The Brief

The Brief: For Latin America’s impact fund managers, Europe is a bright spot

ImpactAlpha · April 2, 2026

Credit: Nathan Cima on Unsplash

Saludos, Agents of Impact! We launched ImpactAlpha Latin America two years ago to focus attention on some of the world’s most dynamic impact investing markets. Thanks to our partners FLII, New Ventures, Alterna, Latimpacto, Aliança pelo Impacto, Pro Mujer, Impaqto and GSG NAB Chile, the response has been so positive that we’re bringing it into our flagship Brief. ImpactAlpha covers impact investing in Latin America and other regions throughout the month, of course. On the first Thursday of each month, ImpactAlpha Latin America goes deeper, with exclusive news, dealflow and voices shaping Latin America and the Caribbean. ¡Empecemos!

In today’s Brief:

Latin American fund managers look to Europe
Impaqto Capital launches its Amazon Andes Fund
Elea Foundation’s impact-first equity

Featured: Old World

On grand tours of Europe, Latin America’s fund managers collect checks, not art. What’s an impact fund manager in Latin America to do? High interest rates make local capital hard to come by. Many investors in the US are in retreat. And the Middle East, recently a rich source of impact funding, is mired in conflict. Fund managers are turning to Europe, with its mission-aligned investors, stable regulatory environment and growing affinity for the kind of climate opportunities and nature-based solutions that are bountiful in Latin America. “The likelihood of identifying investors with a natural alignment of values, principles and capital intentionality toward sustainable investments is materially higher in Europe,” says Pedro Vilela, founder of Rise Investments, a São Paulo-based climate and nature fund. There’s room to grow. Latin America receives just 8% of the European impact capital deployed overseas, the smallest regional allocation, behind Africa and Asia. “There’s growing interest among European investors in Latin America, driven in part by the region’s strength in nature and biodiversity solutions and its abundance of natural capital,” says Kevin Kenny, a partner at the Amsterdam-based family office Blink Impact (ImpactAlpha Edge).

European tour. Rise, which targets growth-stage companies in Brazil, spent two years meeting with insurers and family offices in Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. It has brought in commitments from German insurer Hannover Re and France’s CNP Assurances for its second fund, which is looking to raise $100 million. For Vilela, the process of pitching European investors was refreshingly straightforward. Interest rates in Brazil are nearing 15%; capital is moving into government bonds and away from higher-risk private markets. In the US, some of the largest impact investors have pulled back. In contrast, Europe’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation has created a common language around impact, he says. “The result is a more transparent, disciplined and credible investment ecosystem.”
Family offices. At Blink, Kenny is working with other family offices to draw more European capital and interest to Latin America. For example, Meraki Impact, also based in Amsterdam, co-invested in SP Ventures’ AgVentures Agricultural Tech Fund in Brazil. The Nest, a Belgian family office, also supported SP Ventures, which closed its third fund at $50 million. “Latin America is well positioned to attract that kind of capital, given its alignment with more forward-looking, climate-focused investment opportunities,” Kenny says. Blink backed EcoEnterprises Fund’s fourth fund, which invests in sustainable agriculture, agroforestry and ecotourism businesses across Latin America, alongside Wire Group, a Netherlands-based impact fund of funds. “You need an anchor,” Kenny emphasizes. “One credible investor for others to follow. That’s how ecosystems work. It’s all built on trust.”
Joint venture. In Mexico, New Ventures Capital spent more than a year working with Spain’s Ship2B Ventures to pair European investor networks with Latin American climate, health and inclusion startups. Their New BSocial LatAm Fund is targeting a first close of at least $20 million this year (see, “Dealmaking takes center stage”). “We’re leveraging each other’s best capacities: Ship2B’s knowledge of European investors and impact measurement, our knowledge of Latin American entrepreneurs,” New Venture’s Matteo Gilliotti tells ImpactAlpha. Spain’s development agency AECID anchored the fund; development finance institutions FMO, Proparco and BIO have also invested.
Keep reading, “On grand tours of Europe, Latin American fund managers collect checks, not art,” by Erik Stein.

Dealflow: Impact in the Amazon

Exclusive: Impaqto Capital launches Amazon Andes Fund to back processors and exporters. Quito-based Impaqto Capital spent the last five years proving out custom financing solutions for impact companies across the Andean region. Now the firm is taking that approach deeper into the Amazon. Incubated by the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance, Impaqto’s Amazon Andes Fund will back processors, exporters and ingredient companies in cacao, specialty coffee and natural ingredients. “The closer to the end buyer, the more margin there is to share,” Impaqto’s Michelle Arévalo-Carpenter told ImpactAlpha. “Smallholder farmers capture very small value from really hard work. We’re now solving for that.” To lead the strategy, the firm brought on Rick Kellett, who previously founded Mountain Harvest Coffee and built Ground Up Investing, an impact investing vehicle for Corus International that backed agribusiness companies in Africa and Latin America. “We’re not just providing financial capital. Each company gets a combination of human and social capital as well, creating a network of investees that actively help each other be more successful,” Kellett told ImpactAlpha.

Seeding an ecosystem. The Amazon Andes Fund is Impaqto Capital’s third vehicle. Its first fund, a $2.1 million revenue-based financing pilot, deployed flexible loans of up to $200,000 to companies supporting basic services, agricultural development and climate resilience in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. A second fund, currently in the market, is targeting larger tickets with the same focus. “Billions have been announced at COP for the Amazon, but we don’t see that trickling down to the Andean side,” said Arévalo-Carpenter. “They say there’s nowhere to place capital. There will be now.”
Risks and rewards. In a video interview, Impaqto’s Arévalo-Carpenter and Justin Schwartz discuss the realities of investing for impact in South America’s smaller markets.
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

The multinational Green Climate Fund invested $85 million in Sustainable Investment Management’s Responsible Commodities Facility, which promotes sustainable soy production and trading in Brazil.
IDB Invest approved a senior loan of 180 billion Colombian pesos ($48.8 million) to Banco Mundo Mujer to support access to finance for women-owned and small businesses in Colombia.
Madrid-based Boosting Opportunities invested in Café Capitán, a coffee cooperative in Mexico.
Check out a dozen more impact deals recently transacted in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Signals: Impact First

Elea Foundation is modeling impact-first equity for philanthropic investors in Latin America. Tina Ruchti remembers her first investment “scouting tour” in Latin America after joining Switzerland-based Elea Foundation eight years ago. “We’d travel for two to three weeks to a certain region and try to talk to everyone, to get as much pipeline as possible, and understand the ecosystem,” she recalled. It wasn’t ideal. “Investing in Latin America out of Switzerland was really hard,” she told ImpactAlpha at the recent FLII conference in Mérida, Mexico. “It was clear that if we really wanted to be a significant player in Latin America, we needed to be on the ground.” Ruchti moved to Mexico City in 2023 to open Elea’s second international office (its first was in Johannesburg). The organization has provided catalytic, early-stage equity and convertible notes to a half-dozen ventures in the region. One, Toroto, helps develop carbon and water projects on Mexico’s communal lands, or ejidos.

Investment evolution. The 20-year-old foundation’s development of a ground strategy tracks with its evolution from traditional philanthropy to impact investing. Elea, started by former UBS CEO Peter Wuffli and his wife Susanne, invests early in “entrepreneurial solutions” in climate, agriculture, retail and basic services in Africa, Asia and Latin America. “The founder’s conviction was that if you want to make impact sustainable in the long term, it needs to be entrepreneurial,” said Ruchti. The foundation began writing equity checks that could help startups get to seed and Series A investments. When it signed its first deal in Latin America more than seven years ago, Ruchti said, “there were almost no impact-first equity investors” in the region. Philanthropic and other impact-first investors tend toward debt and revenue-based financing. Elea has navigated the process for making mission-aligned equity investments under Swiss law. “You see more capital coming in as impact-first equity,” she said. “I think that’s a good trend.”
Watch the full video interview with Elea Foundation’s Ruchti and her colleague Maria Samano.

Check out the rest of ImpactAlpha’s video interview series from the FLII:

Daniel Izzo of Vox Capital discusses the firm’s evolving strategy to invest in sustainable agriculture and natural ecosystem restoration in Brazil.
Miguel Gallo of Impact Ventures PSM, part of Promotora Mexico, shares his perspective on the evolution of impact capital – and LP interest – in Latin America.

Hans-Christian Lauer shares why he decided to quit options trading in Chicago to start Zenani Capital, an early-stage venture fund for Latin American startups.

ICYMI:

John Morris and Tirtha Patel of Intentional Asset Management joined David Bank on a ImpactAlpha’s Agents of Impact podcast to share how CaribGROW is bridging equity financing gaps in Caribbean food systems. Tune in.
“In Brazil, women and young people are catalyzing their families’ impact investments,” by ImpactAlpha contributor Gilberto Lima.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha Latin America partner events:

May 26-29: GLI Forum Latam, Lima, Peru. Save 15% on a Horizonte Global ticket with code IMPACTALPHAGLI26.
May 12-14: Latin American Regenerative Investment Summit, Bogotá, Colombia. Save 15% with code Impactalpha.

The National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders appoints Elizabeth Nimmons as public policy director… MSCI is on the hunt for a sustainability and climate marketing specialist in Mexico… Conservation International seeks a senior manager for ocean policy… PepsiCo is hiring a senior environmental analyst in Brazil… InPlanet has an opening for chief operating officer… Climate Impact Partners is hiring a senior carbon project manager in Colombia… CGN Brasil is on the hunt for an energy transition specialist… Deetken Impact has an opening for a technical assistance associate in Peru for its climate action fund.