Impact Investing
Impact Investing | April 22, 2024
“I’m Your Heat Pump”: Cool when you want it, hot when you need it (video)
Electric heat pumps are five times more efficient than gas furnaces, saving homeowners money and reducing emissions that contribute to pollution and climate …
Deploy! | April 22, 2024
For this Earth Day, the White House delivers a $7 billion message: Solar for All
“Cheaper, faster, better” is not just for affluent households or wealthy neighborhoods. Hundreds of millions in annual cost-savings from ever-cheaper solar energy, not …
Ebb Carbon's first marine carbon removal project is underway at Sequim Bay in Washington (photo: Ebb carbon)
Catalytic Capital | April 18, 2024
Prime Coalition launches Trellis Climate to plug gaps for first-of-a-kind climate tech projects
Boston-based Prime Coalition has spent more than a decade identifying funding gaps for early stage climate tech and marshaling risk-tolerant capital to fill …
photo: MeduLance
Dealflow | April 18, 2024
Medulance scores $3 million to bring medical emergency response services to India’s smaller cities
Indian healthtech investor Alkemi Growth Capital led a $3 million Series A investment in Medulance, a company founded in 2017 to make emergency …
Impact Voices | April 16, 2024
How innovative financing structures can help close California’s housing gap
The way housing is financed and constructed in the United States has experienced little change in decades, leading to skyrocketing costs, barriers to …
Impact Voices | April 15, 2024
Elevating impact reporting to raise the performance of impact fund managers
“One million lives touched.” “800 jobs created.” “50,000 acres of land restored.” Capital allocators often see these types of punchy headlines in the …
Deploy! | April 12, 2024
Private sector sees opportunity in federal ‘green bank’ fund
The EPA’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is intended to bring in at least seven times as much in private capital for …
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in Birmingham this week
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 …
Photo credit: Bess Adler (used with permission)
Corporate Impact | April 10, 2024
Alison Taylor: The broken chain from transparency to accountability to corporate action (podcast)
The era of cake-ism (as in having it and eating it, too) has come to an inglorious end. “I think we’re in an …
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 …
Meat producers that heavily use antibiotics are contributing to antimicrobial resistance, which poses economy-wide risks
Corporate Impact | April 4, 2024
With ‘systems-first’ proposals, shareholders seek to mitigate economy-wide risks
Proxy season – the annual corporate meetings clustered from February through May where directors are re-elected and shareholders vote, by “proxy,” on issues …
Deploy! | April 3, 2024
EPA set to announce Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awards for $20 billion ‘green bank’
It’s finally here. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce key awards for its $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund tomorrow at …
Photo: Lightshift Energy
Dealflow | March 31, 2024
Greenbacker provides $100 million to battery storage developer Lightshift Energy
Batteries are key to unlocking value from intermittent renewable energy, such as wind and solar. Lightshift Energy’s standalone, utility-scale battery technology helps utilities …
Deploy! | March 28, 2024
EPA’s new partners plot a $27 billion path to a US green bank
The announcement of the winners of “green bank” funding under the Inflation Reduction Act is so close at hand that the Environmental Protection …
Impact Voices | March 27, 2024
Investing in life vs. tech: Lifting up nature-based solutions for ecosystems and communities
“We need to invest in life, rather than expensive infrastructure investments,” Anne van Leeuwen, a founding farmer from the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture, pleaded …
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 …
Deploy! | March 19, 2024
How the Loan Programs Office is supporting state clean energy projects
The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office is best known for providing loans and guarantees to innovative climate tech solutions and manufacturing from …
Impact Investing | March 19, 2024
Truth and facts are the antidote to crony capitalism and authoritarian kleptocracy
(Note: Jon Lukomnik, author of “Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Investing That Matters,” shared these thoughts upon receiving a lifetime achievement award from …
Deploy! | March 18, 2024
In Cleveland, stakeholders mobilize to deploy climate funds for community infrastructure
A few years ago, officials at the Cleveland and George Gund foundations were lamenting the lack of a state-wide green bank in the …
Climate Finance | March 14, 2024
Happy Returns: Elaborate spoof takes aim at Vanguard’s retreat from climate commitments
Climate change can be stressful, including for investors profiting from fossil fuels in the face of record-breaking temperatures around the world. Climate activists …
Impact Voices | March 14, 2024
How loan guarantees and catalytic capital can amplify federal ‘green bank’ funds
Much like the broader financial system, green lending in the US has primarily focused on higher-income, White borrowers with higher credit scores. The …
Impact Voices | March 13, 2024
US Export-Import Bank bucks the green finance agenda – to its own detriment
Should the US government really be allocating public funds to support oil drilling in the Middle East? This question comes sharply into focus …
Impact Investing | March 12, 2024
ImpactAssets 50: Fund managers are raising the bar by tying compensation to impact
ImpactAlpha, March 1 – A focus on climate and impact-linked compensation are among the trends in this year’s ImpactAssets 50 list. Some 155 …
Muni Impact | March 11, 2024
To scale the IRA’s “green bank,” community lenders should engage muni finance markets
When the University of Virginia issued the first Build America Bond ($250 million) in April of 2009, it was just about three months …
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 …
Photo credit: Warc/Instagram
Smallholder Agriculture | March 7, 2024
Warc raises $7.5 million for regenerative agriculture in West Africa (video)
ImpactAlpha, March 7 — Argentinian entrepreneur Emiliano Mroue founded Ghana-based Warc over a decade ago. The social enterprise serves roughly 20,000 smallholder farmers …
Impact Tech | March 7, 2024
VilCap and IBM propel new technologies as a catalyst for life-improving services
The explosion of new technology and AI solutions promising improved efficiency, creativity, and sustainability coincides with record inflation, pessimism around economic resilience, and …
Impact Tech | March 6, 2024
Musk plays savior, Andreessen goes Marxist – and we should all be grateful
We need an impact source code for AI. How we structure the business of AI, along with the algorithms, could be the most …
FLII 2024, Merída, Mexico | Photo credit: Dennis Price
Latin America | March 4, 2024
FLII feeds investor optimism and urgency about Latin America’s future
Sign up for ImpactAlpha Latin America to follow the people and money powering Latin America and the Caribbean’s impact economy. ImpactAlpha, Mar. 4 – Agents of …
Impact Investing | March 1, 2024
The Call: Impact value-creation isn’t just for impact investors (but they’re better at it)
Private equity fund managers looking for value-creation opportunities are increasingly finding their way to impact themes like climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture, employee engagement …
Impact Voices | February 29, 2024
How three investors are measuring their impact on climate resilience
2023 closed with a flurry of new climate finance commitments announced at COP28. These commitments–notably including $30 billion from the UAE and $12.8 …
Neighborhood Economics conference, San Antonio | Photo credit: Neighborhood Economics
Inclusive Economy | February 28, 2024
Addressing the social determinants of wealth at Neighborhood Economics
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 28 – The zip code in which a person grows up in America is more a determinant of their health than their …
Impact Engine's Priya Parrish and Jessica Droste Yagan
private-equity | February 27, 2024
Impact Engine doubles down on “purpose built” private equity with $85 million fund
Impact investing has become trendy among private equity firms as the sector seeks to redeem its reputation for debt-fueled and externality-laden profits. When …
Impact Investing | February 27, 2024
Impact value-creation playbooks provide X’s and O’s for generating alpha
Limited partners are becoming more adept at asking their impact-oriented managers a key question: Does it matter to financial performance if an impact-aligned …
Impact Investing | February 27, 2024
Risks and opportunities in early-stage climate tech in Africa
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 26 – Climate concerns figured prominently in conversations among investors, development agencies, startups and corporations at this week’s Africa Tech Summit …
São Paulo, Brazil
Latin America | February 26, 2024
Latin America’s impact ecosystem, built over decades, is primed for takeoff
Sign up for ImpactAlpha Latin America to follow the people and money powering Latin America and the Caribbean’s impact economy. ImpactAlpha, Feb. 26 …
Impact Voices | February 26, 2024
Five reasons Latin America and the Caribbean are attracting impact investors
Investing in Latin America and the Caribbean’s impact ecosystem represents an opportunity to generate financial returns and make a meaningful difference by addressing …
Dealflow | February 21, 2024
Overture raises $60 million debut fund to help climate tech founders tap into government support
ImpactAlpha, June 22 – In the crowded climate tech investing space, it helps to be a specialist. Overture VC, an early stage venture …
Impact Investing | February 21, 2024
California Endowment goes ‘all-in’ on impact
“Be the change you want to see,” is how The California Endowment chief Robert Ross summed up the foundation’s goals in a late …
Impact Investing | February 21, 2024
Impact investing at a crossroads
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 21 – “First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” Mahatma Gandhi never said …
Impact Investing | February 15, 2024
The US economy is growing and labor is thriving. Profits, not so much.
(Editor’s note: This months’ examination of corporate earnings is the third in ImpactAlpha’s four-part series on the US economy. In his first Macro …
Impact Investing | February 15, 2024
To tame inflation, promote abundance
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 15 – “Let’s not get too flipped out,” Austan Goolsbee, president of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, counseled this week after …
Impact Voices | February 14, 2024
A spend-out foundation asks, ‘What is enough?’
What is enough? This is a radical question to ask within modern day philanthropy. The dominant thinking could make one believe that philanthropy …
Photo: Natural Investments
Ownership Economy | February 13, 2024
This sustainable investment firm is now governed by a perpetual purpose trust
As one of the earliest registered investment advisors exclusively dedicated to socially responsible, sustainable and impact investments since 1985, our financial advisor-owners of …
Meta's Mark Zuckerberg apologized to families harmed by social media predators at a Congressional hearing on Jan. 31. (Photo: YouTube)
Impact Investing | February 12, 2024
Rising risks as the S&P 500 is outsourced to ‘the Magnificent Seven’
As different measures of temperature smash records every day and month, the U.S. stock market also is surging to record highs. The bull …