ImpactAlpha Latin America

Fund managers in Brazil find big opportunities for impact

ImpactAlpha · April 30, 2025
São Paulo

Saludos, Agents of Impact! Welcome to the April edition of ImpactAlpha Latin America.

¡Empecemos! – Dennis Price

In this month’s newsletter:

  • Fund managers in Brazil find big opportunities for impact
  • Affordable home financing in Mexico
  • Acumen’s impact in Colombia

Fund managers in Brazil help impact ventures turn big challenges into bigger opportunities. Brazil’s impact and climate fund managers are connecting investors to resourceful entrepreneurs underserved by capital markets. “You have really good entrepreneurs here, smart people looking to solve the problems,” says Tatiana Sasson, who leads impact for Lightrock in Latin America. The $5.5 billion private equity impact investment firm, backed by Liechtenstein’s royal family, has deployed $700 million in Latin America, including through more than a dozen ventures delivering solutions for “people, productivity and planet.” The track records of the ventures demonstrate “it’s possible to deliver strong returns with impact,” Sasson told ImpactAlpha in a video interview on the sidelines of Foro Latinoamericano de Inversión de Impacto, or FLII. Once known for a few bespoke impact funds, Brazil now hosts dozens of impact and climate managers who are raising larger funds, diversifying across asset classes, and adding best practices in governance and transparency. 

  • Fueling the energy transition in Brazil. São Paulo-based eB Capital, which manages $1 billion across more than five funds, is in the market with its second energy transition and decarbonization fund. Guilherme Quintal joined eB Capital last year from The Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. His mandate: Showcase transition opportunities in Brazil to international investors, and specifically to Middle Eastern investors with a growing appetite for green assets. “We believe there is a new economy coming now, around green energy and energy transition,” Quintal told ImpactAlpha (watch the interview). In 2023, eB Capitalinvested roughly $50 million in Bioo, which turns animal protein waste into biomethane, a substitute for natural gas.
  • Finding impact alpha in Latin America. Half of the population in Latin America lacks access to a bank account. More than half the children in the region are unable to read or understand a simple text. A third of people face barriers in access to healthcare. “In terms of opportunities, it’s huge,” Sasson told ImpactAlpha (watch the interview). Lightrock has backed accessible bus charter company Buser, alternative credit scoring fintech platform Creditas and agribusiness lender Agrolend.
  • Delivering impact across asset classes. To meet a growing demand from impact investors, São Paulo-based impact fund manager Vox Capital is diversifying beyond venture capital into other asset classes such as fixed income. “Every investment has an impact,” Vox’s Daniel Izzo told ImpactAlpha (watch the interview). “At this current moment in our history, we should be caring about the impact of every penny that we deploy.”
  • Latam talent and asset light ventures. São Paulo-based Eqwow Ventures – for “equal” –has a straightforward thesis for building a more equitable world while delivering strong financial returns: “Latam talent, asset light, and quickly expands regionally and internationally,” the venture firm’s Monica Blatyta told ImpactAlpha (watch the interview). Eqwow is focused on healthcare, financial inclusion and energy efficiency. To ensure firms deliver on financial and impact goals, Eqwow looks for firms with best practices in governance and transparency, and helps them deliver better results with ESG experts and proprietary software.
  • Keep reading, “Fund managers in Brazil help impact ventures turn big challenges into bigger opportunities,” by Dennis Price at ImpactAlpha.

Dealflow: Affordable Housing

Vinte unit secures $24.4 million for affordable home financing in Mexico. For 25 years, Vinte has been developing housing that is both sustainable and affordable for Mexico’s low- and middle-income families. Its three-year-old financing arm, Xante, has secured a convertible note from IDB Invest to buy back homes in Vinte’s planned communities, upgrade and remodel them as necessary, and sell them to new homeowners. The renovation work is outsourced to small and mid-sized contractors, boosting local businesses. IDB Invest says the investment aims to strengthen Mexico’s secondary housing market “to help ensure a more efficient and equitable use of existing housing.”

  • Affordable housing. Vinte’s communities house more than 50,000 Mexican families in nine states. The publicly-listed company last year arranged $58 million in financing from the International Finance Corp. to acquire Javer, another real estate developer. It also secured 500 million pesos ($25.4 million) through a sustainable bond issuance backed by German development finance institution DEG, and unnamed pension funds and local institutional investors. The bond will finance the construction of 1,200 new homes. The capital raise and acquisition will advance the company’s goal of having 90% of its new and existing homes certified under the EDGE green building standards.
  • Check it out.

Dealflow overflow. More investment news crossing our desks:

  • Circular economy. Savia Ventures invested in Living Ink Technologies’ $3 million funding round to help the company transform algae waste into packaging, footwear and apparel.
  • Essential services. WaterEquity is in the market with an evergreen fund to support access to clean water and sanitation in emerging markets, including Brazil and Peru… Mexico’s Netway raised $10 million to expand its fiber optic cable network to connect low-income households to the Internet… Blue like an Orange invested $15 million to support internet access in Peru.
  • Financial inclusion. IDB Invest and JICA agreed to loan $20 million to Ecuador’s Banco Solidario to drive access to capital for female business owners… Finaktiva secured a $10 million loan from BBVA Spark to provide Colombia’s and Peru’s small businesses with invoicing and payments management, as well as credit… Brazil’s Divibank secured $8.2 million to provide revenue-based financing to small businesses… Miami-based Félix Pago snagged $75 million from Monashees, QED Investors and others to launch savings and credit products throughout Latin America, in addition to its Whatsapp-based remittance services.
  • Fund news. Buenos Aires-based Alina VC launched its first fund with a goal of raising $10 million to invest in startups addressing the future of work in Latin America… ImpactA Global, a women-led debt investor for Latin American and other emerging markets infrastructure projects, raised $200 million for its fund from Legal & General, IDB Invest, Mobilist and other investors.
  • Investing in nature. Brazil’s Mombak raised $17 million in debt capital from the government-run Climate Fund and the Brazilian development bank’s entrepreneurship financing program to develop reforestation and carbon removal projects in the Amazon… Corteva backed Argentina’s Puna Bio to expand bio-based soil health products… Mirova allocated $40 million to land restoration projects in Argentina, Costa Rica and Madagascar.

Impact Voices: Beyond Aid

In Colombia, investments rather than aid helped local economies recover from conflict. A decade ago, the team at Acumen wondered whether impact capital had a role to play in helping rebuild rural communities in Colombia that were reeling from decades of armed conflict. Such work is historically the domain of humanitarian assistance and NGOs. “What we had was conviction: that patient capital, placed in the hands of mission-driven businesses rooted in the community, could help bridge the gap between peace and prosperity,” writes Acumen’s Virgilio Barco in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. “A decade later, we have evidence – and it couldn’t be more timely.” A new report in collaboration with 60 Decibels, highlights the local impact of six of Acumen’s 19 investments in Colombia. Across the companies, most of which serve rural farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs, more than three-quarters of customers said their incomes have increased. More than half said they gained greater ability to make decisions in their lives, “a critical but often overlooked outcome of economic empowerment,” shares Barco. “In places fractured by war, farmers spoke of renewed optimism, collaboration and economic momentum.”

  • Community healing. Acceso is connecting farmers directly with buyers. CortePaz offers technical assistance to help farmers boost yields and crop quality. Selva Nevada is buying native fruits from Indigenous communities and helping preserve biodiversity. One challenge the research surfaced is companies’ gender impact; they’re still seeing fewer financial benefits than men, highlighting the need for more targeted interventions on structural inequalities. “We’ve long believed that supporting businesses rooted in communities – cooperatives, associations, grassroots enterprises—would lead to broader community healing,” writes Barco. “This was the first time we had the data to prove it.”
  • Why it matters. The disintegration of USAID, the 40-year-old development assistance agency, is an extreme example of a long-term trend: shrinking humanitarian and development budgets from wealthy “donor” countries (see, “USAID crisis forces a reckoning – and remaking – of international development“). Countries in the Global South are looking to mobilize more sustainable, and especially local, financial resources for economic resilience and growth. Writes Barco, “Our work has shown that impact investing can succeed where traditional aid is retreating.”
  • Keep reading, “In Colombia, investments rather than aid helped local economies recover from conflict,” by Acumen’s Virgilio Barco on ImpactAlpha.

Get in the Game

🏃🏽‍♀️ On the Move

Gema Sancho-Minana Bertomeu, a former environmental policy consultant with the Asian Development Bank, joined GAWA Capital as an impact and technical assistance analyst… Keepingly’s Daniel Smith and Mita Carriman of Adventurely launched the Caribbean Venture Collective to support startup founders with ties to the Caribbean.

💼 Step Up

New Ventures seeks a project manager to lead an entrepreneurship acceleration program in Peru, and a senior investment analyst in Bogota… ResponsAbility is recruiting a senior investment officer to focus on climate finance in Lima… Oikocredit has an opening for an investment officer in El Salvador.

🤝 Meet Up

Don’t miss these upcoming impact investing events: