November 18, 2021 | Podcasts

Impact Briefing: Four Takeaways from COP26

ImpactAlpha Editor

Isaac Silk

On this week’s podcast, host Monique Aiken checks in with FullCycle’s Stephan Nicoleau, back from the climate summit in Glasgow. Plus, the headlines.

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ImpactAlpha Editor

Isaac Silk

February 2, 2023

The Brief

Featured: Catalytic Capital

Four principles to help catalytic investors optimize allocations and scale impact. Development finance institutions are under increasing pressure to play a "catalytic" role in financing for climate solutions and development priorities in emerging markets (see, for example, “To catalyze climate capital, development finance institutions are pressed to ‘publish what you fund’”). To do so, the semi-public entities face the difficult task of deploying the right type capital, for the right amount of time, with the right partners, to “crowd in” commercial investors. “If catalytic capital providers stick around too long, we can hamper the development of a sustainable ecosystem,” writes Ward Nusselder of Dutch development bank FMO in the final installment of ImpactAlpha’s “Scaling Impact” series with C3, the Catalytic Capital Consortium. “It is crucial to reduce catalytic funding as soon as feasible.”

Dealflow: Affordable Housing

Jonathan Rose Companies eyes $750 million for its sixth affordable housing fund. The New York-based real estate firm has been a pioneer in creating and preserving green affordable housing for more than three decades. The company works with social service providers to embed educational, workforce development and health services in what it calls “communities of opportunity” (listen to ImpactAlpha’s podcast, “Jonathan Rose on building green, affordable communities of opportunity”). Its sixth Preservation Fund is targeting $500 million to $750 million to address the chronic shortage of affordable housing in the U.S. "There is not a single county in America where a parent with a child working a full-time minimum wage job can afford to rent an apartment,” Jonathan Rose told ImpactAlpha. “Our affordable housing Preservation Funds partner with investors who want not only to help preserve the too-small supply of existing affordable housing, but also to grow it.”

Impact Voices: Impact in India

As India’s impact ventures grow, so does the need for growth-stage impact capital. India’s impact investing market has witnessed tremendous growth, with investments reaching $7 billion in 2021. Beyond financial services and inclusion, the market includes more social enterprises and investment opportunities in agriculture, technology for good, healthcare, education and livelihoods. Renewable energy, including battery storage, green hydrogen and offshore wind, is particularly ripe for investment. The gap in the market: growth-stage capital from impact funds. “Impact investors have traditionally led funding rounds for early-stage impact enterprises in India, while commercial investors have provided later-stage funding,” write Ramraj Pai, Vedant Batra and Rishi Dewan of India’s Impact Investors Council in a guest post. “Impact funds, too, can finance the transition of impact enterprises beyond early venture funding.”

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

CrossBoundary’s Habib El Magrissy joins the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. as an Africa investment advisor. The DFC is recruiting an international loan portfolio specialist and a development policy monitoring and clearance manager in Washington, D.C… Open Road Alliance seeks an investment officer… Two Sigma Impact is looking for an investment associate in Portland.

Read today's brief