Features
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The Brief | August 8, 2022
The Brief: Banking East Africa’s missing middle, care economy, low-cost solar installs, creators of color, catalyzing new markets
Greetings, Agents of Impact! 🤝 Let’s connect. ImpactAlpha is thrilled to be back at in-person events this fall. Hitting the conference circuit? Let …
M-Pesa | Photo credit: Vodafone
Frontiers in Social Innovation | August 8, 2022
Catalyzing new markets with early-stage impact investments
This post is part of ImpactAlpha’s “Frontiers in Social Innovation” series with Stanford GSB Center for Social Innovation. The posts in the series …
Photo credit: Annie O'Neill
Agents of Impact | August 5, 2022
Brandon Dennison, Coalfield Development: Forging a path for Appalachia’s green economy
ImpactAlpha, August 5 – In the roller coaster climate bill negotiations with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, Brandon Dennison brought something to the table …
Can you hear me now? A pup and mother elephant seal.
The Brief | August 5, 2022
The Week in impact investing: New Voices
TGIF, Agents of Impact! 🗣 Proximate solutions. On issues from climate to inclusive economic growth, new voices are a source of fresh solutions. …
Podcasts | August 5, 2022
Introducing The LIIST with Luni Libes and Zuleyma Bebell
ImpactAlpha’s Zuleyma Bebell and Realize Impact’s Luni Libes join host Brian Walsh to discuss the motivation behind The LIIST, our new monthly sampling …
Photo credit: UNICEF Ukraine
The Brief | August 4, 2022
The Brief: Policy entrepreneurship for inclusive growth, microfinance acquisition in Kenya, upskilling neurodiverse professionals, catalytic capital for crises
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Policy Corner Policy entrepreneurs’ are scaling up local innovation to drive inclusive growth. Bree Jones of nonprofit developer …
Photo credit: UNICEF Ukraine
Catalytic Capital | August 4, 2022
How UNICEF’s Bridge Fund is speeding the delivery of aid to Ukraine and other crisis zones
It took Yulia, a mother from Kharkiv, Ukraine, seven days to reach the Polish border with her one-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son. They …
Marv Dupre, an employee at Minnesota Rubber & Plastics, celebrates the sale (see below). Photo by KKR.
The Brief | August 3, 2022
The Brief: Green opportunities vs. tax quibbles, food tech in Morocco, worker-owner payout, catalytic capital to combat bias in asset management
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Policy Corner Eyes on the prize: Green opportunities versus tax quibbles in the U.S. climate bill. So much …
Seeding Impact | August 3, 2022
Combating bias in asset management with catalytic capital and inclusive due diligence
Editor’s note: This blog is part of ImpactAlpha’s series, “Seeding Impact,” authored by participants in the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) Seeding Learning Labs. …
Photo by Michael Fousert on Unsplash
The Brief | August 2, 2022
The Brief: The LIIST of open impact funds, EVs-as-a-service, impact tech in Africa, federal policy for community solar
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Mobilizing Capital The LIIST No. 1: Seven impact funds that are raising capital now. Between the launch and …
ImpactAlpha Open | August 2, 2022
ImpactAlpha Open No. 2: Impact funds raising capital now
🗣️ Happy Tuesday, Agents of Impact! It’s Week Two of ImpactAlpha Open, our brand spanking new – and free – weekly newsletter for Agents of Impact. …
Investing in Health | August 2, 2022
How to set social impact targets in an uncertain world
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 …
The Brief | August 1, 2022
The Brief: Valuing the Congo Basin, guilt-free AC, e-mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean, M&A in agrifood tech, accounting for climate impact
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Nature-Based Finance Can’t we just pay the Democratic Republic of Congo to keep its oil in the ground? …
Impact Management | August 1, 2022
How one climate tech fund counts – and reports – the impact of its portfolio
At Energy Impact Partners, we just released our 2022 Impact and ESG report, our fourth consecutive public accounting for our environmental and ESG …
Podcasts | July 29, 2022
ImpactAlpha Open Launches
Zuleyma Bebell and Dennis Price join host Monique Aiken to talk about this week’s launch of ImpactAlpha Open, trends in the media business …
The Brief | July 29, 2022
The Week in Impact Investing: Deflation
TGIF, Agents of Impact! 🗣 Cost curves. The green premium is giving way to the green discount. Calling the proposed $369 billion energy …
Agents of Impact | July 29, 2022
Taj Eldridge of Include Ventures: Putting the cool in climate action
ImpactAlpha, Jul. 29 – Patagonia vests and khakis ain’t gonna cut it, says Taj Eldridge. To spread the word on climate action, the PhD …
The Brief | July 28, 2022
The Brief: Energy efficiency opportunity, treating diabetes in Mexico, reducing plastic waste, managing carbon footprints, seeding emerging managers (podcast)
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Electrify Everything Energy efficiency is critical for climate goals and global security. Russian natural gas had barely resumed …
photo: Jens Cederskjold
Impact Voices | July 28, 2022
Energy efficiency is critical for climate goals and global security
Europe must wean itself off of Russian oil and gas. Energy efficiency can go a long way towards alleviating the pain. Energy efficiency …
Catalytic Capital | July 28, 2022
Margot Kane: Clearing obstacles to mobilize capital for emerging fund managers (podcast)
“There’s an inherent power dynamic in investing. Full stop.” That’s Margot Kane, the chief investment officer of Spring Point Partners, in an Agents …
Catalytic Capital | July 27, 2022
Impact investors collaborate to amplify the impact of their catalytic capital
Editor’s note: This blog is part of ImpactAlpha’s series, “Seeding Impact,” authored by participants in the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) Seeding Learning Labs. …
Pompano Beach, Florida
Agrifood Tech | July 27, 2022
Food banks and food donors get a tech makeover to reduce hunger – and food waste
We are living in the technological age, and a trend ReFED has been watching closely is how this is affecting food rescue, which …
The Brief | July 27, 2022
The Brief: Streamlining food rescue, sustainable herbicides, accelerating health equity, renewable drinking water, collaborative catalytic capital
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Food Tech Food banks and food donors get a tech makeover to reduce hunger and food waste. Food …
Impact Voices | July 26, 2022
How NGOs are blending capital to amplify their impact
The typical employee within a non-governmental organization doesn’t talk a lot to commercial banks, pension funds and insurance companies. But like everyone else, …
The Brief | July 26, 2022
The Brief: Supplying sustainable lithium, decarbonizing whole cities, seeding agtech in Argentina and India, blended finance for NGOs
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Better Batteries EnergyX and its rivals raise resources for the sustainable lithium race. Lithium, a key input for …
Impact Voices | July 26, 2022
It’s time for mining companies to embrace ESG
Love it or hate it, environmental, social and governance, or ESG, is here to stay. Yet there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. No sector …
Baymiller Row Houses in Cincinnati. Photo: The Port
Community Finance | July 25, 2022
How ‘The Port’ is drawing private investors to redress Cincinnati’s racial wealth gap
Driving through Cincinnati, Ohio’s Bond Hill neighborhood, Tony Jones pointed out the street his grandmother used to live on, and the corner where …
The Brief | July 25, 2022
The Brief: Quasi-public impact investors, early tech in emerging markets, decarbonizing real estate, off-grid solar in Africa, Indonesian agri-tech
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Muni Impact How ‘The Port’ is drawing private investors to redress Cincinnati’s racial wealth gap. The role the …
Podcasts | July 22, 2022
What Airlift’s crash says about pandemic era VC investing
Jessica Pothering joins host Brian Walsh to dissect the crash landing of Airlift, and chew over the broader Covid-fueled boom and bust in …
Illustration by Fagan Associates.
The Brief | July 22, 2022
The Week in Impact Investing: Volatility
TGIF, Agents of Impact! The Week in Impact Investing: Volatility 🗣 Ups and downs. Gas started flowing to Europe again this week. Stock …
photo: Sam Bloxham
Impact Tech | July 21, 2022
Formula E: The hum of electric race cars signals the arrival of the EV era
ImpactAlpha, July 21 – There was no deafening roar of engines as 22 race cars careened along the Brooklyn waterfront last weekend. This …
Formula E in Brooklyn, New York (2017)
The Brief | July 21, 2022
The Brief: Formula E, drone delivery in Africa, sustainable mobility, pandemic lessons for a recession, SOCAP Open voting
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Electric Vehicles Formula E: The hum of electric race cars signals the arrival of the EV era. There …
The Brief | July 20, 2022
The Brief: Airlift’s crash landing, clean energy in Africa, fusion dreams, impact and risk in catalytic investing
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Growth Markets For ‘quick commerce’ startups, the pandemic giveth and taketh away. Airlift has crash-landed. The Lahore-based startup …
Image credit: Airlift
Frontier and Growth Markets | July 20, 2022
For ‘quick commerce’ startups, the pandemic giveth and taketh away
ImpactAlpha, July 20 – Airlift became a darling of Pakistan’s venture capital scene last year when it raised $85 million in Series B …
Photo by Sanjeev Malhotra on Unsplash
The Brief | July 19, 2022
The Brief: Climate tech’s resilience, raising impact funds, cutting food waste in India, new rules for shareholder engagement
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Climate Finance Early-stage climate tech offers a bright spot amid the gloom. U.S. climate policy is in disarray. …
Climate Finance | July 19, 2022
Early-stage climate tech offers a bright spot amid the gloom
ImpactAlpha, July 19 – U.S. climate policy is in disarray. Venture capital investments are plummeting. The IPO window is shut. And crypto is …
Henry Mobility e-bike.
Impact Voices | July 18, 2022
The diverging paths of climate tech in Europe and the U.S.
Talent. Customers. And specialization. Transition-friendly policy and sentiment are helping set the European Union apart as a hub for climate tech. My colleague …
The Brief | July 18, 2022
The Brief: E.U. vs. U.S. in climate tech, global fund for coral reefs, talent development for the future of work, TPG’s hydrogen play, upskilling climate workers
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Low-Carbon Transition The diverging paths of climate tech in Europe and the U.S. When Joe Manchin torpedoed Democrats’ …
Impact Investing | July 18, 2022
Shareholder Engagement is next up on the S.E.C.’s agenda
ImpactAlpha, July 18 – In a 3-2 vote, the Securities and Exchange Commission last week finalized the reversal of two Trump-era rules that …
Photo credit: NASA
The Brief | July 15, 2022
The Week in impact investing: Cosmic
TGIF, Agents of Impact! 🗣 Time machine. The Copernican Revolution played out over the course of more than a century. Midway through, the …
The Brief | July 14, 2022
The Brief: Sri Lanka’s crisis, community solar, Black tech founders, reducing cow burps, financing small businesses in the U.K., six strategies for scaling
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Political Risk Is a green transition the cause – or the solution – in Sri Lanka’s crisis? It …
Signals | July 14, 2022
Is a green transition the cause – or the solution – in Sri Lanka’s crisis?
ImpactAlpha, July 14 – It was an irresistible meme: A crash transition to organic farming tanked Sri Lanka’s agricultural sector and sent the country …
Frontiers in Social Innovation | July 14, 2022
Six strategies for crossing the valleys of death and scaling social innovations
This post is part of ImpactAlpha’s “Frontiers in Social Innovation” series with Stanford GSB Center for Social Innovation. The posts in the series …
Photo by Diogo Fagundes on Unsplash
The Brief | July 13, 2022
The Brief: ESG and its discontents, climate ventures in Africa, recycling blended textiles, preventing chronic disease in Mexico, impact investing at art museums
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Institutional Impact ESG and its discontents: A defense of HSBC banker Stuart Kirk and a critique of ESG …
The Brief | July 12, 2022
The Brief: Sobering proxy season, KKR’s second impact fund, agrifood tech in India, energy-efficiency-as-a-service, impact management leaderboard
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Public Impact Why did shareholder resolutions on climate action and racial equity fall short? Big asset managers. The …