Essential news and insights to keep you ahead of the curve on impact investing and sustainable finance.
January 22, 2021
The Brief
The Week’s Big 5
1. Creativity, culture and capital. As more businesses are seeking impact alongside profit, “so too must our cultural institutions and creative industries now engage in the global effort to achieve just and sustainable impact economies,” writes Sir Ronald Cohen to introduce a collection of dozens of essays from Nesta, Fundación Compromiso and Upstart Co-Lab. ImpactAlpha presented four of the essays this week.
The Week’s Agent of Impact
Amanda Gorman, poet. Following Lady Gaga and J.Lo at a star-studded inauguration, the 22-year old poet stole the spotlight. Accolades poured in from Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Al Gore, who pointed new fans to Gorman’s call to climate action, "Earthrise." Gorman’s soon-to-be-published books of poetry, including one for children, jumped to the top of bestseller lists. Gorman demonstrated the vital social role of poetry and the arts. Her performance, The New York’s Times’ Dwight Garner said, felt like “the beginning of a remade connection in America between cultural and political life. A sleeping limb was tingling back into action.” The performance was all the more remarkable considering Gorman, like Biden, has worked to overcome a childhood speech impediment. Her inaugural poem, finished in the aftermath of the mob attack on the Capitol, describes “a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.”
The Week’s Dealflow
Low-carbon transition. Breakthrough Energy Ventures raises an additional $1 billion for cleantech startups… Renewable Resources Group and Capricorn Investment Group float a $250 million SPAC… Nuveen acquires clean energy infrastructure investor Glennmont Partners… Off Grid Electricity Fund invests in Energy Systems Group to bring solar electricity to Haiti.
The Week’s Talent
The Kresge Foundation taps Tosha Tabron, ex- of Invest Detroit, as a social investment officer and promotes Joe Evans to portfolio director and a social investment officer… Sarah Gelfand, ex- of Fidelity Charitable, joins BlueMark as managing director… Sandbox Industries names Kelsey Maguire and Binoy Bhansali as managing directors.
The Week’s Jobs
Omidyar Network is hiring a chief of staff in Washington, D.C… VertueLab seeks a two-year climate impact fund fellow… The Social Entrepreneurs’ Fund seeks an analyst in Brooklyn… Convergence is recruiting a regional representative for Latin America… The Nature Conservancy’s Conservation in Partnership with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities team is looking for a finance director in Arlington, Va.… London Business School’s Startup Hub is hiring a research associate in entrepreneurship… Arctaris Impact Investors is hiring an associate in Boston… The Boston Ujima Project has internships available for investment research and fund management in Boston.
Editor's Picks
Podcasts | January 22, 2021
Impact Briefing: Week of January 22
On this week’s podcast, host Brian Walsh breaks down creative-economy opportunities with Upstart Co-Lab’s Laura Callanan. We also listen, again, to some of …
Impact Voices | January 20, 2021
Local project developers are key to ensuring a just energy transition
Pollution and climate change disproportionately affect communities of color. In the U.S., decades of systemic racism and economic disadvantages mean Black and Hispanic …
Photo credit: Source Water
2030 Finance | January 20, 2021
Breakthrough Energy Ventures doubles down on cleantech
ImpactAlpha, January 20 – Breakthrough Energy Ventures has raised an additional $1 billion to invest in up to 50 startups with potentially game-changing climate …
Latest News
U.S. buyers test sustainability strategies at Peter Pan Seafood
Features | January 21, 2021
Aligned capital for creative entrepreneurs
Creative Economy | January 21, 2021
Two Sigma Impact and BayPine invest in workforce educator Penn Foster
Dealflow | January 21, 2021
The creative industries: Driving economic opportunity in Atlanta
Creative Economy | January 21, 2021
And that was just Day One of Biden’s climate agenda
Climate Finance | January 21, 2021
Local project developers are key to ensuring a just energy transition
Impact Voices | January 20, 2021
Breakthrough Energy Ventures doubles down on cleantech
2030 Finance | January 20, 2021
Investors and corporations bet billions on mobility’s all-electric future
Climate and Clean Tech | January 20, 2021
Safeguarding a creative and cultural moment: The impact of COVID-19 on Africa’s creative sectors
Creative Economy | January 20, 2021
Looking Ahead to 2021
Looking Ahead to 2021 | January 7, 2021
Here are 10 ways investors are riding the sustainability wave into 2021
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 7 – The table was set with last year’s flows of capital into sustainable funds, renewable energy ‘SPACs,’ community development financial …
Call Recording | January 6, 2021
The Call: What Agents of Impact are expecting in 2021 (replay)
ImpactAlpha, January 6 — A few of the keywords thrown around on last month’s Agents of Impact Call No. 26: accountability, electrification, institutional, …
ESG | December 18, 2020
Looking Ahead: Investors, asset managers and, yes, corporations, set their sights on impact outcomes in 2021
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 18 – The COVID-19 pandemic revealed global financial systems as one disruption away from disaster. If the markets’ legacies of shareholder …
Climate and Clean Tech | December 17, 2020
Looking Ahead: With alarm bells ringing, investors step up for dramatic climate action in 2021 – or else
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 17 – The COVID pandemic was just a warm-up for the coming catastrophe: climate change. As wrenching as was this year’s …
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Looking Ahead to 2021 | December 16, 2020
Looking ahead: Centering Blackness in the U.S. economic recovery and reconstruction in 2021
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 16 – The period after the Civil War was a time of great ferment, division – and systemic change. Today’s confluence …
Catalytic Capital | December 15, 2020
Looking ahead: Catalytic investors sharpen their tools for deep impact in 2021
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – Catalytic capital is always ‘impact on.’ That intention has rarely been more important than this year, when investors able …
Photo credit: Horn Products Uganda
Frontier & Growth Markets | December 14, 2020
Looking ahead: Helping small businesses in emerging markets survive and thrive in 2021
ImpactAlpha, December 14 – The stabilization and revival of the micro, small and medium-sized businesses sector has been the emerging markets story of …
Climate Finance
Features | January 21, 2021
U.S. buyers test sustainability strategies at Peter Pan Seafood
New buyers aim to turn around an iconic Alaska salmon processor that was a money-loser for its former Japanese owner. Alaska-based McKinley Capital …
Climate Finance | January 21, 2021
And that was just Day One of Biden’s climate agenda
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 21 – It was the executive order heard ‘round the world. “Welcome back to the Paris Agreement!” tweeted French president Emmanuel …
Clean Energy | January 20, 2021
Off Grid Electricity Fund invests Energy Systems Group to bring solar electricity to Haiti
ImpactAlpha, January 20 — More than half of Haiti’s population lack access to reliable electricity. The Haitian government established the Off Grid Electricity …
Photo credit: DeHaat
Agrifood Tech | January 20, 2021
DeHaat raises $30 million to support smallholder farmers in India
ImpactAlpha, January 20 — Agtech venture DeHaat, headquartered in the rural state of Bihar, runs an online marketplace that connects India’s small farmers …
Dealflow | January 19, 2021
Renewable Resources Group and Capricorn Investment Group float a SPAC
ImpactAlpha, January 19 – Investment firms Renewable Resources Group and Capricorn Investment Group have launched Sustainable Development Acquisition I Corp. The special purpose acquisition …
Africa | January 19, 2021
Lion’s Head closes $400 million Facility for Energy Inclusion
ImpactAlpha, January 19 – Lion’s Head’s Facility for Energy Inclusion launched in 2017 to finance off-grid renewable power producers in Africa with projects of …
Room full of flying books
Clean Energy | January 19, 2021
New books on the new rules for a new era of business
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 19 – From the COVID pandemic and climate change to the racial justice uprising and assaults on democracy, the tumultuous events …
Conservation | January 14, 2021
Coral Vita secures $2 million to help corals adapt to climate change
ImpactAlpha, January 14 – Healthy coral reefs foster biodiversity and provide food, income and protection for more than 500 million people. But pollution and …
Photo credit: Daystar Power
Africa | January 14, 2021
Daystar Power raises $38 million to expand commercial solar power in West Africa
ImpactAlpha, January 14 – Mauritius-based Daystar Power installs and manages commercial and industrial solar installations in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire. The …
Climate Finance | January 13, 2021
Jigar Shah: Deployment, deployment, deployment are keywords for sustainable infrastructure in 2021 (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, Jan 13 – First came solar and wind energy. Then batteries and storage. Now, a raft of better, cheaper and more sustainable …
Clean Energy | January 13, 2021
Electric fleet company Proterra to go public through merger with ArcLight SPAC
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 13 – Burlingame, Calif. electric bus maker Proterra announced a merger with ArcLight Clean Transition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition …
Climate Finance | January 13, 2021
What the U.S. return to the Paris Agreement means for investors
After years of signaling its intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement to fight climate change, the United States made the decision official …
Catalytic Capital
Photo credit: Medical Credit Fund
Africa | January 13, 2021
Medical Credit Fund blends $19.2 million to finance Africa’s frontline health clinics
ImpactAlpha, January 13 – Small, privately-run clinics are often the only providers of essential health services in remote and low-income parts of Africa. …
NAHUALA, GUATEMALA | Photo credit: Sarine Arslanian
Catalytic Capital | January 11, 2021
How to invest in an inclusive business recovery in Latin America
Small and growing businesses are significant actors in economic production, employment, and growth in Latin America and the Caribbean. According to the OECD, …
Bill Gates illustration | by Wahyu97
Catalytic Capital | December 23, 2020
Bill Gates says the world (sorta) came together to fight COVID-19. Next up: Climate
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 23 – “This is like a world war, except in this case, we’re all on the same side,” Gates wrote last spring, …
Asia | December 23, 2020
Northern Arc Capital scores debt financing to serve India’s underbanked
ImpactAlpha, December 23 — Northern Arc Capital, an East India-based non-banking finance company that provides access to debt for underbanked individual borrowers and …
Catalytic Capital | December 15, 2020
Looking ahead: Catalytic investors sharpen their tools for deep impact in 2021
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – Catalytic capital is always ‘impact on.’ That intention has rarely been more important than this year, when investors able …
Photo credit: Nacro
Catalytic Capital | December 14, 2020
MacArthur Foundation, Big Society anchor UK’s Women in Safe Homes fund
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 14 – Through a lease-to-own model, Women in Safe Homes fund, a residential property investment fund, will acquire properties and lease them …
Catalytic Capital | December 2, 2020
Texas foundations sets up fund for COVID-impacted health clinics
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 3 – Health facilities in many parts of the U.S., and particularly low-income and rural areas, are buckling under the weight of …
Catalytic Capital | December 1, 2020
Refugee investments provide blueprints for Biden’s reset on immigration
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 1 – As the Trump administration was building walls and new restrictions, impact investors and innovative humanitarians were creating a marketplace of …
Africa | November 24, 2020
CrossBoundary Energy’s fund exit is a proof point for Africa’s commercial solar market – and catalytic capital
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 24 – An African solar energy fund that only five years ago appeared too risky even for impact investors has delivered, …
Africa | November 23, 2020
An ‘impact-first’ approach to investing for climate justice in rural communities
If you are an investor interested in learning more about how to invest in climate justice solutions, join us on December 3rd for …
Photo credit: Cergios
Catalytic Capital | November 10, 2020
Gates Foundation’s role in Pfizer’s promising COVID vaccine is part of a strategy, not a conspiracy
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 10 – The Gates Foundation’s $55 million equity investment last fall into a German biotech company could have big payoff: an …
Catalytic Capital | October 29, 2020
How a portfolio of inclusive businesses prioritized the poor through COVID
The spread of COVID-19 and the economic devastation in its wake have shown just how necessary for-profit approaches are to serving the poor …
Agents of Impact
Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact.