The Brief

ImpactAlpha LP/GP: SpaceX, Anthropic IPOs set to unlock billions in liquidity for impact LPs

ImpactAlpha ¡ June 24, 2026

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In this week’s newsletter:

  • Impact LPs nervously await windfall from SpaceX and Anthropic IPOs
  • New funds for farmer livelihoods and industrial decarbonization
  • The value of outside voices on investment committees

Featured: Liquidity Events

SpaceX, Anthropic IPOs set to unlock billions in liquidity for impact LPs. You could forgive foundations for nervously watching the stock market as a tech sell-off spread this week. The unlikely focus of their attention: Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is poised to deliver a huge payload, and much-needed liquidity, to institutions with exposure to the rocket company. Those investments were largely made through commitments to funds managed by DBL Partners and Capricorn Investment Group, two managers that introduced many foundations to venture investing and advanced the case that impact can drive outsized value creation. Both funds were also early investors in Musk’s Tesla, which has a market cap today over $1 trillion. Among the LPs in the DBL and Capricorn funds – many in both – are the Surdna, Sand Hill, Santa Barbara, California Wellness, Marguerite Casey and McKnight foundations. The Skoll Foundation, which is closely linked to Capricorn, will also see a windfall. “This one is really going to matter to these investors,” says Adam Connaker of Surdna Foundation, which made a $5 million investment in DBL Partners’ third fund in 2017 as part of the foundation’s first $100 million impact commitment. “When you think about liquidity, we’re not used to it coming in these massive chunks like this,” Connaker tells ImpactAlpha. For Surdna, the SpaceX exposure “has the potential to drive the bulk of the liquidity needs for the next 18 months.”

  • Super cycle. The SpaceX IPO is the most recent event in a cycle of impact-oriented IPOs that could unlock billions in long-awaited liquidity for foundations and other mission-driven investors. At the time of first DBL and Capricorn investments, SpaceX was building out its Starlink satellite network with the aim of delivering affordable, universal internet access. In May, geothermal company Fervo went public following earlier investments from funds from Capricorn, Elemental Impact and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Next up: Anthropic. The frontier AI company is expected to make its public debut later this year at another trillion-dollar-plus valuation. Ford Foundation, Omidyar Network and Nathan Cummings Foundation invested a combined $7.5 million for just under 250,000 shares of Anthropic (see, “With stakes in Anthropic, impact investors seek a seat at the AI table”). Even that small stake has already swelled more than 30x. The foundations are among a growing number of impact investors with interest in responsible technology and inclusive AI. 
  • Returns on impact. Foundation investors have spent the past two weeks trying to figure out the timing and likely size of their returns, often spread over two or more funds. Fund managers are not able to reap gains until a lockup period expires. DBL’s Ira Ehrenpreis is on the board of SpaceX, which could lock the firm up for a year. DBL declined to comment and Capricorn did not respond to a request for comment. SpaceX shares closed at $156 yesterday, down from over $200 last week, but still above its $150 opening price. The wild swings can make a difference of tens of millions of dollars for LPs. Even so, for early investors, the multiple gains will ensure a rich payout. The impact returns are a different story. In recent years, Musk has presided over the dismantling of government aid and social programs, and fomented racial divisions on his social media platform, X (now part of SpaceX). In February, he merged SpaceX with xAI, his fledgling AI contender. Some of the company’s data centers have been powered by unpermitted gas turbines sited next to low income and Black communities in the South. 

🟢 Live on Edge: Impact in IPOs

Heading for the exits. DBL Partners and Capricorn Investment Group were early investors in SpaceX and Tesla, while Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Elemental Impact, Capricorn, Congruent Ventures, DCVC and Prelude Ventures invested in geothermal power company Fervo. 

  • Capricorn backed Fervo through its Technology Impact Fund I and Technology Impact Growth Fund II. The firm invested in SpaceX via its Technology Impact Growth Fund I. Capricorn’s LPs include the Surdna, Grantham, Villum Fonden and Santa Barbara foundations. See allocations to Capricorn’s funds here.
  • LPs with exposure to SpaceX via DBL Partners funds III and IV include the California Wellness, Marguerite Casey, McKnight, Surdna and Santa Barbara foundations, as well as Environmental Agency Pension Fund and if, A Foundation for Radical Possibility.

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Dealflow: Nature-Based Solutions

Danone-backed Livelihoods lands €124 million for its fourth nature-based fund. French food giant Danone rallied a raft of other companies with net-zero targets to launch the Livelihoods Carbon Fund in 2011. The investment strategy drew support from Schneider Electric, CrĂŠdit Agricole, Michelin, Hermès, SAP, Groupe Caisse des DĂŠpĂ´ts, La Poste, Firmenich and Voyageurs du Monde to invest in nature restoration, agroforestry, rural energy projects and farmer livelihoods in Africa, Latin America and Asia. For many of the companies, the initiative also directly supports resilience in their supply chains. Livelihoods is now out with its fourth fund, securing €124 million ($141 million) of its €150 million goal. The organization is scaling up the scope of the projects with the goal of impacting 500,000 people and sequestering up to 10 million tons of CO2 over a span of 25 years (see related, “Investors learn to design nature-based investments around natural cycles“). Success, Livelihoods’ Eric Soubeiran told ImpactAlpha, “means demonstrating that nature-based solutions can deliver multiple outcomes simultaneously: climate mitigation, ecosystem restoration and rural development.”

Pachamama Ventures closes debut fund to decarbonize industry, energy and freight. The San Francisco-based investment firm is tackling the hardest-to-abate sectors in the economy with a fund for tech founders rethinking how goods are made, moved, powered and measured. Pachamama focuses on technologies supporting the decarbonization of materials and industrial processes, energy systems and infrastructure and freight technology. It also invests in climate data and decision infrastructure. The firm’s approach to ensuring its portfolio startups get traction is to “give them something most venture funds cannot: direct access to the Fortune 500 buyers, procurement officers, and commercial relationships that determine whether a climate technology actually scales,” Pachamama’s Karen Sheffield said in a statement. The firm closed its $5 million debut fund with an anchor investment from Environment Next, a climate-focused foundation, and 53 other investors, including a family office and individual operators with expertise in the firm’s target sectors. 

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

Impact Voices: Good Governance

How external voices strengthen mission-aligned endowments. For foundations trying to align their endowments with their missions, governance matters as much as good intentions. That’s why Builders Vision Foundation recruited members from outside of the organization to its investment committee as it worked to align its $3 billion endowment to its mission. “As our work evolved, we saw real value in bringing in additional practitioners and field experts with deep experience across philanthropy, investing and adjacent sectors,” writes Builders Vision’s Danielle Reed in a guest post. Rather than treating governance as a “static structure,” she continues, “we approached it as a strategic lever – one that could expand our thinking, challenge our assumptions and ultimately strengthen outcomes.” Today more than 90% of the endowment is mission-aligned while meeting Builders’ target of market-rate returns, Reed says.

  • Productive friction. The value of opening investment committees to outside members is that they lend credibility to the process, broaden the universe of opportunities and foster healthy debate. One of Builders’ IC members, Pivotal’s Erin Harkless Moore, says independent voices provide “productive dissent that might not exist internally.” Another, Spring Point Partners’ Margot Kane, says that in early stages of investment consideration, “we can provide more meaningful feedback.” Adds Reed: “External members are effective not just because of what they know, but because of how they engage.”
  • Keep reading, “How external voices strengthen mission-aligned endowments,” by Builders Vision’s Danielle Reed. 

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

The Ford Foundation elects Ursula Burns, former CEO of Xerox Corporation, as board chair – the first Black woman to hold the position in the foundation’s 90-year history. She succeeds Francisco Cigarroa… Boston Ujima Project welcomes Renee Hatcher of the University of Illinois Chicago’s School of Law as a solidarity economy law fellow… OwnersEdge, an employee-owned ESOP holding company, names Robert Dillon as CEO, following the retirement of co-CEO Christine Adee.

Nathanael Koehler, previously with One Planet Sovereign Wealth Funds, joins Finca International as executive engagement senior manager… Overture Ventures promotes Emma MacDonagh to partner and chief operating officer… Kauffman Foundation is on the hunt for an investment managing director in Kansas City, Mo… Rhia Ventures has an opening for a senior investment director… Ørsted seeks an analyst for strategic acquisitions in Boston.

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– June 24, 2026