Impact Tech
Investing in Health | May 25, 2023
Health is too important to be left to the health sector alone
The World Bank Group’s and International Monetary Fund themed their recent meetings in Washington, DC, “The way forward: Building resilience and reshaping development.” …
Dealflow | May 25, 2023
Village Capital and Volunteers of America back Let’s Get Set to help low-income mothers claim tax benefits
ImpactAlpha, May 25 — Millions of low-income tax filers in the US miss out on an estimated $12 billion each year in unclaimed …
Squire Servance, founder of Syridex Bio.
Investing in Health | May 24, 2023
Syridex Bio scores $5 million from New Jersey to back local health businesses
ImpactAlpha, May 24 — A former life sciences lawyer, Squire Servance founded Princeton-based Syridex last year to invest in access to quality healthcare …
Image credit: Quilt
Climate and Clean Tech | May 24, 2023
Lowercarbon Capital and MCJ Collective back Quilt’s heat pump designs
ImpactAlpha, May 24 – Sales of heat pumps in the US last year outpaced gas furnaces. Many systems come with installation challenges, however, …
Photo credit: Wyss Institute, Harvard University
Dealflow | May 23, 2023
Collaborative Fund offers up $15 million to ignite sustainable materials development at Harvard
ImpactAlpha, May 23 – Collaborative’s network of investment fund managers has directed $1 billion into impact entrepreneurship. Another $200 million is going toward …
Photo credit: Hybrico
Frontier and Growth Markets | May 21, 2023
Hybrico raises $2 million to shift cell tower operators to green energy
ImpactAlpha, May 21 – Online connectivity is now essential to economic inclusion. But in markets where grid energy isn’t reliable, online access is …
Climate and Clean Tech | May 18, 2023
Tangible raises $3 million to help building developers measure and reduce climate impact
ImpactAlpha, May 18 – Real estate companies seeking to reduce their carbon footprints largely focus on operational carbon—how much a building emits once …
Photo by Kensa.
Climate and Clean Tech | May 17, 2023
Kensa Group secures £70 million to accelerate adoption of ground-source heat pumps in the UK
ImpactAlpha, May 17 — The UK government wants to install 600,000 heat pumps each year as a low-carbon alternative to gas boilers. Ground-source, …
Photo credit: M-KOPA
Frontier and Growth Markets | May 16, 2023
M-KOPA lands $255 million in equity and impact-linked debt for financial and gender inclusion
ImpactAlpha, May 16 – M-KOPA helped build Africa’s off-grid, pay-as-you-go solar market. Now the The Nairobi-based company brands itself as a fintech company, …
Dealflow | May 15, 2023
Wellthy secures $25.5 million to provide caregiving support as an employee benefit
ImpactAlpha, May 15 — Roughly 90 million Americans provide some kind of care for an elderly, disabled, sick or mentally-ill family member, says …
Agents of Impact | May 12, 2023
Aina Abiodun, VertueLab: Centering community in climate tech in the Pacific Northwest
ImpactAlpha, May 12 – Nigeria-born climate entrepreneur and “professional nomad” Aina Abiodun is bullish on place-based climate innovation. “There is nothing more urgent than …
Clean Energy | May 12, 2023
ImpactAlpha Deal Spotlight: Brookfield bucks fundraising malaise as it eyes another mega decarbonization fund
ImpactAlpha, May 12 — Private equity funds are bracing for a challenging fundraising year. Not Brookfield Asset Management. Already this year, the Canadian …
Muni Impact | May 11, 2023
Impact Muni Bond: Ed-tech funding for STEM tools in diverse Santa Clara school district
Editor’s note: ImpactAlpha has partnered with HIP Investor to highlight upcoming bond issues with social and/or environmental significance. Disclaimer: Nothing in this post …
Education Tech | May 11, 2023
BeeReaders raises $3.5 million to close the literacy gap for Spanish-speaking students
ImpactAlpha, May 11 — Austin-based edtech venture BeeReaders provides customized and culturally-relevant Spanish reading and writing content to 500 schools and 250,000 K-12 …
Photo credit: Pivot Energy
Climate and Clean Tech | May 10, 2023
Silicon Valley Bank keeps green project finance rolling under new ownership
ImpactAlpha, May 11 – When a bank run took down Silicon Valley Bank in March, the US government stepped in to ensure depositors …
Climate and Clean Tech | May 10, 2023
UK-based Actis launches $500 million Japan-focused clean energy arm
ImpactAlpha, May 10 – London-based global sustainable infrastructure investor Actis launched a Japan-focused clean energy unit out of its fifth energy infrastructure fund, …
Photo by MPOWER.
Dealflow | May 9, 2023
MPOWER secures $150 million debt investment from Goldman Sachs for higher-education financing
ImpactAlpha, May 9 — Washington, D.C.-based MPOWER provides loans that don’t require a cosigner or collateral to international students and “DREAMers” to attend …
Dealflow | May 9, 2023
El Salvador’s Cubo raises $3.5 million to digitize payments for small businesses
ImpactAlpha, May 9 — El Salvador’s Cubo launched in 2021 with an easy-to-use digital solution for micro and small enterprises in Central America …
Education Tech | May 9, 2023
Generative AI opportunities and risks for impact investing in education
OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT took just two months to reach 100 million users. As impact investors, we’re excited about how generative AI might contribute …
Photo credit: Novulis
Investing in Health | May 8, 2023
How impact incentives brought a dental care startup back to its roots in rural Ecuador
ImpactAlpha, May 8 – Dental care is often an afterthought in global health. But as anyone who’s had a toothache knows, it can …
Photo by Nithio.
Clean Energy | May 8, 2023
Schmidt Family Foundation backs Nithio for clean energy access in sub-Saharan Africa
ImpactAlpha, May 8 — A $3 million investment by the former Google executive’s foundation will support off-grid solar lending to borrowers in “the …
Photo by R2.
Financial Inclusion | May 8, 2023
Mexican embedded finance venture R2 secures $100 million line of credit from Community Investment Management
ImpactAlpha, May 8 — R2 has secured a $100 million from San Francisco-based impact investor Community Investment Management. The Mexico City-based venture provides …
Dealflow | May 4, 2023
Encourage Capital invests in Svakarma Finance to promote clean energy access for India’s small businesses
ImpactAlpha, May 4 – Mumbai-based Svakarma Finance is using an on-the-ground lending network with fintech to provide credit and other financial services to …
Photo credit: CoolIT
Return on Inclusion | May 4, 2023
KKR acquires CoolIT to advance both climate impact and worker ownership
ImpactAlpha, May 4 – The world’s growing uses for data are creating an environmental problem: data centers consume a lot of energy. Preventing …
Climate Finance | May 4, 2023
Milestones reached for trio of climate investment funds
ImpactAlpha, May 4 – The investment environment may be strained by macro trends, but fund managers are moving forward, particularly in the climate …
Investing in Health | May 3, 2023
Opportunities for impact investing to champion reproductive care after Dobbs
Since the Dobbs ruling, private investors and philanthropic organizations have stepped up their pursuit of mission-driven impact investments in reproductive care enterprises, especially those serving …
Gender Smart | May 3, 2023
Anthemis scores backing from Visa and BMO for women-focused fintech fund
ImpactAlpha, May 3 – Despite growing recognition of gender-based investing, the needle on how much women-led startups raise hasn’t moved in years. In …
Abbott Northwestern Hospital
Muni Impact | May 3, 2023
Impact Muni Bond: Post-covid hospital infrastructure expansion in the Twin Cities
Editor’s note: ImpactAlpha has partnered with HIP Investor to highlight upcoming bond issues with social and/or environmental significance. Disclaimer: Nothing in this post …
Dealflow | May 2, 2023
Cross-border processor Rev acquires online payments company Netspend to reach underbanked customers
ImpactAlpha, May 2 – Roy and Bertrand Sosa founded Netspend during the dot-com boom. Their innovation: prepaid debit cards. “We thought, how are …
Agents of Impact | April 28, 2023
Su Sanni, Dollaride: From dollar-van commuter to urban-mobility entrepreneur
ImpactAlpha, April 28 — A first generation Nigerian-American, Su Sanni grew up in East New York, Brooklyn and Jamaica, Queens. The low-income neighborhoods, …
(top, left to right) Amy King, Julien Gervreau, Kristen Carroll (bottom, left to right) Angela Williams, Simon Mainwaring, Janie Hoffman
Impact Tech | April 27, 2023
On the minds of impact CEOs: Opportunity, scale and succession
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 27 – “Deliver impact, drive sales” was the mantra of executives of high-performing impact companies at Big Path Capital’s MO Summit in …
Frontier and Growth Markets | April 27, 2023
Brazil’s Arado raises $12 million to give smallholder farmers a tech edge
ImpactAlpha, April 27 – In one of Latin America’s most industrialized agriculture markets, Arado is doubling down on its support for small producers. …
Frontier and Growth Markets | April 26, 2023
Capria scores backing from Gates Ventures and others to invest in the Global South
Emerging markets-focused venture investor Capria Ventures closed its first, $57 million fund in June 2020. “It was a lousy time to raise and …
Photo by Roodgally Senatus, ImpactAlpha.
Catalytic Capital | April 25, 2023
Dollaride scores $500,000 from Elemental Excelerator to electrify urban mobility
ImpactAlpha, April 25 — Brooklyn-based Dollaride initially launched in 2018 to digitalize New York’s informal network of dollar van drivers and riders. With …
Photo by Avalanche Energy.
Clean Energy | April 25, 2023
Avalanche Energy raises $40 million to build modular fusion micro-reactors
ImpactAlpha, April 25 — Fusion energy, considered the holy grail of clean energy, could be a scalable, zero-carbon source of power that avoids …
Frontier and Growth Markets | April 24, 2023
Jacob Haar: Helping emerging market lenders ‘leapfrog’ the US (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, April 24 – Jacob Haar’s work in microfinance in Azerbaijan inspired him to tackle obstacles to financial inclusion at home in the …
Image credit: Net Zero Insights
Dealflow | April 21, 2023
Deal spotlight: The new, uncomfortable reality for climate tech VC
ImpactAlpha, April 21 – Last year, climate tech investing was a bright spot in an otherwise challenging fundraising market. The talk among startups …
Climate and Clean Tech | April 20, 2023
Venture capital investors in climate tech are closer to government than they might want to admit
The climate investment ecosystem has been buffeted in recent months by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the decline in climate tech …
Agrifood Tech | April 20, 2023
Aqua-Spark invests in sustainable aquaculture startups in Vietnam and Finland
ImpactAlpha, April 20 – Aqua-Spark was one of the earliest investors in the “blue economy,” focusing on an agrifood niche at a time …
Photo credit: Amp Robotics, a Congruent portfolio company
Climate Finance | April 19, 2023
Climate tech investor Congruent raises $300 million to help portfolio co’s scale
ImpactAlpha, April 19 – Congruent Ventures has cut pre-seed, seed and Series A checks for more than 60 companies since launching in 2017. …
Catalytic Capital | April 18, 2023
Why ’embedded finance’ is emerging as the future of global financial inclusion (Q&A)
ImpactAlpha, April 18 – Borrowers and beneficiaries financed by the World Bank are buckling under the weight of expensive debt, fragile post-Covid economies, …
Africa | April 17, 2023
Secha Capital’s investment in South Africa’s FarmTrace will support growth and employee ownership
ImpactAlpha, April 17 – Private equity firm Secha Capital made its name as an early investor in South Africa’s bread and butter businesses. …
Return on Inclusion | April 17, 2023
MassMutual invests $100 million in second Catalyst Fund for diverse founders
ImpactAlpha, April 17 – MassMutual launched its first Catalyst Fund in 2021 with $50 million to invest in diverse-led and rurally-based startups in …
Impact Tech | April 13, 2023
Scotland’s Solasta Bio’ secures £4 million for sustainable agri-inputs
ImpactAlpha, April 13 — The global market for insecticides is dominated by synthetic pesticides that are harmful to the environment and may even …
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 …