Conservation
Oceans | November 6, 2023
Ocean-based startups ride a wave of funds seeking opportunities in the blue economy
ImpactAlpha, November 6 — Less than a decade ago, the number of ocean-focused impact funds could be counted on one hand. Now, a …
Photo by Malachi Brooks on Unsplash
Dealflow | October 10, 2023
Vibrant Planet scores $15 million for wildfire-risk mitigation and forest resilience
ImpactAlpha, October 10 — Vibrant Planet launched in 2020 in response to California’s escalating wildfire seasons. This year’s wildfire season broke records for …
Image credit: Environment Bank
Dealflow | September 26, 2023
Environment Bank offers biodiversity credits to catalyze corporate investment in nature restoration
ImpactAlpha, September 26 — Global conservationists and policymakers are working to develop an economically-viable market for biodiversity credits, also known as biocredits, to …
Mangrove forest restoration on Pate Island, Kenya | Photo credit: Thomson Reuters Foundation / Dominic Kirui
Climate Finance | September 19, 2023
Nature-based solutions may be the key to meeting Paris climate goals
As world leaders gather in New York City this week for the UN General Assembly and New York Climate Week, investors and funders …
Photo by Bezos Earth Fund.
Conservation | September 7, 2023
Bezos Earth Fund deploys $22.8 million for locally-led landscape restoration in Africa
ImpactAlpha, September 7 — Bezos Earth Fund will deploy $22.8 million to fund the restoration of roughly 1.5 million acres of degraded land …
Regeneration | August 25, 2023
Deal spotlight: Reforesting the Amazon
ImpactAlpha, August 25 — Nature-based solutions “could help reduce one-third of the necessary global emissions by the end of the decade, but remain …
Climate Finance | August 16, 2023
African leaders want a bigger slice of a bigger market for voluntary carbon credits
ImpactAlpha, August 16 – Africa needs $250 billion a year to finance climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives. Yet the vast continent of nearly …
Brazil
Conservation | August 10, 2023
Revived South American alliance takes steps to protect Amazon forests and communities
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 10 – There was no grand pledge to halt deforestation, as Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had urged. Nor …
Mangrove forest in Sindh, Pakistan
Conservation | August 9, 2023
Revival of Pakistan’s mangroves provides a blueprint for global restoration
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 9 – Less than 20 years ago, Keti Bandar, a coastal town in southeastern Pakistan, had barren shores. Today, it’s a …
Climate Finance | May 30, 2023
Packard and Ford foundations back Nusantara Fund to bolster climate resilience for Indonesia’s Indigenous communities
ImpactAlpha, May 30 – Indonesia is among the world’s small number of “mega bio-diverse” countries – and has one of the world’s highest …
Photo credit: Flash Forest
Canada | April 18, 2023
Canada’s Flash Forest secures $11.4 million to speed forest replanting after wildfires
ImpactAlpha, April 18 – Wildfire intensity and damage is intensifying due to climate change. Flash Forest in Ontario is using drones to jumpstart …
Dealflow | April 13, 2023
MBA and other students rise to the sustainable investing challenge
ImpactAlpha, April 13 — A dozen finalists in the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge are swapping debt for nature, tracking water credits, insuring …
Image by sergiorojoes on Freepik
Dealflow | April 11, 2023
AGRI3 Fund secures $13.5 million to catalyze capital for sustainable agriculture and forestry
ImpactAlpha, April 11 — AGRI3 Fund has raised $13.5 million in equity funding from the Global Environment Facility, a multilateral trust fund based …
Conservation | March 21, 2023
Privately owned working forests are a climate asset
When Fred van Eck, a New York investment manager, purchased 9,400 acres of Northern California and Oregon forest for timber production in the …
Impact Voices | March 21, 2023
Tree planting has gotten a bad name. Here’s how to restore its effectiveness as a climate solution.
What’s not to love about planting trees? Once considered a tried and true solution to the climate crisis, tree-growing has lately been given …
Photo credit: RenewWest
Climate Finance | March 8, 2023
Aspiration and One Small Planet back conservation venture RenewWest
ImpactAlpha, March 8 – Reforestation in California. Mangrove restoration in Mexico. Regeneration of mining land in Jamaica. Colorado-based RenewWest is vetting, developing and …
Frontier and Growth Markets | February 27, 2023
Latin America’s impact entrepreneurs find opportunities in nature-based solutions and smarter services for low-income consumers
ImpactAlpha, February 27 – Street demonstrations, populist leaders and economic strife dominate news headlines about Latin America. Less appreciated are the entrepreneurs who …
Climate Finance | February 14, 2023
Sand to Green secures $1 million to regenerate Morocco’s desert
ImpactAlpha, February 14 – France and Morocco-based Sand to Green is completing a three-year sustainable agroforestry pilot that uses valuable crops, like rosemary …
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 …
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 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 by Terra Global.
Dealflow | January 17, 2023
Anew Climate commits $640 million to Terra Global for nature-based carbon offsets in emerging markets
ImpactAlpha, January 17 — Oakland-based Anew is the product of TPG Rise’s rollup last year of Element Markets and Bluesource (for background, see …
Conservation | January 4, 2023
Conservation fund Terratai launches to invest in biodiversity startups in Indonesia
ImpactAlpha, January 4 – Indonesia is one of the most biodiverse countries on earth. Deforestation, overexploitation of natural resources, climate change and other …
Photo by Maitheli Maitra on Unsplash
Dealflow | December 12, 2022
Varaha scores $4 million to help smallholder farmers create nature-based carbon credits
ImpactAlpha, December 12 — Gurugram-based Varaha has raised $4 million in a seed financing round backed by Omnivore, RTP Global, Better Capital and …
Climate Finance | November 18, 2022
Deal spotlight: Empowering – and paying – communities to protect nature
ImpactAlpha, November 18 – The issue of loss and damages was a sticking point as negotiators hammered out a final agreement at the COP27 …
Photo credit: IFAD
Frontier and Growth Markets | November 16, 2022
Katapult’s Africa accelerator zeros in on food security
ImpactAlpha, November 16 – Insect farming in Ghana. Aquaculture in Kenya. Land restoration in Morocco. Seven of the nine startups in the Norway-based impact …
Photo by AMP Robotics.
Climate and Clean Tech | November 8, 2022
Climate funds deploy capital to waste-tech
ImpactAlpha, November 8 — Nearly two billion tons of waste have been dumped in the air, oceans, soils and waterways this year. The …
Photo by Vishwasa Navada K on Unsplash
Dealflow | November 4, 2022
ImpactAlpha Deal Spotlight: Nature-based solutions
ImpactAlpha, November 4 — Demand is surging for high-quality nature-based carbon offsets, and developers are scrambling to supply them. Houston-based ZeroSix, formed by …
Photo by OnImpact.
Conservation | October 20, 2022
New Forests’ African Forestry Impact Platform secures $200 million from development finance institutions
ImpactAlpha, October 20 — Nearly 10 million acres of forests in Africa, one of Earth’s most important carbon sinks and soil, are disappearing …
Climate Finance | September 27, 2022
AXA’s €500 million initiative to invest in reforestation and land conservation
ImpactAlpha, September 27 – AXA has launched a €500 million ($482 million) Natural Capital Strategy that will make equity investments and offer project financing …
Photo: Cédric Frixon, Pixabay
Impact Investing | September 25, 2022
Barbados debt-for-nature swap unlocks $50 million for marine conservation and ‘blue economy’
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 25 – Barbados is the latest nation to restructure its high-priced debt to free up funds for conservation. The Caribbean island …
Photo by Jingming Pan on Unsplash
Climate Finance | September 22, 2022
A safe, low-carbon way to store your gold: Leave it in the ground
What’s the most eco-friendly way to mine gold? Not to mine it. Nature’s Vault, a blockchain-based finance company headquartered in Singapore, is buying …
Dealflow | September 8, 2022
Misfits Market acquires Imperfect Foods to consolidate the food-waste reduction market
ImpactAlpha, September 8 — Even amid the downturn in venture funding this year, significant raises for companies in food waste management and upcycling …
A firefighter tries to contain a fire in southwestern France | Photo by Reuters.
Climate and Clean Tech | August 30, 2022
Dryad secures €10.5 million for ‘ultra-early’ wildfire detection
ImpactAlpha, August 30 — Extreme heat waves, exacerbated by drought, set many parts of Europe ablaze this summer. Hotter temperatures are pushing severe …
A healthy mangrove ecosystem
Climate Finance | August 18, 2022
IFC partners with Aspiration in $10 million fund to lift quality of carbon credits
ImpactAlpha, August 18 – Forest projects that don’t remove carbon. Protection for forests that aren’t threatened. The low quality of many of the credits …
Photo by Afresh.
Agrifood Tech | August 9, 2022
Afresh rakes in $115 million to help grocers reduce food waste
ImpactAlpha, August 9 — The San Francisco-based company developed an AI-based system to help grocery store owners manage fresh food inventory and sales …
Elephants in the Congo Basin
Climate Finance | August 1, 2022
Can’t we just pay the Democratic Republic of Congo to keep its oil in the ground?
ImpactAlpha, August 1 – The biggest failure of nature conservation and restoration efforts “are the unrewarded provision of public goods and services,” the U.N. …
Climate Finance | July 27, 2022
American Forest Foundation’s $10 million green bond connects forest owners to carbon markets
ImpactAlpha, July 27 – Nearly 40% of forestland in the U.S. is family owned. The American Forest Foundation wants to incentivize such smallholder forest …
Conservation | July 18, 2022
Pegasus Capital Advisors raises $170 million for Global Fund for Coral Reefs
ImpactAlpha, July 18 – Impact investor Pegasus is aiming to raise $625 million in blended financing to protect critically-threatened coral reefs and vulnerable coastal …
Photo by O3World.
Impact Tech | June 16, 2022
Strella Biotechnology secures $8 million to reduce produce waste
ImpactAlpha, June 16 — Investments in “demand planning,” to better understand the perishability of food products, for example, are on the upswing, ReFED’s …
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 …
Photo by Rheaply.
Climate and Clean Tech | June 8, 2022
Black-led Rheaply secures $20 million to help companies reduce waste and limit emissions
ImpactAlpha, June 8 — Chicago-based Rheaply has raised $20 million in a financing round led by Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. …
Illustration by Cornelia Li/The Counter.
Regeneration | May 16, 2022
AXA, Unilever and Tikehau Capital seed regenerative agriculture fund with €300 million
ImpactAlpha, May 16 — Paris-based Tikehau Capital and AXA and U.K.-based Unilever are joining forces to launch a regenerative agriculture fund, which seeks …
Photo credit: Global Conservation.
Climate and Clean Tech | May 9, 2022
Pachama scores $55 million to verify forest-based carbon credits
ImpactAlpha, May 9 — Pachama, which uses satellite imaging and artificial intelligence to monitor carbon stored in forests, has raised $55 million in …
Photo credit: Loveyourclothes.com
Dealflow | May 5, 2022
Decarbonization Partners backs alt-leather producer MycoWorks
ImpactAlpha, May 5 — BlackRock and Singapore’s Temasek launched Decarbonization Partners last year with a combined $600 million commitment. Its first investment: MycoWorks, …