The Brief

The Brief: The ‘unavoidable opportunity’ that disrupted London Climate Action Week

ImpactAlpha · June 29, 2026

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

Feeling the heat at London’s climate week
The climate opportunity in ‘growth markets’
Propelling Africa’s deeptech startups past proof of concept
Drone-based reforestation in Latin America

Featured: Climate Action

Extreme heat at London Climate Action Week kicks off a scramble to adapt. London Climate Action Week opened with what the British call a “marmalade dropper.” Things got even stickier from there. Just as conference-goers took to their seats inside Guildhall last week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared outside 10 Downing Street to announce his resignation. A brutal, record-breaking heatwave was already gripping large parts of the UK and Europe as more than 75,000 people gathered for the annual climate confab, providing “a very clear and timely illustration of why Climate Action Week matters,” as Michele Giddens of Bridges Fund Management put it. The sweltering heat disrupted transit, strained energy grids, and prompted the UK to issue a rare “red alert.” Some of Bridges’ investors were unable to attend the firm’s annual investor day, also held last week in London, due to the heat. Climate Week organizers canceled dozens of events in buildings without air conditioning, including one hosted by the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance on addressing extreme heat. That, CarbonTracker’s Mark Campanale told ImpactAlpha, “is climate science moving from the footnotes into everyday life.”

Unavoidable opportunity. Climate adaptation, which has long long taken a back seat to mitigation efforts, is fast becoming an “unavoidable opportunity,” as Lightsmith Group’s Jay Koh calls it. The heatwave underscored a lack of preparedness, as global warming accelerates faster than many scientific models had predicted, and countries and corporations backtrack on climate commitments. Just 5% of UK homes have air conditioning, and about one-fifth of European homes; most northern and western European houses are built to retain heat. Londoners desperate to cool off found retailers sold out of air conditioning units. London mayor Sadiq Khan used Climate Week to unveil a climate adaptation plan, Heat Ready London, prompted by a 2022 heatwave where temperatures in London exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time. Khan was also among the more than 40 mayors from cities around the world that launched a pact to ensure that the data centers deliver cleaner energy, lower costs and benefit communities.
Keep reading, “Extreme heat at London Climate Action Week kicks off a scramble to adapt,” by Danielle Rossingh.

Spotting climate investment opportunities in the growth markets of the Global South. Only 15% of total climate finance is mobilized for low- and middle-income countries – excluding China – despite their contribution of roughly 50% of greenhouse gas emissions. So, as temperatures continue to rise, from London to Lagos, some of the best bets for getting climate finance at scale may be through local banks, credit unions and other financial institutions in the Global South, ImpactAlpha contributor Marilyn Waite reports from London Climate Action Week. At the World Climate Foundation’s summit at the London Stock Exchange, the discussion framed “the Global South” (aka low- and middle-income countries, emerging markets and developing countries) as “growth markets.”s “The common thread among Global South economies, the thinking goes, is the growth: in emissions, in populations, in economic activity.” Growing data that shows risk perceptions are overblown and opportunities abound for investors willing to take a closer look.

Around the world. This series on ImpactAlpha has featured investment opportunities in Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Senegal and Mexico. At LCAW, she engaged the Global South House, the Climate Justice Collaborative and a bankers-only convening, where one participant declared, “Clients who do not have climate transition plans in high emitting sectors…will be difficult to bank in the future, anyway.” Waite spotlights emerging market fund managers like Mzansi Clean Energy Capital, which partners with landlords to expand renewable energy in South Africa. Nordic Impact’s evergreen fund invests with a gender lens in climate resilient solutions in East Africa. The Good Fashion Fund supports sustainable textile companies in Vietnam, India and Bangladesh. Regenera Ventures is introducing venture equity to regenerative farming in Mexico. “There is no shortage of creative solutions to avert the worst of climate change,” writes Waite.
Keep reading, “Spotting climate investment opportunities in the growth markets of the Global South,” by Marilyn Waite.

Dealflow: Pathways to Growth

KfW backs Open Startup to finance African startups in health, climate and artificial intelligence. Tunisia-based Open Startup launched a decade ago as an entrepreneurship competition for university students. It has evolved into an accelerator for African deep tech startups. The accelerator is launching Openers First, its first special purpose vehicle which aims to raise $3 million to support startups in health, climate, artificial intelligence, blue tech, agtech, energy and insurance, and get past the proof of concept stage. It will provide local currency SAFE notes of between $20,000 to $50,000. The solutions sitting in labs and research centers “could completely transform the way we access health and other services,” if they had early funding, Open Startup’s Houda Ghozzi said. “Africa has always been using and spending money on technologies that are coming from the Western world.” It secured backing from the AfricaGrow Fund, German development bank KfW’s small business-financing initiative.

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Mercy Corps Ventures backs Argentina-based ReForest Latam. Buenos Aires-based ReForest Latam uses drones to restore degraded ecosystems. It creates biodegradable seed capsules containing native seeds, microorganisms and biostimulants that are dispersed by drones in hard-to-reach areas. The company uses artificial intelligence to select the optimal mix of native species for each restoration site. It has partnered with The Nature Conservancy, Land Innovation Fund and other conservation groups on 14 projects in Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil. ReForest raised a $1 million pre-seed round last year led by iThink VC, AgriFood Tech, Antom.la, BP Soluciones Eléctricas Confiables and Amauta Inversiones Financieras. “We are building the technology to make restoration viable at scale – not just for carbon markets, but for the communities whose livelihoods depend on healthy ecosystems,” said ReForest’s Damián Rivadeneira. The company snagged an investment from Mercy Corps Ventures, the impact investing arm of humanitarian organization Mercy Corps. Funding will help the company expand from pilot projects to larger multi-year restoration contracts.

Ecosystem restoration. Since launching in 2015, Mercy Corps Ventures has backed more than 60 early-stage companies and is raising its second fund, the Resilient Future Fund, to invest in climate fintech and adaptive agriculture and food systems. The ReForest deal adds to Mercy Corps Ventures’ growing portfolio of Latin American climate tech startups. Recent investments include Bio Natural Solutions, a Peruvian biotech firm developing crop protection products from agricultural waste; and Satellites on Fire, an Argentinian wildfire detection startup that raised a $2.7 million seed round in April led by Dalus Capital and Draper Associates.
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

Alecta, Sweden’s largest pension fund, invested $110 million in responsAbility, its third commitment to the firm. ResponsAbility will use the capital to finance energy efficiency, renewable energy and other green solutions in emerging markets. (responsAbility)
Florida-based “housing stability” company Upside raised $20 million from Aquiline, Flare Capital Partners, Freestyle Capital, Triple Impact Capital to build partnerships with employers and healthcare plan providers to keep individuals housed. (Upside)
NorthX Climate Tech made its third investment in British Columbia-based Moment Energy with a $3 million top up to cover upfront deployment costs for its EV battery-to-energy storage systems. (Techcouver)
Angola-based Anda, which finances electric vehicles under a “drive to own” model, raised funding from Proparco. (Proparco)

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Léa Dunand-Chatellet is appointed CEO of Mirova… Save the Children is hiring an impact intelligence director… VF Corporation is on the hunt for a senior manager of product sustainability and circularity…

The Development Bank of Southern Africa is recruiting a monitoring and gender officer… Symbiotics is searching for a financial institutions associate… Nyrstar is hiring an ESG data analyst… Klimate is hiring a senior client and commercial lead for carbon removal… Ninety One is looking for a private credit investment specialist… Fuse Energy seeks a head of government relations.