1. Refugee investment blueprints. President-elect Joe Biden has signaled a Day-One reset on immigration. The network of investors, funds and companies driving affordable housing, healthcare, mobile banking and other solutions for migrants and refugees represents a set of blueprints and proof-points for the incoming administration. Says Refugee Investment Network’s John Kluge, “We’re starting to actually see a track record in the field.” Dig in.
Tony Hsieh, Zappos and Downtown Project (1973 - 2020). You could almost see the tumbleweeds blowing down the streets of downtown Las Vegas when Tony Hsieh launched The Downtown Project in 2012. After selling the shoe retailer Zappos to Amazon for $1.2 billion, Hsieh moved the company to downtown Las Vegas and poured $350 million into revitalizing the blighted area, far from the city’s glitzy Strip. The Downtown Project invested in 50 small businesses, from restaurants to toy stores, as well as 50 tech startups in the area, and seeded arts festivals, residential housing and an early education center. The project may have been overhyped, and was criticized for its over-reliance on real estate investments. Hsieh left the active management of the project in 2014. Much of the 45 downtown acres it acquired remain undeveloped.
Impact tech. Third Derivative aims to accelerate climate tech… Aphea.Bio secures €14 million to develop eco-crop treatments… Aurora Solar raises $50 million to digitize solar energy… Habitat for Humanity aims to accelerate shelter tech startups in emerging markets.
ImpactAlpha contributing editor Monique Aiken, ex- of Mission Investors Exchange, joins The Investment Integration Project as managing director… Thierry Adant, formerly with Willis Towers Watson, is named chief investment officer at Newmarket Capital… Casey Family Programs’ Antoinette Malveaux and University of Washington’s Reggie Brown have been elected to the Beneficial State Bank board of directors… Taryn Goodman Gallery, former food and agriculture lead for TPG Rise Fund, joins Cultivian Sandbox as managing director.
Impact Engine is looking for a senior associate in Chicago… The FAIRR Initiative seeks an investor outreach manager in London… The Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism is looking for an operations manager in New York… San Francisco-based Community Vision is recruiting a president… Quantified Ventures seeks summer associates in environmental finance and health and human services in Washington, D.C. or remote.
What: The Call No. 25: Gender-smart investing for a sustainable recovery Join SME.NG’s Thelma Ekiyor, Trade Depot’s Onyekachi Izukanne, Development Partners International’s Takudzwa Mutasa, Alitheia’s Temilade Denton, …
The people and principles needed to solve the challenges of financing solar power for frontline health clinics were represented on ImpactAlpha’s Agents of …
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 1 – What got us here won’t get us where we need to go. Guidelines that govern global finance need to …
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 27 – Investors have been talking about systemic risks at least since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. More recently, climate …
It’s long past time to get political. Impact investing, with appeal on both the left and the right, has generally steered clear of …
“It’s a great time for new entrants, but for those of us who’ve been doing this for a while it is equally urgent to raise our game right and to not get complacent,” said Margot Brandenburg of the Ford Foundation.
ImpactAlpha, Jun 24 – The action in climate action is shifting to infrastructure. Driven by falling price curves for renewables, mispriced risk, and …
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 4 – A disruptive technology has to be 10 times better than what it’s replacing. Tech venture capitalists aim to recoup …
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 30 – The first annual assessments of impact investors are coming in under the International Finance Corporation’s Operating Principles for Impact …
ImpactAlpha, February 5 – Small and growing businesses are the pillars of local economies, in both developed and developing economies. Startups are engines …
ImpactAlpha, April 14 – Don’t refer to conventional finance as ‘mainstream,’ ImpactAlpha’s David Bank said on The Call earlier this month. Call it ‘legacy …
ImpactAlpha, June 3 – The early days of impact investing were all about proving that you didn’t have to sacrifice financial returns to do …
Host Brian Walsh speaks with Dennis Price about ‘refugee lens’ investing – and other impact investment prototypes.
Host Monique Aiken recaps this week’s Agents of Impact Call on gender-smart investing and we go to South Africa to follow up with Secha Capital’s Kuhle Mnisi and Wukina’s Maureen Sibanda, this week’s Agents of Impact.
Host Brian Walsh and roundtable regulars Imogen Rose-Smith and David Bank explore what the presidential transition in the U.S. means for impact investing.
Concerns about the resiliency of the food supply chain went from conceptual to concrete when the COVID crisis shut down railroads and stranded …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 21 – When the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the world economy this spring, Emmanuel Lagarrigue worried the momentum toward a …
Sharing wealth with hourly employees has not been a major part of the private-equity playbook, which has more often called for layoffs, plant …
ImpactAlpha, July 16,2020 –– If you’re rich, and you get your capital back with perhaps a little extra for inflation and expenses, you’ll …
When the coronavirus busted out as a global crisis in March, private equity funds, banks and other commercial investors largely pulled out of …
LeapFrog Investments goes into this recession with capital on hand, the fortuitous result of having raised more than $700 million for its third …
Power is the thread that connects the surge in gender-based violence during the COVID crisis with violence against people of color, including by …
ImpactAlpha, May 9 – A parade of philanthropic foundations will report this week on their journeys toward aligning their assets with their missions, as …
The future of work is here. With unemployment soaring and many jobs never coming back, long-forecast shifts in employment patterns that might have …
The International Finance Corp.’s Operating Principles for Impact Management take a step to protect against impact-washing by requiring disclosures and verification. Genuine accountability …
The post-mortem on this election is far from over, but as the news of the past few weeks has unfolded, we are seeing …
That the network of trade associations and advocacy groups blocking meaningful action on climate change was bankrolled by fossil fuel interests comes not …
Impact measurement and management isn’t just magical thinking. With enough effort and skill, the practice produces value and insights for investors, which can …
For the first time in two decades, global extreme poverty is expected to rise. According to The World Bank, the COVID-19 pandemic will …
If you are an investor interested in learning more about how to invest in climate justice solutions, join us on December 3rd for …
Impact investors may be missing an opportunity to restore sustainable emerging market growth and earn commercial returns by providing desperately needed restructuring support …
As we move beyond a difficult election cycle, it is time to focus on an ambitious community investment agenda that has a meaningful …
One of the key features of the Operating Principles for Impact Management is that they require signatories to publicly disclose how their impact …
Flexible investment structures that prioritize employees and customers alongside entrepreneurs and investors are proving useful in helping companies preserve good jobs through the …
The spread of COVID-19 and the economic devastation in its wake have shown just how necessary for-profit approaches are to serving the poor …
As the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread around the world in early 2020, gloomy predictions about the coronavirus’s effects on Africa also made …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 4 – You could almost see the tumbleweed blowing down the streets of downtown Las Vegas when Tony Hsieh launched The Downtown …
ImpactAlpha, November 20 – Follow the women… to catalyze an economic recovery and unlock trillions in new consumer spending power. Tech-enabled startups are …
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 13 – Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact. That’s the tagline on the snappy Agents of Impact section on the new ImpactAlpha.com …
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 30 – Two years ago, ImpactAlpha recognized Kesha Cash as an Agent of Impact for her cutting-edge investment thesis: the billion-dollar …
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 16 – The world’s most populous Black nation is standing up to police brutality. The demand of protesters in Nigeria: #ENDSARS …
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 9 – Anne Price is the first woman and the first non-lawyer to lead the 51-year-old organization that works at the …
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 2 – Global efforts to turn back the tide of biodiversity loss may be missing the trees for the forest. The …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 25 – The advantages of women’s participation and leadership in business and society have become conventional wisdom. That’s in no small …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 18 – Oil giant BP this this week called Peak Oil. Ubben, a veteran hedge fund manager, is calling Peak Finance. …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 11 – The co-founder and managing director of SJF Ventures still had half of the firm’s $125 million fourth fund when …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 4 – Months before the COVID crisis, Bafford told an interviewer that what she most liked about structuring deals and syndicating …
The six-month old green cleaning product startup raised the seed funds in a round led by Henkel Ventures, the investment arm of the …