAlpha. “The business case and impact case are completely aligned, which creates sustainable unit economics and social returns simultaneously.”
Teranga Capital backs Maraz to produce leather goods and train leathercrafters in Senegal. Teranga Capital is anchored by French impact firm Investisseurs & Partenaires to provide equity and quasi-equity for small and medium sized-businesses in Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. The firm invested in Senegal-based Maraz, which produces leather goods, selling through outlets in Dakar, Abidjan and Kigali. Maraz runs a training program dubbed M-Academy, which trains up to 500 people each year to work for Maraz or launch their own ventures. Teranga now holds a portfolio of nearly 40 companies and is looking at backing more than a dozen this year. “We’re seeing more startups and more companies,” Teranga’s Mohamed Ngom told ImpactAlpha. “The ecosystem is very dynamic.”
- Evergreen. Teranga has raised €3 million ($3.5 million) out of its €10 million goal, from I&P and the Dutch-funded Challenge Fund for Youth Employment, which is seeking to increase youth employment in the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa and Horn of Africa. Teranga had previously secured €6 million which it deployed between 2016 and 2023. (See, “Teranga Capital: Taking risks to build an impact ecosystem in West Africa”). “LPs are very satisfied with our level of investment and with the portfolio that we’ve created,” Ngom said. “The thing is, the Western African market of private equity is not really liquid because we do not have enough buyout funds.” Teranga, which has notched two exits, identifies high net worth individuals in West Africa as a path to liquidity. The firm achieved a partial exit, via secondary sale in 2024, from its stake in an AI-enabled language translation company. The buyer was the family offices of two football players of West African origin, Aurélien Tchouaméni who plays for Real Madrid, and Jules Koundé, who plays for FC Barcelona.
Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:
- M&G will invest more than £1 billion ($1.4 billion) in the UK over three to five years to support the creation of new affordable housing, clean energy and green infrastructure and social enterprises. (M&G)
- New Hampshire-based Conservation Resources raised $52 million in a first close for its second impact fund that invests in timberland and farmland real assets. (Conservation Resources)
- Bangalore-based Varthana Finance secured a $6 million line of credit from WaterEquity to expand access to clean water and sanitation in schools in India’s underserved communities. (WaterEquity)
Impact Voices: Catalytic Capital
Take risk, act swiftly and seven other tips for deploying catalytic capital the right way. Enduring Planet’s Dimitry Gershenson is fed up with financial institutions that claim to be catalytic while behaving otherwise. “Catalytic investors talk a big game about risk, yet they often demand similar downside protections (and sometimes even returns) as their commercial counterparts,” Gershenson writes in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. “This is antithetical to being a catalytic investor.” Oregon-based Enduring Planet deploys non-dilutive working capital to early-stage climate companies operating in the US. Gershenson offers best practices for institutions looking to get catalytic capital right. Gershenson told ImpactAlpha that Enduring Planet has secured its own catalytic capital: a $500,000 recoverable grant from Realize Impact, enabled by funding from the Schmidt Family Foundation. The grant will serve as first-loss capital in the climate tech lender’s second financing vehicle, Enduring Climate Fund II.
- Getting it right. Gershenson’s playbook is as much about investor behavior as it is about return expectations. He urges investors to radically shift their mindset and treat founders as their customers, stripping away unnecessary legal, reporting and process burdens that drain time and energy from entrepreneurs. Speed, he argues, should be a core feature of catalytic investing: “Beyond the capital itself, the most valuable thing you can give a founder is time,” he writes. He challenges funders to take real risk instead of waiting for validation from others. “If you’re waiting for a ‘lead,’ you’re not catalytic. You’re part of the bottleneck.” And he warns against complexity masquerading as innovation: “Don’t invent a novel revenue-share waterfall just to prove you’re innovative.”
- Derisking the capital stack. Enduring Planet projects that the new recoverable grant could unlock up to $9.5 million in additional private and institutional investment toward a projected $20 million close for Enduring Climate Fund II. That catalytic layer, which sits below a previously announced credit guarantee from the Community Investment Guarantee Pool managed by Locus Impact, creates a de-risked capital stack designed to accelerate Enduring Planet’s deployments. Gershenson tells ImpactAlpha the recoverable grant is “a huge win” that will “dramatically accelerate our journey towards ensuring that all climate entrepreneurs have the capital they need to solve the climate crisis.” Gift this post.
- Keep reading, “Take risk, act swiftly and seven other tips for deploying catalytic capital the right way,” by Dimitriy Gershenson.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Darren Walker, the former president of the Ford Foundation, is appointed president and chief executive of Anonymous Content, a media production company backed by Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective… Priyaka Dhingra, previously with the Principles for Responsible Investment, becomes head of impact and sustainable finance of Farro Capital… Jackie VanderBrug steps down as head of sustainability strategy of Putnam Investments, now part of Franklin Templeton… Fabienne Blanc is retiring after 15 years at SOCAP Global.
BlueMark is hiring a product manager… Global Partnerships seeks an investment director for its impact-first venture loan pool in Bogota… Also in Colombia, MCE Social Capital is looking for an associate investment manager in Latin America.
Hedge Impact Headhunting has an opening for an investment officer and investment origination and sourcing analyst in London… UK-based Places for People is recruiting an energy and sustainability manager… The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation is on the lookout for an Africa director for its water, sanitation and hygiene division.
👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.
Thank you for your impact!
– Jan. 26, 2026
