The Week in impact investing: Redesign

TGIF, Agents of Impact! 

• Roundup: Disruptive innovation
• Podcasts: Affordable housing, advocating for children and more
• Spotlight: Local, bio-based alternatives to synthetic fertilizer

🗣 Disruptive innovation. Which energy source is “intermittent” now? The effective blockade of oil, natural gas, fertilizer and other supplies through the Strait of Hormuz has made the alternatives suddenly more attractive. Every $1 increase in the price of gasoline costs the average driver about $450 per year, making the case for electric vehicles more effectively than any mandates. EVs and other “cheaper, faster, better” solutions that will power the 21st century have been nibbling at the energy, mobility and agriculture markets for years. The war with Iran could deliver an object lesson for the theory of disruptive innovation, as such solutions suddenly displace incumbent approaches. “It is a very clear reason why we need to accelerate our energy transition and to get rid of fossil fuels as soon as possible,” the European Union’s Teresa Ribera said in Washington yesterday as oil prices rose and stock markets fell. “The quicker we go, the more protected we’re going to be.” In the name of energy security, European pension funds are already opening their checkbooks for green solutions, as ImpactAlpha contributor Danielle Rossingh reported. Amy Cortese rounded up some of the promising alternatives to fossil-based fertilizers (below). 

There’s no shortage of other archaic systems in need of redesign. In a guest post, InSight54’s Karim Mohamed cracked open the door to a discussion about the difficulties of working with Mastercard Foundation, for years a “poorly kept secret” in Africa. The demise of USAID and decline in foreign aid makes the $2.5 billion Mastercard Foundation disburses each year all the more important. “We could draft a bold roadmap to success,” responded one weary practitioner. In the US, BlackRock’s Larry Fink offered ideas in his annual letter for shoring up Social Security and luring retail investors to private markets, as Amy reported. Veteran “houser” Carol Galante told me in our podcast conversation that permitting and financing reforms in California, along with new construction techniques, are finally spurring the building of more housing, more cheaply. As she put it: “California has had the advantage of having such a deep problem.”  

Such a redesign is underway in the world of private equity buyouts, where the discussion has moved from whether to share lucrative paydays at exit with a company’s workers, to why not share more? As Roodgally Senatus reported, some workers at Calgary-based CoolIT received up to eight times their annual salaries when KKR sold the provider of data-center cooling systems for $4.8 billion; executives and KKR’s investors got much, much more. (Where do you fall on what contributing editor Antony Bugg-Levine is calling “the Bolands-Stavros spectrum”?) Roody also reported on how the private equity playbook is getting redesigned in Minneapolis, where Brick by Brick is reclaiming homes from investors to restore individual and local ownership.

Impact investing is not exempt from the need for its own renewal. “That may also mean we need fewer, stronger organizations,” Antony and Ford Foundation’s Margot Brandenburg wrote, arguing for consolidation among the nonprofit field-builders competing for flat philanthropic funding (and stirring a buzz among the organizations mentioned in such discussions). Even as impact investing assets have grown, economic inequality has widened and capital markets continue to deliver an increasing share of profits to a shrinking number of people, they write. “Mergers and acquisitions should be part of the menu of options for how we strengthen this field so that impact investing and inclusive capitalism realize their potential to deliver an economy that works for all of us.” – David Bank

The Week’s Podcasts

🎧 Agents of Impact. “We have to build more housing, and we need to build it more cost-effectively than we do today,” Carol Galante, founder of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley, tells David Bank. “Those two things together would make a big difference in how many people can affordably own or rent a home in California.” Listen in. Get the podcast in your feed by subscribing on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.

👪Money + Meaning. The moral argument for investing in children is obvious. The economic argument may be just as compelling, Mark Davis of the child advocacy organization TableSense tells David on a special episode of SOCAP’s podcast. He says that eradicating child poverty could increase US GDP by 5%, or nearly $1 trillion dollars. “This is a problem that’s worth solving.” Tune in. 

📯The Criterion Institute Podcast. Host Joy Anderson reframes strategy as readiness: noticing signals, building trust and being prepared to step forward when the moment to act arrives. Hear it here.

The Week’s Spotlight

Persian Gulf blockade stokes demand for local, bio-based fertilizers. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has cut off more than oil; the Gulf region accounts for as much as one-third of global fertilizer supply and key inputs such as urea, sulfur and ammonia. Prices for synthetic fertilizers have skyrocketed just as the spring planting season gets underway in the northern hemisphere. “We are more dependent, in percentage terms, on fertilizer coming through the Strait than we are oil coming through the Strait,” Generation Investment Management’s Justin Gillis told ImpactAlpha. The shortage is expected to reduce yields and drive up food prices. “The shutdown of global shipping corridors could have a dire impact on global food insecurity,” says Nicolas Pinkowski of Nitricity. The looming crisis has sparked new interest in bio-based fertilizers like Nitricity’s, which is made without petro-inputs shipped from halfway around the world. 

• Growth opportunities. Startups are looking to shake up the $142 billion market for synthetic fertilizer, which relies heavily on natural gas. Pivot Bio, a Berkeley, Calif. company that uses microbes to make nitrogen from the air usable for crops, has seen a surge in demand from growers looking for affordable and reliable alternatives. It has boosted output at its facility in St. Louis, Mo., and lowered prices. “Our focus is working alongside growers to provide greater price and supply certainty in the years ahead,” said Pivot Bio’s Christopher Abbott. Earlier this month, Solugen Global, a Quebec-based company that converts hog manure into organic nitrogen fertilizer, raised $50 million from Idealist Capital and the Canada Growth Fund. The funding will help Solugen scale production of its fast-release liquid nitrogen fertilizer.
  
• Food security. In California’s Central Valley, Nitricity is ramping up production at a first-of-a-kind plant that produces fertilizers from air, water, renewable energy and agricultural waste, such as almond shells. The facility was financed with $10 million from Elemental Impact and Prime Coalition’s Trellis Climate. Nitricity last year raised a $50 million Series B funding round co-led by Khosla Ventures and Berlin-based climate tech investor World Fund. In Europe, Nitricity is tapping wood and waste from olive oil manufacturing. Like many of its bio-based peers, Nitricity’s approach can be replicated anywhere, creating “a supply chain where hundreds of millions of people won’t go hungry when there’s a war on the other side of the world from them.”

• Keep reading and catch up on all of this week’s dealflow reporting.

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.

Candide Group tapped Kyle Ruane, previously with Homegrown, as home and place investment director… Unreasonable Group promoted Muzna Khan to president. Daniel Epstein will remain as CEO… Impact Capital Managers hired Adam Habib Cisse, formerly with Dakar Network Angels, as an analyst for programs and operations… Tolu Oyekan was promoted to global people lead at Boston Consulting Group’s social impact practice… 

Energy Impact Partners welcomed Joey Abdo as an investment associate… Emily Hanno, previously with MDRC, joined Overdeck Family Foundation as a research and impact officer… Sofie Käll was promoted to partner at the Footprint Firm… The New Mexico State Investment Council appointed Kristin Varel, previously with the Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaiʻi, as chief investment officer… ROC USA welcomed Lexmare Martinez, formerly with Enterprise Community Partners, as senior asset manager. 

Skoll Foundation tapped Salah Goss, former CEO of Impulse 52, as chief program officer… Rebecca Cruz, previously with Freddie Mac, joined WaterEquity as vice president of investor relations… ImpactGC appointed Cortney Mukushi, previously with Calvert Impact’s Climate United Fund, as partner… Social Investment Management and Advisors added Jesutooni Ajiboye, previously with MBO Capital Management, as senior legal officer. 

Nic Miller, previously with Western University’s Ivey Business School, joined Canadian Women’s Foundation as philanthropy vice president… Ownership Works welcomed John Adler, chief ESG officer of the Office of the New York City Comptroller, and Jill Schurtz of the Minnesota State Board of Investment, to its limited partners leadership council… Merchants Capital promoted Jillian Standish as chief credit and equity officer… University of Michigan’s William Davidson Institute appointed Gagandeep Bakshi, formerly with Intellecap, as senior director of impact investing.

That’s a wrap. Have a wonderful weekend. 

– March 27, 2026