Inclusive Economy
Impact Voices | April 25, 2024
Lessons from the Kellogg Foundation’s $310 million in mission-driven investments
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
Inclusive Economy | April 25, 2024
Addressing the broken child care system with impact investments
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
Financial Inclusion | April 25, 2024
Indian home lender Altum Credo’s $40 million round gives investors a partial exit
Pune, India-based Altum Credo provides mortgages for first-time homebuyers underserved by other financial institutions. Its digital underwriting and loan disbursement process offers five …
Latin America | April 25, 2024
IDB Lab backs small businesses in Paraguay and health access in Ecuador
The Inter-American Development Bank’s experimental venture funding group IDB Lab provided a $3 million anchor investment for iThink VC, an investment firm that …
Return on Inclusion | April 24, 2024
FreeCap’s ‘decarceration index’ highlights companies outcompeting with fair-chance hiring
The US economy is generating more jobs than there are workers to fill them. To address shortages and compete for talent, companies like …
Inclusive Economy | April 24, 2024
Deal spotlight: Connect Humanity blends finance to bring broadband to remote communities
The lack of high-speed Internet service in rural and mountainous regions of the US exacts a socio-economic toll, limiting access to jobs, education, …
Podcasts | April 24, 2024
Franchising indoor farms to build a billion dollars in Black wealth (podcast)
When one door closes, another one opens. For Zarû Systems’ Loren Taylor, that second door may open onto a self-contained modular vertical farm …
Dealflow | April 23, 2024
Upstart Co-Lab raises $15 million to invest in an inclusive creative economy
Upstart Co-Lab raised $15 million in a mix of mission and program-related investments and recoverable grants from 14 investors. Investors include the Andy …
Inclusive Economy | April 23, 2024
Tangent secures early funding to democratize referrals for UK tech workers
Less than 10% of the UK’s tech talent comes from lower-income backgrounds compared to nearly 30% in finance and 23% in law. An …
Creative Economy | April 17, 2024
Shutdown of Participant challenges other investors to drive impact through film
When Ava DuVernay made her 2019 series, “When They See Us,” about the five Black teens convicted of a rape they didn’t commit, …
Ownership Economy | April 17, 2024
Colorado is demonstrating how states can accelerate conversions to employee ownership (video)
When Jared Polis became Colorado’s governor in 2019, he created an employee ownership office to incentivize and provide support for retiring owners to …
Return on Inclusion | April 16, 2024
The brilliant case for impact investing in America’s HBCUs
Editor’s Note: This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Return on Inclusion | April 15, 2024
New York Life acquires stake in minority-owned firm Fairview Capital
Fairview Capital, a minority-owned investment management firm that specializes in backing diverse and emerging managers in venture capital and private equity, has invested …
Deploy! | April 10, 2024
With bridges, buses and bike lanes, Reconnecting Communities rebuilds ‘civic muscles’ along with neighborhoods
The Biden administration’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods program was conceived with goals as lofty as any in recent memory – to stitch together …
Emerging and Growth Markets | April 9, 2024
How and why British International Investments directs capital to small businesses
Development finance institutions like to style themselves as the original impact investors. It was Lord Reith, the first chairman of the UK’s development …
Dealflow | April 9, 2024
Savills Investment Management secures £123 million for affordable housing in the UK
London-based Savills’ Simply Affordable Homes fund will invest in new and existing affordable and social housing, as well as in shared-ownership homes. The …
Ownership Economy | April 8, 2024
With ELBOs and EOTs, more business owners are exiting to employee ownership
Conversions to worker ownership can be complex for retiring business owners. They may be looking first to keep their enterprise going and second …
Inclusive Economy | April 5, 2024
Addressing the small business financing gap with catalytic to commercial capital
Small businesses’ demand for financing is strong, and creative entrepreneurs and fund managers are working to increase the supply. This week saw deals …
Financial Inclusion | April 3, 2024
Gawa Capital and OikoCredit invest in Sindhuja Microcredit for rural lending in India
Sindhuja Microcredit launched in 2018 in India’s mostly rural state of Uttar Pradesh to provide access to capital to traders, shopkeepers and farmers …
Agrifood Tech | April 3, 2024
Seso inks $26 million to address US farm labor shortages
Difficulty finding and hiring farm workers, particularly migrant workers, is hurting production on American farms. Seso, based in San Francisco and Monterrey, Mexico, …
Inclusive Economy | April 2, 2024
Known launches ‘founder-centric’ investment bank for middle-market companies
Known Holdings, a Black, Indigenous, Latina and Asian American-owned asset management firm, has launched Known Growth, an investment bank that will invest in …
Ownership Economy | April 1, 2024
Putting ownership and wealth-building strategies on center stage
“We are on the cusp of catalyzing an ownership movement,” WES’s Smitha Das and Gary Community Ventures’ Santhosh Ramdoss wrote on ImpactAlpha last …
Ownership Economy | April 1, 2024
Wanted: First-time fund managers with strategies to ‘Unlock Ownership’ in underserved communities
A group of mission-aligned investors is pooling philanthropic capital to provide early, flexible capital to help first-time managers launch funds to finance employee-ownership …
Latin America | March 27, 2024
The path to growth in Brazil runs through the impact economy (videos)
Sign up for ImpactAlpha Latin America to follow the people and money powering Latin America and the Caribbean’s impact economy. In May, thousands of visitors …
Ownership Economy | March 26, 2024
Wealth-building and community ownership in the next stage of The Great Deployment
Later this year, solar panels will be installed on the roof of the Brooklyn Army Terminal. Like thousands of emerging green projects across the …
Podcasts | March 26, 2024
Building an inclusive economy with Lenore Champagne Beirne
ImpactAlpha podcasts are back! We’re pleased to share our revamped interview show, Agents of Impact, hosted by David Bank and Sherrell Dorsey, founder …
Podcasts | March 26, 2024
Impact(ed): An introduction to CDFIs and equitable community lending
Impact(ed) is part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network, a set of shows hosted and produced by leading voices in impact and sustainable investing, …
Sponsored | March 25, 2024
Elevating Outcomes Beyond Clinics: Investing in diverse-led startups to advance health equity in the US
Editor’s note: This guest post is sponsored by Impact Ventures by J&J Foundation, which supports ImpactAlpha’s Investing in Health coverage. In partnership with Impact Ventures, ImpactAlpha is exploring the …
Inclusive Economy | March 21, 2024
Beneficial Returns re-ups with Indonesian nut producer Kawanasi
Jakarta-based Kawanasi Sehat Dasacatur buys and processes wild-harvested kenari nuts, a type of tree nut, from the Indigenous Kayoa people in eastern Indonesia. …
Dealflow | March 18, 2024
Westbound raises $100 million to back tech ventures built by, for or with underrepresented people of color
Westbound Equity Partners launched in 2019 as Concrete Rose Capital to close the racial wealth gap by providing financial and social resources to …
Deploy! | March 15, 2024
Tribal community gets Energy Department loan guarantee for solar + storage
The future of energy access runs through locally-led and inclusive businesses. Indigenous-owned renewable energy developers in the US are getting their first cut …
Plugged In | March 15, 2024
Up- and re-skilling Black talent for tech’s next wave (video)
The gold rush of 2020 gave way to the pink slips of 2023. Nearly a quarter-million tech workers were laid off last year …
Clean Energy | March 13, 2024
The path to universal energy access is local, inclusive and women-led
In Zimbabwe, Agriput Solar leverages a network of local women to sell solar home products in rural communities. Women-led Grean World in Ethiopia …
Africa | March 13, 2024
IFC extends $20 million to Burundi bank to bolster small business lending
The International Finance Corp. and a group of institutional investors have extended a $20 million loan to Banque de Crédit de Bujumbura to …
Financial Inclusion | March 13, 2024
IFC extends $20 million to Burundian bank to bolster small business lending
The International Finance Corp. and a group of institutional investors have extended a $20 million loan to Banque de Crédit de Bujumbura to …
Emerging and Growth Markets | March 12, 2024
XSML raises nearly $100 million to invest in African small and mid-sized businesses
Amsterdam-based XSML invests in growing African businesses providing basic consumer goods and services in less-invested markets like Uganda and the Democratic Republic of …
Inclusive Economy | March 11, 2024
Facing raids and trials, Muhammed Yunus struggles to preserve Grameen’s anti-poverty network in Bangladesh
ImpactAlpha, March 11 – The decade-long vendetta against Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus by the prime minister of Bangladesh is escalating toward a …
Latin America | March 8, 2024
Atta impact-first venture fund targets “missing middle” social enterprise in Mesoamerica region
ImpactAlpha, March 8 — New funds are emerging out of Latin America and the Caribbean as the region’s impact ecosystem comes together and …
Inclusive Economy | March 8, 2024
Five women who invest for social justice
Everyone in the impact investing ecosystem has an impact origin story, a moment that helped point them toward business and finance as tools …
Impact Investing | March 8, 2024
Rachel Robasciotti, Adasina Social Capital: Climate justice is social justice
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
Impact Voices | March 8, 2024
Sonya Dreizler, CHOIR: Build a bigger table
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
Impact Voices | March 8, 2024
Lakota Vogel, Four Bands Community Fund: Rewriting the rules
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
exclude from paywall | March 8, 2024
Beth Bafford, Calvert Impact Capital: Everyone deserves a chance to fly
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
Inclusive Economy | March 8, 2024
Tanay Tatum-Edwards, FreeCap Financial: We Can’t Change What We Don’t Measure
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
Financial Inclusion | March 6, 2024
Wagely inks $23 million to help Asia’s workers with cash stability and financial health
ImpactAlpha, March 6 – Indonesia and Bangladesh have nearly 200 million wage workers. Unexpected expenses force many to resort to expensive payday loans. …