The Brief

The Brief: Investing in broadband for inclusive AI

ImpactAlpha · June 23, 2026

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

Closing the digital divide with community finance
Improving women’s access to healthcare
Investors design natural capital for nature’s cycles

Featured: Power in Place

Community finance can close the digital divides federal programs have left open. Federal broadband funding was supposed to bring high-speed internet to all Americans. Yet some 26 million Americans have no high-speed home internet access. Purpose-driven providers are cropping up across the country to close connectivity gaps. “This work needs lenders that can structure financing around the realities of each place, with flexible terms, patient capital and covenants that hold providers accountable,” writes Connect Humanity’s Brian Vo in a guest post. “It screams community development finance.” The San Francisco-based nonprofit partners with community and local broadband providers. Its pilot fund has deployed $3 million to catalyze $47 million in public and private financing for five projects. In Plumas County, Calif., Connect Humanity invested in Peak to Peak Communications to bring fiber to remote mountain communities in the Sierra Nevada. In Alabama, it structured a $500,000 loan that helped Rural LISC, the Macon County Economic Development Authority and Point Broadband advance a $3.9 million fiber build. The bigger goal, says Vo, is “to catalyze an ecosystem that sustains broadband lending perpetually so communities aren’t forever exposed to the boom-and-bust cycle of public grants.”

Fourth pillar of AI. Broadband has been called a social determinant of health and equity; it is also a prerequisite for participation in the AI economy. Fiber is an integral component of the AI machine itself, says the Fiber Broadband Association, whose May paper calls fiber the “fourth pillar” of AI alongside compute (chips), models (software) and power (energy). “Without fiber operating as both a high-speed internal nervous system and a distributed circulatory system, the compute, model and power investments cannot be fully realized,” write the authors. Vo offers a warning for impact investors beginning to invest across the AI stack: “If [impact] AI stack frameworks omit the layer everything runs on, it will reinforce the digital divide in the AI-era.” He continued: “If you can’t connect, the rest of the stack doesn’t exist for you. And you don’t exist in the stack.”
Capital continuum. In East Carroll Parish, La., a six-year campaign led by faith leaders and local organizers resulted in a state-awarded grant to bring fiber internet to the most rural parts of the parish. But the fiber stopped at the edge of Lake Providence, leaving the mostly Black and low-income residents with slow, expensive internet service. The town was due to receive a federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment, or BEAD, grant until the Trump administration reengineered the program, turning a $6 million award for fiber into $150,000 for Elon Musk’s Starlink’s satellite service. “More communities will be left wanting and waiting,” Vo writes. “These will disproportionately be the same rural areas, low-income households and communities of color passed over in previous funding cycles. A different approach is long overdue.” He adds, “This is a job for the whole capital continuum.”
Keep reading, “Community finance can close the digital divides federal programs keep leaving open,” by Connect Humanity’s Brian Vo.

Dealflow: Investing in Health

June Health snags early funding to improve women’s healthcare. The Toronto-based company pairs clinician-trained AI with physicians, nurse practitioners, psychotherapists and dietitians, to give women faster access to better care. “Women’s health has been underserved, underfunded and unnecessarily difficult to navigate for far too long,” said Lori Casselman, who launched June Health last year after more than 20 years in the healthcare and insurance industry. June Health partners with employers and insurers to help women navigate preventative care, hormonal and sexual healthcare, chronic conditions, and family planning. It raised C$2.4 million (US$1.7 million) in a round led by Toronto-based insurer Securian Canada. “June Health is building a thoughtful and differentiated approach to women’s healthcare that reflects both the complexity of women’s health needs and the growing demand for more connected care experiences,” said Securian’s Nigel Branker. AgeTech Capital, a Montreal-based investor in aging-focused tech startups, also participated, alongside several Canadian tech founders.

Europe’s silver economy. Separately, UMR, the retirement savings arm of French mutual insurer Groupe VYV, earmarked €350 million for a five-year “aging well” investment strategy. One in three people in France will be over 60 by 2050, according to UMR. Its Ogimi strategy was named after a northern Okinawa village renowned for the longevity of its residents. About €75 million ($85.6 million) will be allocated to an impact fund for French and European companies addressing home-based and preventive health care, mental health and career support, social connection and culture, and end-of-life care. UMR selected Paris-based fund managers Serena and Makesense to manage the fund, called Entourage.
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Spiro closes $270 million round with additional backing from NewTrails Capital. Dubai-based Spiro has for four years been building infrastructure to support Africa’s transition to electric mobility. The company manufactures, finances and sells three varieties of electric motorcycles, and operates a network of more than 2,500 battery swapping stations for drivers in seven African countries. Its latest investor is China-based NewTrails Capital, which is backed by Chinese smartphone producer Shenzhen Transsion Holdings and invests in alignment with China’s Belt and Road initiative. The growth fund manager committed $55 million to Spiro’s $270 million investment round. “Spiro has systematically integrated vehicles, batteries, energy replenishment, payments and service networks into a solution that is truly tailored to the needs of African users, effectively addressing long-standing structural pain points in the local market,” said NewTrails Capital’s Yufan Zhang in a statement.

Supply chains. Part of the funding will be used to help Spiro secure relationships with Chinese manufacturers. “As a Chinese fund committed to investing in Africa’s energy transition and green technology, we are very encouraged to see Chinese supply chains and financing playing an increasingly important role in this process,” said Zhang. Spiro earlier this month announced a $215 million raise from Equitane, which anchored the company when it was founded in 2022, and Impact Fund Denmark (see, “EV maker Spiro lands $215 million as African countries grapple with fuel costs”).
Catch up.

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

The Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians invested $2 million of its tribal funds to develop and own a three-megawatt solar project to “reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, support cleaner and more affordable energy, and strengthen our energy resilience,” according to the tribe’s Hunter Boldt. The project is also supported by $9.3 million from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. (Tribal Business News)
Spanish utility Iberdrola secured a $151 million sustainability-linked loan, denominated in Brazilian reais, from the Japan International Cooperation Agency to expand electricity access in northeastern Brazil. (Iberdrola)
Copenhagen-based Kvasir Technologies secured €10 million ($11.4 million) from European Energy, Maersk Growth and Footprint Fund to develop zero-carbon marine fuel. (Kvasir Technologies)
Mercy Corps Ventures invested in Logidoo, a logistics provider for smallholder farmers and small businesses in West Africa. (Mercy Corp Ventures)

UK-based electric cargo truck maker Superlight clinched $21 million in a Series A round co-led by Engine Ventures and 2150. (Superlight)

Signals: Investing in Nature

Investors learn to design nature-based investments around natural cycles. Natural systems don’t always adhere to traditional investment expectations. Nature-focused investors are increasingly designing their investments to align with natural cycles. More than half of nature-related deals in the last decade were designed to generate multiple income streams, encouraging long-term commitments from investors, according to “Gaining ground: the state of private investment in nature,” a new report from Forest Trends and The Nature Conservancy. North Carolina-based Aurora Sustainable Lands, for example, established a permanent capital vehicle to invest in sustainable timberland management, rather than applying the fixed-exit timelines that most timber funds use. The joint venture between Anew Climate and Oak Hill Advisors provides regular payments to investors through timber sales and carbon credit sales. Investors include Temasek-backed GenZero, Microsoft and TotalEnergies. “The movement toward multiple revenue models brings manager business models into closer alignment with how ecosystems actually work – as a bundle of diverse and mutually connected ecosystem functions,” the authors write. That should create “greater incentives for more holistic management.”

Capital flows. Investors have committed at least $61.4 billion to nature-based deals since 2016. That includes sustainable agriculture and forestry, ecosystem restoration and conservation, nature-based carbon deals, and technologies that support all of the above. Institutional investors are driving the increase, particularly in more mature markets like regenerative agriculture and sustainable forestry. Despite 5x annual growth, the roughly $14 billion invested last year is paltry compared to the $700 billion needed annually to bolster natural ecosystems. “Institutional participation remains selective,” the report states. “Institutions concentrate in familiar asset classes, with well-established managers, and in specific geographies.”
Investment roadmap. The Nature Conservancy has itself committed more than $250 million to climate- and nature-focused funds and companies. Its approach to climate investing is featured as a case study in a new guide by Tideline and Prime Coalition to help institutional investors evaluate climate opportunities with dedicated frameworks, diligence and outcome-tracking approaches. “Many allocators still face challenges translating climate ambitions into practical investment processes,” the partners shared in the release of “An allocator guide to climate solutions.” Other case studies include California pension fund CalPERS, IMAS Foundation and Queensland Investment Corp. Go deeper. (Disclosure: Tideline is an ImpactAlpha sponsor).
Keep reading.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Ira Goldstein will step down as Reinvestment Fund’s senior advisor of policy solutions to launch IJG Urban Advisors, an impact consulting firm… Angeles Toledo-van den Bogaard, formerly with Achmea Investment Management, joins Columbia Threadneedle Investments as responsible investments director… ResponsAbility brings on Iain Macdonald, previously with M&G Investments, as chief risk officer.

Cypress Creek Energy seeks an M&A associate in New York or San Francisco… Broadstreet Impact Services is looking for a senior associate for originations… Macquarie Group has an opening for an environmental and social risk manager… Blackstone Energy Transition Partners is on the hunt for a senior associate… Nathan Cummings Foundation is recruiting a grants and operations manager… Meyer Memorial Trust is hiring a managing director of investments in Oregon.