CrossBoundary Energy’s fund exit is a proof point for Africa’s commercial solar market – and catalytic capital. An African solar energy fund that only five years ago appeared too risky even for impact investors has delivered, yes, impact – and a hefty return. CrossBoundary Energy has sold its 40-megawatt off-grid solar portfolio to ARCH Emerging Markets Partners, giving its investors a full exit and a 15% return. The blended-finance facility also helped unlock financing for a fast-growing sector of Africa’s energy market: rooftop solar for commercial and industrial users. “Distributed renewables are becoming an accepted reality and an increasing trend across Africa,” CrossBoundary Energy’s Pieter Joubert told ImpactAlpha. ARCH invested $40 million to acquire the portfolio and enable CrossBoundary Energy to deliver new rooftop solar installations for Africa’s large commercial businesses and industrial users.
Astanor Ventures raises $325 million for sustainable food and agtech. Good Harvest Partners I, Astanor’s first institutional fund, will back “entrepreneurs developing scalable solutions to re-align nature, agriculture, and culture,” said cofounder Eric Archambeau. The focus is on U.S. and European companies addressing climate-related challenges in agriculture and food production and that advance the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
Valuable lessons to help investors integrate impact and financial management. Impact measurement and management isn’t just magical thinking. “With enough effort and skill, the practice produces value and insights for investors, which can help them make better and higher-impact investing decisions,” write Bridespan’s Michael Etzel and Stephanie Kater, who reviewed The Impact Management Project’s "Impact-Financial Integration" handbook for ImpactAlpha. The handbook shares lessons from 13 investors on integrating impact with financial risk and return. Financial and impact performance are typically assessed separately, say Etzel and Kater. “The handbook tears down this divide so that investors can play a greater role in solving social problems.”
John Kerry, the former secretary of state and senator from Massachusetts, will lead the Biden administration’s effort to combat climate change. “The work we began with the Paris Agreement is far from done,” tweeted Kerry. “I'm returning to government to get America back on track to address the biggest challenge of this generation and those that will follow.”... Arctaris Impact Investors is looking for a senior fund accountant in Boston… Applications for the Notley Fellowship for young business and technology professionals to contribute to Austin’s social innovation ecosystem are open through Tuesday, Dec. 1… ImpactAlpha's David Bank joins Impact Entrepreneur’s Laurie Lane-Zucker to discuss “Reporting on impact,” Thursday, Dec. 3.
RSVP today. What: The Call No. 25: Gender-smart investing for a sustainable recovery Join SME.NG’s Thelma Ekiyor, Trade Depot’s Onyekachi Izukanne, Development Partners International’s Takudzwa Mutasa, …
The people and principles needed to solve the challenges of financing solar power for frontline health clinics were represented on ImpactAlpha’s Agents of …
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 1 – What got us here won’t get us where we need to go. Guidelines that govern global finance need to …
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 27 – Investors have been talking about systemic risks at least since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. More recently, climate …
It’s long past time to get political. Impact investing, with appeal on both the left and the right, has generally steered clear of …
“It’s a great time for new entrants, but for those of us who’ve been doing this for a while it is equally urgent to raise our game right and to not get complacent,” said Margot Brandenburg of the Ford Foundation.
ImpactAlpha, Jun 24 – The action in climate action is shifting to infrastructure. Driven by falling price curves for renewables, mispriced risk, and …
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 4 – A disruptive technology has to be 10 times better than what it’s replacing. Tech venture capitalists aim to recoup …
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 30 – The first annual assessments of impact investors are coming in under the International Finance Corporation’s Operating Principles for Impact …
ImpactAlpha, February 5 – Small and growing businesses are the pillars of local economies, in both developed and developing economies. Startups are engines …
ImpactAlpha, April 14 – Don’t refer to conventional finance as ‘mainstream,’ ImpactAlpha’s David Bank said on The Call earlier this month. Call it ‘legacy …
ImpactAlpha, June 3 – The early days of impact investing were all about proving that you didn’t have to sacrifice financial returns to do …
Host Monique Aiken recaps this week’s Agents of Impact Call on gender-smart investing and we go to South Africa to follow up with Secha Capital’s Kuhle Mnisi and Wukina’s Maureen Sibanda, this week’s Agents of Impact.
Host Brian Walsh and roundtable regulars Imogen Rose-Smith and David Bank explore what the presidential transition in the U.S. means for impact investing.
Concerns about the resiliency of the food supply chain went from conceptual to concrete when the COVID crisis shut down railroads and stranded …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 21 – When the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the world economy this spring, Emmanuel Lagarrigue worried the momentum toward a …
Sharing wealth with hourly employees has not been a major part of the private-equity playbook, which has more often called for layoffs, plant …
ImpactAlpha, July 16,2020 –– If you’re rich, and you get your capital back with perhaps a little extra for inflation and expenses, you’ll …
When the coronavirus busted out as a global crisis in March, private equity funds, banks and other commercial investors largely pulled out of …
LeapFrog Investments goes into this recession with capital on hand, the fortuitous result of having raised more than $700 million for its third …
Power is the thread that connects the surge in gender-based violence during the COVID crisis with violence against people of color, including by …
ImpactAlpha, May 9 – A parade of philanthropic foundations will report this week on their journeys toward aligning their assets with their missions, as …
The future of work is here. With unemployment soaring and many jobs never coming back, long-forecast shifts in employment patterns that might have …
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 30 – The first annual assessments of impact investors are coming in under the International Finance Corporation’s Operating Principles for Impact …
Impact measurement and management isn’t just magical thinking. With enough effort and skill, the practice produces value and insights for investors, which can …
For the first time in two decades, global extreme poverty is expected to rise. According to The World Bank, the COVID-19 pandemic will …
If you are an investor interested in learning more about how to invest in climate justice solutions, join us on December 3rd for …
Impact investors may be missing an opportunity to restore sustainable emerging market growth and earn commercial returns by providing desperately needed restructuring support …
As we move beyond a difficult election cycle, it is time to focus on an ambitious community investment agenda that has a meaningful …
One of the key features of the Operating Principles for Impact Management is that they require signatories to publicly disclose how their impact …
Flexible investment structures that prioritize employees and customers alongside entrepreneurs and investors are proving useful in helping companies preserve good jobs through the …
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 …
As the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread around the world in early 2020, gloomy predictions about the coronavirus’s effects on Africa also made …
ImpactAlpha, October 29 – The clunky term “non-bank financial intermediaries” identifies a varied group of lenders only by what they are not. These …
Technology has enabled some big winners in the world of commerce. The five largest U.S. companies by market cap – Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, …
Just a few weeks after our son’s second birthday, when emergency room doctors told us his body had destroyed his ability to make …
ImpactAlpha, November 20 – Follow the women… to catalyze an economic recovery and unlock trillions in new consumer spending power. Tech-enabled startups are …
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 13 – Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact. That’s the tagline on the snappy Agents of Impact section on the new ImpactAlpha.com …
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 30 – Two years ago, ImpactAlpha recognized Kesha Cash as an Agent of Impact for her cutting-edge investment thesis: the billion-dollar …
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 16 – The world’s most populous Black nation is standing up to police brutality. The demand of protesters in Nigeria: #ENDSARS …
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 9 – Anne Price is the first woman and the first non-lawyer to lead the 51-year-old organization that works at the …
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 2 – Global efforts to turn back the tide of biodiversity loss may be missing the trees for the forest. The …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 25 – The advantages of women’s participation and leadership in business and society have become conventional wisdom. That’s in no small …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 18 – Oil giant BP this this week called Peak Oil. Ubben, a veteran hedge fund manager, is calling Peak Finance. …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 11 – The co-founder and managing director of SJF Ventures still had half of the firm’s $125 million fourth fund when …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 4 – Months before the COVID crisis, Bafford told an interviewer that what she most liked about structuring deals and syndicating …
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 28 – When the lineup of the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court on Wednesday, the players didn’t realize they’d …
The response to our call last week to ‘name your favorite impact investor’ demonstrated the breadth of the talent pool under the big …
“Hospitals of the future will become more like NASCAR pit-stops than inescapable black holes,” says Melanie Walker, co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s …