Innovative Finance
Climate Finance | January 23, 2023
Variations on a theme: Securitizing fees and taxes to finance climate adaptation
Ghana securitized an education tax to improve access to education and a petrol tax to pay off legacy debts in the banking sector. …
Photo by African Guarantee Fund.
Catalytic Capital | December 8, 2022
British International Investment provides $75 million guarantee for small business lending in Africa
ImpactAlpha, December 8 — British International Investment is investing $75 million in Nairobi-based African Guarantee Fund to guarantee loans from partner financial institutions …
Return on Inclusion | November 30, 2022
Through ‘ownership trusts,’ investors can help employees become owners and owners retire
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 30 – Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s unusual succession plan made waves with its massive commitment of the family-owned company’s future profits …
SMEs in a learning workshop at Ashesi University in Ghana | Photo by C3.
Catalytic Capital | November 23, 2022
C3 provides catalytic capital to accelerate the deployment of… catalytic capital
ImpactAlpha, November 23 — The Catalytic Capital Consortium, or C3, has awarded nearly $1.4 million in grants to Village Capital, Pacific Community Ventures, …
Photo credit: Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance
Impact Voices | November 10, 2022
A future-focused agenda for COP27
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP27) that began a few days ago will allow the world to …
Muni Impact | November 9, 2022
The ‘Black Tax’ plagues small municipalities. Can bond banks help?
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 9 – An old idea is finding new life in the municipal bond market, where a stubborn complacency with conventional ways of …
photo: Phenix Capital
Climate Finance | October 18, 2022
Rockefeller Foundation’s new climate strategy: A Q&A with Thomas Belazis
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 18 – In late July, The Rockefeller Foundation announced a major shift: it would make climate central to everything it does. …
Source: The Ford Foundation
Catalytic Capital | October 18, 2022
Foundations leverage their balance sheets to expand the impact investing toolkit
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 18 – Faced with 2020’s cascade of crises, a group of foundations mobilized $3 billion from capital markets for community relief and …
Innovative Finance | August 30, 2022
Rockefeller Foundation taps satellites and AI to guide green infrastructure in Africa
ImpactAlpha, August 30 – The Rockefeller Foundation is backing a digital platform to aid policymakers in understanding how and where resilient infrastructure could mitigate …
Impact Voices | July 26, 2022
How NGOs are blending capital to amplify their impact
The typical employee within a non-governmental organization doesn’t talk a lot to commercial banks, pension funds and insurance companies. But like everyone else, …
Photo by ESG Enterprise.
Climate Finance | June 13, 2022
Fashion Climate Fund secures $40 million to decarbonize the apparel supply chain
ImpactAlpha, June 13 — The global apparel and footwear industry is responsible for 2.1 billion tons of carbon emissions, equivalent to the emissions …
Dealflow | June 6, 2022
Apis & Heritage helps businesses in Denver and El Paso become employee-owned
ImpactAlpha, June 6 – Apis & Heritage last year launched a buyout fund to help small and mid-sized businesses with large Black and Brown …
Photo credit: MacArthur Foundation.
Catalytic Capital | May 26, 2022
Catalytic Capital Consortium goes global with support for flexible, risk tolerant investments
ImpactAlpha, May 26 — The Catalytic Capital Consortium, or C3, formed by the MacArthur and Rockefeller foundations and Omidyar Network, aims to expand …
Climate Finance | May 25, 2022
a16z leads Flowcarbon’s $70 million round to improve voluntary carbon market transparency
ImpactAlpha, May 25 – Carbon + crypto is a hot combination. Look at the boldface names behind Flowcarbon, a startup that tokenizes certified carbon …
Photo credit: MEbA
Features | May 16, 2022
YAPU is giving microfinance a digital upgrade with a climate twist
ImpactAlpha, May 16 – Beekeeping in Colombia. Greenhouses in Peru. Biogas stoves in Benin. Small upgrades can increase resilience to climate change for the …
Impact Investing | May 13, 2022
Call No. 42: Business financing beyond venture capital to fuel the boom in entrepreneurship (video)
ImpactAlpha, May 13 – One defining outcome of the pandemic: a boom in entrepreneurship. A record five million businesses were started in the …
Image credit: Jacaranda Health
Investing in Health | April 5, 2022
Why Kenyan nonprofit Jacaranda Health spun out its hospital as a social venture
Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures, which supports ImpactAlpha’s Investing in Health coverage. In partnership with J&J Impact Ventures, ImpactAlpha is exploring the …
Frontier and Growth Markets | April 1, 2022
Call No. 40: How impact investors embrace political risk to keep progress flowing (video)
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 1 – High-impact investments in fragile countries invariably entail political risk. And impact investments in a free press, humanitarian tech, financial inclusion …
Photo credit: BFNP.
Innovative Finance | March 29, 2022
World Bank raises $150 million ‘Rhino Bond’ for conservation in South Africa
ImpactAlpha, March 29 — Proceeds from the five-year bond will support conservation projects to increase the population of endangered black rhinos. Investors will …
Mumbai, India
Catalytic Capital | March 24, 2022
Risk-averse development finance institutions are more often catalyzed than catalytic
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 24 – Work the room at any global development or impact investing conference and you’ll hear grumblings about how development financial institutions …
Photo credit: Clinicas del Azucar
Impact Voices | March 23, 2022
How incentives can successfully steer capital toward impact
ImpactAlpha, March 23 – Our economic system needs a reset. What drives it at the core are flows of money. Therefore, changing the …
Womevest team | Photo credit: Womvest
Gender Smart | March 10, 2022
Womvest and Secha Capital pilot gender-based debt fund for South Africa’s small businesses
ImpactAlpha, March 10 – South Africa-based Womvest launched last year to connect women entrepreneurs and investors for mutual support. The network of more …
Athens, Georgia
Community Finance | March 3, 2022
Social bonds direct proceeds to racial equity as the “S” gains prominence in ESG
When it comes to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, the “S” has long been viewed as the more complicated piece of the …
Inclusive Economy | February 28, 2022
Social Finance will deploy $100 million from Google to upskill tech workers
ImpactAlpha, February 28 – Boston-based Social Finance has pioneered student-friendly “career impact bonds,” a form of income-sharing agreement, to reduce the risks to …
NurPhoto via Getty Images.
Catalytic Capital | February 16, 2022
Climate adaptation gets a fund of its own to invest in data, analytics and resilience
ImpactAlpha, February 16 — Investments to help businesses and communities adapt to climate change have long taken a back seat to financing to …
Electrospit product assembly | Photo credit: Electrospit
The Reconstruction | February 15, 2022
‘Impact notes’ help entrepreneurs recoup equity by creating good jobs and community wealth
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 15 – You may have heard of SAFE notes, “simple agreements for future equity” that reward startup investors with discounts on future …
Frontier and Growth Markets | February 14, 2022
Brazil’s Velvet raises $200 million to give early emerging market venture investors an exit
ImpactAlpha, February 14 – Exits are a persistent and nagging question in the relatively young field of impact investing. Brazil’s Velvet wants to …
Photo credit: Todd Johnson.
Innovative Finance | February 8, 2022
Pay-for-success funds raise $7.8 million for seven nonprofits in San Francisco and Colorado
ImpactAlpha, February 8 — The Bay Area Donor Impact Fund and the Colorado Donor Impact Fund, backed by donations from 35 philanthropic organizations, …
Climate Finance | February 2, 2022
Moss.Earth raises $10 million to put carbon credits on blockchain
ImpactAlpha, February 2 – A raft of startups are merging the hot, if volatile, worlds of crypto and climate finance to bring transparency …
Photo by Flickr.
Women Rising | January 31, 2022
Impact Investment Exchange lists $30 million Women’s Livelihood Bond on the Singapore Exchange
ImpactAlpha, January 31 — Singapore-based Impact Investment Exchange has listed WLB4Climate on the Singapore Exchange. Proceeds from the $30 million bond will be …
Photo credit: Gogoro.
Smart Cities | January 19, 2022
Engine No. 1 backs Taiwanese electric scooter maker Gogoro
ImpactAlpha, January 19 – Taipei-based Gogoro builds zero-emission and electric smartscooters with swappable batteries. It recently brought its battery swapping stations to mainland …
Mogadishu,Somalia | Photo credit: Sadik Gulec
Catalytic Capital | January 12, 2022
Migration surge spurs impact funds to target financial services for people on the move
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 12 – The record number of people who have been displaced from their communities by conflict, climate, crime and poverty is making …
Acumen's Jacqueline Novogratz | Photo credit: Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Summit/AFP
Impact Voices | January 6, 2022
To address climate inequality, we need innovative finance solutions
Developed countries received $60 billion more in clean energy investments last year than developing countries according to a recent BloombergNEF survey. Poorer countries …
Community Finance | December 6, 2021
Secondaries fund secures $11.5 million to create a market for CDFI loans
ImpactAlpha, December 6 – The Aspen Institute and the Microfinance Impact Collaborative launched the Entrepreneur Backed Assets Fund last year to enable community …
Photo credit: Blu Spring
Innovative Finance | December 2, 2021
Dutch loan fund links better terms to better educational outcomes
ImpactAlpha, December 2 — The Impact-Linked Fund for Education will deploy social impact incentives and impact-linked loans to education-focused social enterprises and market-based …
Innovative Finance | November 16, 2021
How The People’s Fund is unlocking capital for small businesses from the crowd up
ImpactAlpha, November 16 – South Africa’s Black-owned businesses were systematically shut out of economic opportunities under the country’s racist aparthied regime. Now, even …
Photo credit: Pezesha
Frontier and Growth Markets | November 9, 2021
How technology is disrupting small-business financing in emerging markets – in a good way
ImpactAlpha, November 9 – The COVID-19 pandemic could have been development finance’s moment to shine. Such quasi-public investors, after all, have been trying …
Photo credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images.
Dealflow | November 1, 2021
Citi issues $1 billion social finance bond for emerging markets
ImpactAlpha, November 1 — Citi has issued a $1 billion bond to advance social impact in emerging markets. Proceeds from the bond will …
Catalytic Capital | October 28, 2021
Blended finance struggles for traction in the ‘decade of action’
ImpactAlpha, October 28 – Blended finance that leverages public or philanthropic capital to increase private investment in sustainable development has unlocked about $160 …
Photo credit: Ejara
Innovative Finance | October 21, 2021
Cameroon’s Ejara raises $2 million for impact-focused crypto
ImpactAlpha, October 21 – Crypto is having a moment in Africa. Dozens of African fintechs promising to democratize access to cryptocurrencies across the …
Photo: Raad Adayleh, AP
Refugee Lens Investing | October 6, 2021
Refugee bond attracts $14 million to support displaced people in Jordan and Lebanon
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 6 – The Syrian conflict has forced 6.6 million people to flee the country; 80% have settled in neighboring countries. The …
Photo credit: ColdHubs
Dealflow | September 29, 2021
Africa Eats crowdfunds capital to strengthen Africa’s food supply chains
ImpactAlpha, September 29 – Impact accelerator program Fledge last year launched Africa Eats to back promising startups in Africa that are strengthening the …
Innovative Finance | August 19, 2021
Social Finance raises $49.9 million for workforce-focused UP Fund
ImpactAlpha, August 19 – The W.K. Kellogg, Inherent and Phillips foundations are among the latest backers of Social Finance’s UP Fund, which deploys …
Construction Highway Flood Tunnels, Peacevale, South Africa | Chris Van Lennep
Innovative Finance | August 17, 2021
Five critiques of blended finance – and five responses from Convergence
The opportunity to blend private capital with philanthropic and public funding has been heralded by financial heavyweights from Blackrock to the billionaire-backed Breakthrough …
Innovative Finance | July 28, 2021
India’s Samunnati to list green bond to back climate-resilient farming
ImpactAlpha, July 28 – Chennai-based Samunnati is a rare source of financing for India’s 130 million smallholder farmers, coupling capital with agricultural support …