ImpactAlpha Latin America

Adapting the ‘tools of finance’ for impact in Latin America

Dennis Price · May 28, 2025
Quito, Ecuador | Photo credit: Max Maximov Photography

Saludos, Agents of Impact!

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¡Empecemos! – Dennis Price

In this month’s newsletter:

  • Adapting the ‘tools of finance’ for impact in Latin America
  • LPs investing for impact
  • Catalyzing deeptech for climate in Brazil

At CLIIQ, adapting the ‘tools of finance’ for deeper, localized impact in Latin America. When the first Latin American Impact Investment Summit took place in 2018, the region’s impact investing ecosystem was largely built around familiar capital channels – established fund managers in the US and Europe – and the major markets of Mexico and Brazil. But smaller ecosystems were quietly coming together, as fund managers from the region were designing new investment theses based on their local knowledge. Such strategies are now becoming a more intentional focus for Latin America’s expanding roster of impact investors. “It’s about developing the next generation of fund managers,” says Justin Schwartz of Impaqto Capital, the Quito-based fund manager that organizes the convening, known as CLIIQ. “Investors are realizing that their impact could be deeper with more proximate fund managers because of the types of companies and opportunities those fund managers can access.” 

  • Innovative impact finance. Local managers such as Corina Marion from Bolivia-based Babasú Ventures, Carmen de la Cerda of Ecuador-based BuenTrip Ventures, and Abigail Napsuciale of Costa Rica-based Atta Impact Capital will be front and center at this year’s convening in Quito next week, where ImpactAlpha is the conference media partner. “There’s a realization that the tools of market-rate finance are often not the right ones – that the tools of finance need to be expanded and adapted to the realities of local markets,” says Schwartz, who spoke with ImpactAlpha ahead of CLIIQ to share his observations about Latin America’s evolving impact landscape. “There’s definitely appetite from investors for new models.”
  • Climate conversation. With the COP30 climate summit happening in Brazil later this year, Schwartz expects much of the climate conversation at the convening to coalesce around preservation and restoration of the Amazon rainforest, one of the world’s biggest and most vulnerable carbon sinks and hubs of biodiversity. Among other themes to watch: the emergence of new fund managers and investors, and what local ecosystems need to scale promising models of impact entrepreneurship and finance. Says Schwartz, “There’s definitely appetite from investors for new models.”
  • Read ImpactAlpha’s full interview with Impaqto’s Justin Schwartz. Are you attending CLIIQ? Say hi to ImpactAlpha’s Erik Stein, who will be on the scene in Quito, or drop us a note to let us know what’s on your mind.

Dealflow: LP / GP

LP look: More than twenty institutions hot on Latam impact strategies. The Japan International Cooperation Agency earlier this year made clear its opinion on the investment opportunity in Latin America. The Japanese development finance institution committed $1 billion to IDB Invest to launch the JICA Trust Fund Achieving Development of Latin America and the Caribbean, or TADAC, a co-investment fund for the two organizations. It also invested in Mexico-based Dalus Capital’s third fund for the region’s early stage impact and climate tech startups, and Amazonia Impact Ventures, a new fund manager investing in sustainable livelihoods in the Amazon (for background, watch ImpactAlpha’s interview with JICA’s Michiko Kogure). ImpactAlpha has been keeping tabs on nearly two dozen investors – from institutional LPs to small foundations – that have been active this year in just as many impact investment strategies in Latin America. Some highlights:

  • Natural capital. The biodiversity-rich region has become a proving ground for nature-based solutions and conservation finance models. Mombak’s Amazon Reforestation Fund, which buys and reforests degraded land in the Amazon, reached its $100 million fundraising goal with backing from AXA, Canada Pension Plan, Bain Capital, Union Square Ventures, the Rockefeller Foundation and others. EcoEnterprises Fund reached a $50 million first close for its fourth fund with backing from IDB Invest, the Finland-LAC Blended Finance Climate Fund, FinDev Canada, Visa Foundation, Wire Group and FMO. New fund manager Regenera Ventures secured investments from IDB Lab, the Green Climate Fund and the US International Development Finance Corp. to support regenerative agriculture and land restoration in Mexico.
  • Blended finance. The region’s fund managers face difficulty raising catalytic capital from philanthropic and development finance institutions to derisk emerging strategies. Mombak succeeded in securing a guarantee from Santander for its Amazon Reforestation Fund. Kawá Fund, launched by Arapyaú Institute, Violet and MOV Investimentos, is leveraging philanthropic funding and Agribusiness Receivables Certificates to crowd private investors into a planned $175 million fund to lend to Brazil’s cocoa producers. The Nature Conservancy and the Moore Foundation have supported Vox Capital’s blended finance fund for sustainable land use in the Amazon.
  • Local investors. Almost 20% of capital in blended finance transactions in the region now comes from local foundations, corporations, family offices and other investors. Impaqto Capital is among the region’s fund managers who can speak first hand to local investors’ growing appetite for impact investing. The Quito-based firm in January closed its first investment fund at $2.1 million, 40% of which came from investors in the region, including ​​CREAS Ecuador. “The majority of capital still comes from the outside,” says Impaqto’s Justin Schwartz (see above), “but we’re seeing progress in terms of local corporates and foundations investing in funds here.”
  • Keep reading.

Dealflow overflow. More investment news crossing our desks:

  • Affordable housing.Brazilian lender Makasi landed $21 million to accelerate affordable housing construction.
  • Circular economy. Ocean 14 and S2G Investments jointly invested in Colombia’s Enthos Circular Feed Technologies, which produces animal feed by farming insects.
  • Conservation finance. Brazil’s Re.green,which restores degraded land through reforestation, raised 80 million reais from the Brazilian development bank BNDES.
  • Energy transition. RM Capital Partners acquired Integrated Solar Operations, a provider of solar energy systems to residential, commercial and government customers in Puerto Rico.
  • Economic inclusion. Boston-based Mendoza Impact made a $250,000 investment in Prosperos, a Latino-focused neobank that offers remittance transfers, credit cards and other financial services with no fees… FinDev Canada committed $15 million to EcoEnterprises’ fourth fund to capitalize eco-conscious enterprises in Latin America… IDB Invest and the Japan International Cooperation Agency agreed to loan $20 million to Ecuador’s Banco Solidario to drive access to capital for female business owners.
  • Impact bonds. Royal America issued a $26 million green bond with backing from responsAbility and IDB Invest.
  • Investing in health. Impact Ventures PSM Seed backed women-led TIMSER Group, a health tech startup developing accessible testing for cervical cancer detection in Mexico.

Impact Voices: Climate Tech

DeepClimate: Catalyzing Brazilian scientific innovation to combat the climate crisis. Complex challenges require complex solutions. ‘Deeptech’ ventures in Brazil that possess science- and technology-based innovations with the potential to reconfigure entire sectors are increasingly pointing that tech towards climate. Some 40% of deeptechs in Latin America’s largest country (totaling 470 companies) already operate in climate critical sectors such as agro and bioeconomy; low-carbon materials and energy; water purification, sanitation, and blue economy; predictive systems and environmental monitoring via AI. Bottlenecks remain in transferring part of this research to the market through entrepreneurship. DeepClimate, an initiative of Quintessa, a São Paulo-based impact accelerator, and Cietec, the manager of Latin America’s largest scientific incubator linked to University of São Paulo, is building a pipeline of more than 30 deeptechs ready to scale through adoption by corporate buyers or investment from funds and corporate VCs. “The most ambitious climate solutions require an understanding of the high-risk/high-reward logic, a long-term vision, and collaboration between science, market, and capital,” write Quintessa’s Anna de Souza Aranha and Carol Gibim.

  • Strategic pipeline. “Climate innovation doesn’t have to come from Silicon Valley – it can be born in the Global South, where scientific excellence, biodiversity, and social impact meet,” write the authors. Brazil has a concentration of researchers and deeptech patents, but lacks the technical and financial infrastructure needed to scale these solutions. DeepClimate bridges the gap between intersectoral actors, writes the Quintessa team, “and, if successful, can redefine Brazil’s role in the climate transition economy.” Partners include investment firms Fundepar and KPTL – Venture Capital, along with organizations specialized in entrepreneurship and applied science, such as CAOS Focado, Wylinka, Climate Ventures, AptaHub, and EMERGE Brasil. 
  • Keep reading, “DeepClimate: Catalyzing Brazilian scientific innovation to combat the climate crisis,” by Quintessa’s Anna de Souza Aranha and Carol Gibim.

Get in the Game

🏃🏽‍♀️ On the Move

Alma Gutierrez, previously with Elevar Equity, joins Regenera Ventures as an investment principal… Karina Saade, who previously led BlackRock’s Brazil office, joins GEF Capital Partners as a strategic advisor and investment committee member.

💼 Step Up

NESsT is recruiting a Peru-based associate for its Lirio Fund… Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital seeks an investment analyst in Mexico City… Kiva has an opening for a social enterprise investment associate in Bogota.

🤝 Meet Up

Don’t miss these upcoming impact investing events: