Credit: SunCulture
Smallholder Agriculture | April 15, 2024
For these tech startups and investors, the next big thing is climate adaptation for smallholder farmers
In India, Mati Carbon is providing smallholder farmers with crop inputs that fertilize plants and sequester carbon. In Kenya, SunCulture is helping farmers …
The Brief | April 15, 2024
The Brief: Catalyzing climate resilience for small farmers
Greetings Agents of Impact! In today’s Brief: Featured: Adaptation Finance For these tech startups and investors, the next big thing is climate adaptation …
Impact Voices | April 15, 2024
Elevating impact reporting to raise the performance of impact fund managers
“One million lives touched.” “800 jobs created.” “50,000 acres of land restored.” Capital allocators often see these types of punchy headlines in the …
AceliAfrica's impact performance report explores ties between impact performance and financial risk and return
Impact Management | April 15, 2024
Six impact performance reports that go beyond the basics to give investors needed insights
Impact Frontier’s Impact Reporting Norms target a leverage point in the impact investing system: impact reporting. They promise to provide greater clarity and …
Photo by Fairview.
Return on Inclusion | April 15, 2024
New York Life acquires stake in minority-owned firm Fairview Capital
Fairview Capital, a minority-owned investment management firm that specializes in backing diverse and emerging managers in venture capital and private equity, has invested …
Photo by Unwritten.
Climate Finance | April 15, 2024
Unwritten snags $3.5 million for ‘transition risk intelligence’ software for investors
The impact of climate change on infrastructure, properties, agriculture and human health could cost the global economy some $3 trillion per year by …
Credit: Mati Carbon
Impact Voices | April 15, 2024
How Mati Carbon is using the carbon markets to address farmers’ adaptation finance gap and boost their incomes
Ashish Kumar is a long-time climate investor and a market / ecosystem builder. He is a strategic advisor to Mati Carbon. This month, …
Podcasts | April 12, 2024
Reconnecting communities, impact investing in Puerto Rico, and how business owners are exiting to employees
🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: federal funds to …
Deploy! | April 12, 2024
Private sector sees opportunity in federal ‘green bank’ fund
The EPA’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is intended to bring in at least seven times as much in private capital for …
Photo by Wharton ESG Initiative.
Agents of Impact | April 12, 2024
Impact MBAs: Raising up the next impact leaders (video)
The winner of a contest to sharpen the impact lens of students through deal sourcing and diligence was a team from London Business …
The Brief | April 12, 2024
The Week in impact investing: Chaos theory
TGIF, Agents of Impact! 🗣 Three body problem. In the video game at the core of the sci-fi novel by Liu Cixin (as …
Impact Careers | April 12, 2024
The Week’s Jobs: April 12, 2024
Foundations, private equity investors and fund managers are on the hunt for impact talent around the world. Just this week: US Jobs Impact Engine …
Photo: MPI for Plasma Physics, Jan Michael Hosan.
Dealflow | April 12, 2024
The Week’s Dealflow: April 12, 2024
ImpactAlpha’s deal news coverage for the week: Agrifood tech. Demark’s Reduced raised $6 million to upcycle agricultural waste into new food products through …
Agrifood Tech | April 11, 2024
Opportunities across the investment spectrum to recycle and reduce food waste
“Where are we?” It’s the question I’m constantly asking myself about food waste reduction. There are many viable food waste solutions, and many …
Credit: DC Central Kitchen
The Brief | April 11, 2024
The Brief: Investing to eliminate food waste
Greetings Agents of Impact! In today’s Brief: Featured: Food Tech Opportunities across the investment spectrum to recycle and reduce food waste. Understanding how …
Credit: SunCulture
Smallholder Agriculture | April 11, 2024
SunCulture raises $27.5 million to expand solar irrigation for smallholder farmers
Nairobi-based SunCulture has been making affordable irrigation systems for smallholder farmers in Africa since 2013. A decade ago, farmers had difficulty finding affordable …
Climate Finance | April 11, 2024
Insurance companies are fueling climate risks that threaten their business
Climate change is driving more frequent and intense storms, droughts and floods – causing insurers to pull out of entire areas. Yet that …
Dealflow | April 10, 2024
Nexamp snags a half-billion for community solar expansion
The $520 million funding for Boston- and Chicago-based Nexamp comes amid growing demand for distributed renewable energy and tailwinds from federal climate funding. …
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in Birmingham this week
Deploy! | April 10, 2024
With bridges, buses and bike lanes, Reconnecting Communities rebuilds ‘civic muscles’ along with neighborhoods
The Biden administration’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods program was conceived with goals as lofty as any in recent memory – to stitch together …
Photo credit: Bess Adler (used with permission)
Corporate Impact | April 10, 2024
Alison Taylor: The broken chain from transparency to accountability to corporate action (podcast)
The era of cake-ism (as in having it and eating it, too) has come to an inglorious end. “I think we’re in an …
St Louis Brickline Greenway | Credit: Great Rivers Greenway
The Brief | April 10, 2024
The Brief: Reconnecting communities divided by highways
Greetings Agents of Impact! In today’s Brief: Featured: Muni Impact With bridges, buses and bike lanes, Reconnecting Communities rebuilds ‘civic muscles’ along with …
Financial Inclusion | April 10, 2024
Africa50 and Oikocredit lead $14 million round for Zeepay’s cross-border payments
Remittance inflows to Africa are expected to top $55 billion this year. But Africa is the most costly region in the world for …
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Catalytic Capital | April 9, 2024
The impact investing opportunity in Puerto Rico’s economic comeback
In one of Puerto Rico’s poorest neighborhoods, you can find what economists might call a “green shoot.” The plan for Oasis, a six-acre, …
The Brief | April 9, 2024
The Brief: Green shoots in Puerto Rico’s reconstruction
Greetings Agents of Impact! This week, catch ImpactAlpha’s Roody Senatus in Washington, DC, at the Aspen Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, Dennis Price in …
ImpactAlpha Open | April 9, 2024
ImpactAlpha Open: Billion-dollar blended deals + ‘systems level’ stewardship
Greetings, Agents of Impact! This week, catch ImpactAlpha’s Roody Senatus in DC at the Aspen Institute’s Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, Amy Cortese in New York at TIIP’s System-level Investing …
Frontier and Growth Markets | April 9, 2024
How and why British International Investments directs capital to small businesses
Development finance institutions like to style themselves as the original impact investors. It was Lord Reith, the first chairman of the UK’s development …
Credit: Alterno
Climate and Clean Tech | April 9, 2024
Vietnam’s Alterno raises $1.5 million to store renewable energy in sand batteries
More than 80% of Vietnam’s power is generated from fossil fuels, mostly coal. The country’s coal dependence will affect Vietnam’s ability to trade …
Dealflow | April 9, 2024
Savills Investment Management secures £123 million for affordable housing in the UK
London-based Savills’ Simply Affordable Homes fund will invest in new and existing affordable and social housing, as well as in shared-ownership homes. The …
Photo by Sky Blue Builders.
Ownership Economy | April 8, 2024
With ELBOs and EOTs, more business owners are exiting to employee ownership
Conversions to worker ownership can be complex for retiring business owners. They may be looking first to keep their enterprise going and second …
The Brief | April 8, 2024
The Brief: Totality
Greetings Agents of Impact! Curious about today’s alignment of the earth, the moon and the sun? Good! Solar eclipses in history seem to …
Credit: Quasar Expeditions
Latin America | April 8, 2024
Sustainable tourism in the Galapagos Islands gets a boost with Quasar Expeditions’ $14 million loan
Tourism, a key source of livelihoods in communities in the Galapagos, also poses a major threat to the ecosystem’s stunning biodiversity. Quasar Expeditions …
Muni Impact | April 5, 2024
Billions to trillions: How municipal bonds can multiply the reach of the US ‘green bank’
To achieve stated climate goals, the U.S. government is embarking on what should be the largest coordination of private and public capital aimed …
The Brief | April 5, 2024
The Week in Impact Investing: Producing Impact
TGIF, Agents of Impact! 🗣 Inclusive prosperity. For decades, US economists viewed low-cost exports from China as a positive for consumers. Then came …
Photo by Paz Arando on Unsplash
Dealflow | April 5, 2024
The Week’s Dealflow: April 5, 2024
ImpactAlpha’s deal news coverage for the week: Agrifood investing. BioConsortia, a California-based company developing bacteria-based agricultural products to increase crop yields and improve …
Impact Careers | April 5, 2024
The Week’s Jobs: April 5, 2024
Foundations, private equity investors and fund managers are on the hunt for impact talent around the world. Just this week: US Jobs Emerson …
Inclusive Economy | April 5, 2024
Addressing the small business financing gap with catalytic to commercial capital
Small businesses’ demand for financing is strong, and creative entrepreneurs and fund managers are working to increase the supply. This week saw deals …
Frontier and Growth Markets | April 5, 2024
African pension funds back Adenia Capital’s fifth impact private equity fund
Mauritius-based impact private equity firm Adenia Capital raised $470 million to invest in African businesses delivering essential goods and services. Adenia tracks an …
Deploy! | April 4, 2024
Investors ready products to amplify US ‘green bank’ funding
The Biden administration’s “national green bank” program will come into focus today as vice president Kamala Harris and EPA chief Michael Regan are …
The Brief | April 4, 2024
The Brief: How investors can amplify the US ‘green bank’
Greetings Agents of Impact! 🇵🇷 Next week: Impact investment summit in Puerto Rico. Join Platform for Social Impact’s NEXA: Jobs Summit, April 10-11 …
Meat producers that heavily use antibiotics are contributing to antimicrobial resistance, which poses economy-wide risks
Corporate Impact | April 4, 2024
With ‘systems-first’ proposals, shareholders seek to mitigate economy-wide risks
Proxy season – the annual corporate meetings clustered from February through May where directors are re-elected and shareholders vote, by “proxy,” on issues …
Frontier and Growth Markets | April 4, 2024
Aavsihakaar backs Midland Bank to boost ESG in Bangladesh’s textile industry
Textiles account for 20% of Bangladesh’s GDP and 80% of its exports. Poor working conditions, human rights abuses, and water and land pollution …
Deploy! | April 3, 2024
EPA set to announce Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awards for $20 billion ‘green bank’
It’s finally here. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce key awards for its $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund tomorrow at …
SDGs | April 3, 2024
Blending Billions: Lessons from more than three dozen big blended finance transactions
In a world in which the UN SDG financing gap continues to grow, we face a double hurdle: blended finance is still struggling …
The Brief | April 3, 2024
The Brief: Billion-dollar blended-finance transactions
Greetings Agents of Impact! In today’s Brief: Featured: 2030 Finance Blending billions: Lessons from more than three dozen big blended finance transactions. Deal …
Financial Inclusion | April 3, 2024
Gawa Capital and OikoCredit invest in Sindhuja Microcredit for rural lending in India
Sindhuja Microcredit launched in 2018 in India’s mostly rural state of Uttar Pradesh to provide access to capital to traders, shopkeepers and farmers …