Billionaires
Dealflow | February 1, 2021
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative spins off criminal justice reform activities
ImpactAlpha, February 1 – Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the mission-focused company launched by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, is allocating $350 …
Billionaires | September 2, 2020
Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg commit $300 million to safe, fair elections
ImpactAlpha, September 2 – Two impact investors sounded off in ImpactAlpha this week about the importance of securing the fairness of the November …
Billionaires | July 30, 2020
MacKenzie Scott’s $1.7 billion gift list includes LISC and other impact investors
ImpactAlpha, July 30 – MacKenzie Scott extended a $40 million unrestricted grant to Local Initiative Support Corp., making her the community development financial …
Beats | June 4, 2019
Wealthy families seek – and find – market-rate returns from ‘values-aligned’ investing
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 4 – Values-aligned investment strategies – including impact investing – are delivering risk-adjusted market-rate returns, according to a survey by the Family Office …
2030 Finance | March 5, 2019
Baseload Capital secures $12.5 million from Breakthrough Energy Ventures
ImpactAlpha, March 4 – Geothermal energy developer Baseload Capital has secured $12.5 million from billionaire-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Baseload Capital is a spinoff of …
Africa | February 8, 2019
Zimbabwean business mogul launches $100 million loan fund for rural entrepreneurs
ImpactAlpha, February 8 – Strive Masiyiwa and his wife Tsitsi are launching the Masiyiwa Rural Challenge Fund to enable access to financing for …
Asia | November 28, 2018
Skype founder’s Oriente raises $105 million to bank Asia’s unbanked
ImpactAlpha, November 28 – Nine figure Series A investment rounds are rare. They’re even rarer for companies targeting large populations of unbanked customers. …
2030 Finance | October 2, 2018
Billionaires’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund makes seven investments
ImpactAlpha, October 2 – The $1 billion Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) fund launched in late-2016 to finance emerging climate-friendly energy technologies. It has …
Billionaires | September 14, 2018
Jeff Bezos pledges $2 billion to build preschools and fight homelessness
With a tweet, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos pledged $2 billion of his estimated net worth of $163 billion to the Bezos Day 1 Fund, which will back …
2030 Finance | August 20, 2018
Richard Branson launches accelerator to bolster Caribbean climate resilience
Richard Branson, who has lived in British Virgin Islands for more than a decade, has championed efforts to strengthen the region’s climate resilience, …
Billionaires | July 20, 2018
Bill Gates funds biotech accelerator for Alzheimer’s
Gates is backing a $30 million venture philanthropy accelerator that will support early stage biotech companies working on Alzheimer’s research, detection and diagnosis. …
Agrifood Tech | July 16, 2018
Oprah jumps into the healthy restaurant fray, backing True Food Kitchen
ImpactAlpha, July 15 – Phoenix-based healthy restaurant chain True Food Kitchen launched in 2008. Andrew Weil and Sam Fox built the menu around …
Billionaires | June 25, 2018
Inside Laurene Powell Jobs’ new engine for social change
Structured more like the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (a limited liability company) than the Ford Foundation, Laurene Powell Jobs’ is upping the ante for …
2030 Finance | June 14, 2018
Breakthrough Energy Ventures leads with energy-storage investments
This is what a climate-action deal pipeline looks like. The BEV, with $1 billion in commitments from Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, …
africa | July 26, 2017
Jack Ma backs young African entrepreneurs with $10 million fund
Jack Ma is backing young African entrepreneurs with a new $10 million fund. The founder of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba announced his African Young …
Billionaires | June 26, 2017
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative invests in affordable housing for teachers
Mark Zuckerberg believes in “personalized learning” and wants kids to teach themselves (through software Facebook is helping develop). But teachers will have a …
amazon | June 17, 2017
How Jeff Bezos Can Make the Biggest Immediate Philanthropic Impact — And Keep the Pitchforks at Bay
Over the last 24 hours, Jeff Bezos has made news for two big things. And they’re related. Yesterday, the Amazon founder, not a publicly …
Beats | March 17, 2017
‘Warren Buffett has some excellent advice for foundations that they probably won’t take’
Warren Buffett’s advice to stick with low-cost index funds rather than high-fee money managers makes sense for philanthropies as well. “America’s foundations are taking …
Billionaires | February 28, 2017
Sage of Omaha Extols America’s ‘Tide of Immigrants’
Human ingenuity. Market system. Rule of law. To the list of drivers of America’s economic dynamism, Warren Buffett added a fourth in his …
Beats | February 24, 2017
Seeing and Raising Mark Zuckerberg’s Big Bet on ‘Global Community’
Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and acknowledge that Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg took a big swing with last week’s 5,700-word …
Billionaires | February 22, 2017
Bloomberg recruits Republicans to stake out a different immigration policy
Media mogul and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg has recruited Republicans as well as Democrats to help highlight the contributions of immigrants in all …
2030 Finance | February 8, 2017
Which investors are bridging the gap in research funding?
Climate Finance The fate of climate and other public research may be in the hands of private investors and philanthropists as the EPA …
2030 Finance | January 28, 2017
Elon Musk takes the business case for a carbon tax to Trump
Climate Finance The CEO of electric car company Tesla is the latest to catch the president’s ear with the suggestion to put a …
amazon | January 27, 2017
Amazon signs up to train vets for careers in tech
Donald Trump starred in “The Apprentice,” but former President Obama signed into law the first-ever annual funding for apprenticeship programs — $90 million — with bipartisan support. …