Beats
Podcasts | February 3, 2023
Finding the opportunities in (and the problems with) the municipal bond market
ImpactAlpha’s David Bank joins Host Monique Aiken to to share some takeaways from this week’s Agents of Impact Call on the steps that …
Dealflow | February 3, 2023
Deal spotlight: Protecting individuals and businesses from data and identity theft
ImpactAlpha, February 3 – Cell phones and digitization have helped billions of individuals, micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses improve their livelihoods. They’ve also introduced …
Cover image on the State of the Global Mini-Grids Market Report 2020
Catalytic Capital | February 2, 2023
Four principles to help catalytic investors optimize allocations and scale impact
Editor’s note: This blog is part of ImpactAlpha’s “Scaling Impact” series, authored by participants in the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) Scaling Learning Labs. Key insights …
The Sendero Verde in East Harlem
Dealflow | February 2, 2023
Jonathan Rose Companies eyes $750 million for its sixth affordable housing fund
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 2 – The New York-based real estate firm has been a pioneer in creating and preserving green affordable housing for more …
India | February 2, 2023
As India’s impact ventures grow, so does the need for growth-stage impact capital
ImpactAlpha, February 2 – India’s impact investing market has witnessed tremendous growth over the past few years, moving beyond financial inclusion into emerging …
Photo credit: Meva Energy
Dealflow | February 1, 2023
Al Gore’s Just Climate makes first three climate tech investments
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 1 – The unit of Generation Investment Management, led by David Blood and Al Gore, invested in three European companies focused …
ESG | February 1, 2023
How Europe is recalibrating tech, one ESG step at a time
A crisis is usually followed by learning. If in 2022 tech private markets were defined by the crash of some of the highest-valued …
Signals | February 1, 2023
S-curves and tipping points are accelerating the low-carbon future
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 1 – The future of energy is S-shaped. Adoption of technological innovations is typically slow until they hit a tipping point, …
Image credit: LuxWall
Green Infrastructure | February 1, 2023
Startups raise green to reduce the carbon footprints of buildings
ImpactAlpha, February 1 – Buildings account for 40% of total global carbon emissions, because of how building materials are produced, what materials are …
Frontier and Growth Markets | February 1, 2023
MNT-Halan raises $200 million to expand access to financial services in Egypt
ImpactAlpha, February 1 – MNT-Halan’s evolution into an Egyptian “super-app” is long and complex. The quick version: In 2019, founder Mounir Nakhla merged …
Roadmap of Memphis, Tennessee
Muni Impact | January 31, 2023
Activest’s FIRE strategy seeks to bend the arc of municipal finance toward ‘fiscal justice’
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 31 – It’s distressingly easy to find places where city finances are distorted by systemic racism or outright bigotry. It’s harder …
Impact Voices | January 31, 2023
How Fair Food Network is reshaping investment norms to fight wealth inequity
Despite the good intentions and creative strategies of impact investors, extreme wealth inequity persists. The climate crisis will only deepen the divide, unless …
Photo credit: ICA Growth Fund
Return on Inclusion | January 31, 2023
ICA Growth Fund backs four Black and Latinx businesses with ‘impact notes’
ImpactAlpha, January 31 – ICA Growth Fund supports small businesses while encouraging owners to prioritize social impact objectives. The Bay Area-based nonprofit accelerator …
Climate Finance | January 31, 2023
Obvious Ventures backs Senken to finance reforestation through ‘carbon forwards’
ImpactAlpha, January 31 – Berlin and Cape Town-based Senken is a blockchain-based carbon credit trading platform. Its next offering is a form of …
Frontier and Growth Markets | January 30, 2023
What 672 private debt and equity funds show about impact investing in emerging markets
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 30 – After a pandemic-related pause, institutional investors are again moving money into private impact funds in emerging markets. But only a …
Oklahoma on the map of USA
Impact Voices | January 30, 2023
Is ESG an emergency from which the public needs protection? Oklahoma legislators ride to the rescue.
Scores of anti-ESG bills were introduced in Republican-led states in January. The onslaught continues despite the more than $1.1 billion in financial costs …
Investing in Health | January 30, 2023
Trust, not technology, bonds patients and providers
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 …
Catalytic Capital | January 27, 2023
Why development finance institutions are being pressed to ‘publish what you fund’
Development finance institutions are essential to the mobilization of capital to slow climate change and to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. So why …
Inclusive Economy | January 27, 2023
ImpactAlpha Deal Spotlight: Black-worker ownership
ImpactAlpha, January 27 — With more than half of business owners in the U.S. over 55 years old, there’s a “silver tsunami” of …
Catalytic Capital | January 26, 2023
Invest Appalachia secures $19 million to bridge investment gaps in Appalachia
ImpactAlpha, January 26 — Central Appalachia’s forests and ecosystems are some of the most biodiverse in the world, and its mountains among the …
Climate Finance | January 26, 2023
Voluntary carbon markets face a reckoning over credit quality and environmental impact
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 25 – Are carbon markets a key pillar of climate finance, or an empty exercise in double-counting and greenwashing? After soaring …
Photo credit: Tado
Dealflow | January 26, 2023
Tado raises €43 million for energy-efficient thermostats
ImpactAlpha, January 26 – Europe’s energy crisis, ignited by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has led to skyrocketing home energy costs. Many consumers …
Frontier and Growth Markets | January 26, 2023
Climate tech venture Ecozen raises $25 million, giving early investors a partial exit
ImpactAlpha, January 26 – Ecozen, in Pune, India, launched a decade ago to provide affordable, clean energy-fueled products for India’s smallholder farmers. The …
Impact Management | January 25, 2023
To catalyze climate capital, development finance institutions are pressed to ‘publish what you fund’
ImpactAlpha, January 25 – Six trillion dollars. That’s roughly how much is needed annually to fight climate change and meet the U.N.’s Sustainable …
Policy Corner | January 25, 2023
The state of impact investing public policy – and opportunities for 2023
The past year has been one of both exciting growth and unexpected challenges for the impact investing industry. Amid an uncertain macroeconomic forecast …
Dealflow | January 25, 2023
Generate Capital raises $880 million to capitalize green infrastructure boom
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 25 – Generate is an investor, owner and operator of green infrastructure, from community solar systems and municipal wastewater treatment to …
Photo by Scythe Robotics.
Climate and Clean Tech | January 25, 2023
Scythe Robotics raises $42 million for ‘pay-as-you-mow’ landscaping equipment
ImpactAlpha, January 25 — Gas-powered equipment like lawn mowers and leaf blowers emit more than 240 million tons of pollutants each year, according …
Photo by Breathe Well-being.
Investing in Health | January 25, 2023
Breathe Well-being raises 500 million rupees for diabetes care and prevention
ImpactAlpha, January 25 — Gurgaon-based health tech startup Breathe Well-being offers digital coaching in behavioral and lifestyle changes that are helping more than …
Eric Glass
Muni Impact | January 24, 2023
‘You can’t do impact on a passive basis’: Q&A with activist muni-investor Eric Glass
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 24 – After 15 years as an analyst, trader, and portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein, Eric Glass was asked in 2015 to develop …
Muni Impact | January 24, 2023
Market hypocrisy, political opportunism, and the common good
The attorney general of Texas earlier this month accused Citigroup of running afoul of a state law that “bars most government contracts with …
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announcing Rivian's $5 billion electric vehicle factory.
ESG | January 24, 2023
Local economic benefits spur GOP governors to tack toward the center on ESG
Last year’s attacks on ESG seemed to be a final nail in GOP’s “pro-business” coffin. The backlash to consideration of environmental, social and …
Photo by Cassa.
Dealflow | January 24, 2023
Acceso Impact Fund raises $4.5 million for impact businesses in Central America and the Caribbean
ImpactAlpha, January 24 — Acceso Impact Fund has raised $4.5 million to invest in impact businesses in Central America and the Caribbean. The …
Impact Tech | January 24, 2023
BioElements secures $30 million for bioplastics in Latin America
ImpactAlpha, January 24 – Chile is one of a small number of countries in Latin America that ban or restrict certain single-use plastics. …
KAMPALA, UGANDA
Scaling Impact | January 23, 2023
How to get more international money flowing in local currency
Editor’s note: This blog is part of ImpactAlpha’s “Scaling Impact” series, authored by participants in the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) Scaling Learning Labs. Key insights …
Smallholder Agriculture | January 23, 2023
BlueOrchard invests $5.29 million in Brazilian insurer Newe for climate resilience
ImpactAlpha. Jan. 23 – Climate-driven floods, droughts and extreme weather around the world caused more than $268 billion in costs last year. Most …
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 GMAC.
Dealflow | January 23, 2023
Bamboo Capital’s Build Fund backs Green Mountain Arabica Coffee in Rwanda
ImpactAlpha, January 23 — In Rwanda’s Karenge region, women-owned Green Mountain Arabica Coffee exports green unroasted coffee beans that it sources from 1,200 …
Agents of Impact | January 20, 2023
Demetric Duckett, Living Cities: New decision-makers for the new majority (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 20 – Building wealth for women and people of color is about numbers as well as equity. By mid-century, there will be …
Photo by Living Carbon.
Low-carbon transition | January 20, 2023
ImpactAlpha Deal Spotlight: Nature-based biotech
ImpactAlpha, January 20 — Forests, oceans and soils play a crucial role in absorbing greenhouse gas emissions – and they could use some …
photo: World Economic Forum
Capitalism Reimagined | January 19, 2023
What if they threw an elite global forum in a Swiss ski resort and no one cared?
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 19 – At least for those of us who aren’t there, it is definitely cooler to skip Davos than to attend …
Photo Triodos Investment Management.
Clean Energy | January 19, 2023
WeLight raises €19 million to bring solar mini-grids to rural Madagascar
ImpactAlpha, January 19 — The majority of Madagascar’s population lacks access to electricity. Triodos Investment Management, the European Investment Bank and EDFI ElectriFI …
Summit Nanotech Operations in Chile | Photo by Summit Nanotech.
Impact Tech | January 19, 2023
Summit Nanotech secures $50 million for sustainable lithium extraction
ImpactAlpha, January 19 — The scramble is on to commercialize sustainable lithium, which can overcome a major obstacle to the wholesale transition to …
Photo by Sublime Systems.
Low-carbon transition | January 18, 2023
Sublime Systems secures $40 million to commercialize electrified zero-carbon cement
ImpactAlpha, January 18 — Mining, grinding and heating limestone to make cement, the main binding agent for concrete, releases an enormous amount of …
Photo by Komunal.
Financial Inclusion | January 18, 2023
Komunal raises $8.5 million to digitalize financial services in rural Indonesia
ImpactAlpha, January 18 — Surabaya-based fintech startup Komunal has raised $8.5 million from investors including East Ventures Growth Fund, AlphaTrio Sustainable Technology Fund, …
Photo by Forum Mobility.
Climate and Clean Tech | January 18, 2023
Electrifying heavy-duty drayage trucks at California’s ports
ImpactAlpha, January 18 — The approximately 30,000 heavy-duty trucks that transport containers and bulk freight between ships and rail facilities at California’s 40 …