ImpactAlpha Latin America

ImpactAlpha Latin America: Inclusive, nature-based, Indigenous-led and catalytic climate capital

ImpactAlpha · June 25, 2025

Saludos, Agents of Impact! 

In this month’s newsletter:

  • Inclusive climate finance in Brazil and the Andes
  • AI-driven small business finance in Mexico
  • Latam investment opportunities for global investors
  • Upcoming impact events in Mexico, Peru and Colombia

Teeing up COP30 in Brazil with inclusive, nature-based, Indigenous-led and catalytic climate capital. All eyes are on Brazil for climate action with the approach of the COP30 summit in the city of Belém in November. A raft of impact fund managers are designing climate financing for inclusivity and scale in the Amazonian region. Estímulo, a Brazilian impact fund manager, is coming to market next month with a blended-finance debt fund that aims to raise 60 million reais ($11 million) for small businesses in the Amazon. Sao Paulo-based fund manager KPTL is in the market with a blended-finance fund, anchored by the Inter-American Development Bank’s IDB Invest program, the Green Climate Fund and family offices, to encourage private investors to back restoration projects in seven Amazonian countries. Even Brazil’s state-owned oil and gas company, Petrobras, is leaning into impact finance with its impact-linked Petrobras Bioeconomy Fund. The fund, launched in February with sustainable investment management firm Régia Capital, is directing 100 million reais ($18 million) to companies and projects protecting and regenerating Brazil’s natural ecosystems. With biodiversity and nature conservation on the agenda at COP30, “impact and climate finance players in the country are scrambling to match investors with nature-based project developers and entrepreneurs,” reports ImpactAlpha contributor Gilberto Lima from this month’s Converge Capital Conference in São Paulo. 

  • Supply and demand. Conference host Converge Capital, a Sao Paulo-based asset management firm, and Capital for Climate, a climate investment platform, have ambitions to mobilize $5 billion for nature-based projects in Brazil in time for COP30 (Capital for Climate says its nature-based solutions platform “stimulated” over $300 million in investment last year). Supporting their expansive fundraising target is a Deloitte survey identifying nearly two dozen nature-based project developers in Brazil that are trying to raise a total of $5.5 billion. On the supply side, about 16 investors surveyed have pledged $3.8 billion for nature-based solutions in the country through 2027. There isn’t a scarcity of investment opportunities, lack of pipeline maturity or industry sophistication, observes Cristina Penteado of Blue Like an Orange. To mobilize private capital, she says, “three areas need to be addressed: scale, liquidity and the risk-return equation.”
  • Indigenous-led. Local fund managers are seeking to reset the norms of finance in the Amazon, where much of the impact opportunity, both social and environmental, runs through Indigenous communities and lands. A blended-finance fund from first-time manager Aliados in Colombia and Ecuador was co-designed with Indigenous entrepreneurs to match them with appropriate forms of working capital, results-based financing and technical assistance. Amazonia Ventures finances early-stage ventures aligned with the ecological and livelihood priorities of Indigenous communities in the Amazon. IMPAQTO Capital in Ecuador invests in companies rooted in the Andean Amazon and which partner with Indigenous producers and cooperatives. “This region holds extraordinary potential: strong Indigenous governance, rich biodiversity and fast-emerging regenerative markets,” Michelle Arévalo of IMPAQTO Capital told ImpactAlpha’s Erik Stein at the CLIIQ impact summit in Quito. “We’re building the missing financing infrastructure for this region.” Read Erik’s dispatch. 
  • Nature-based. Blended finance is key to lowering the risk and mobilizing private investment in nature-based and bioeconomy projects in the Amazon, “where the project pipeline is less mature,” said KPTL’s Danilo Zelinski. The Brazilian government’s Eco Invest program seeks to mobilize billions of dollars in nature-based financing by hosting auctions for low-cost capital from its National Fund for Climate Change. Banks can bid at the auctions with commitments to leverage the capital they “win” to raise funding from domestic and international private investors. The first auction, held last year, put up nearly seven billion reais ($1.3 billion) in public funding with a goal of leveraging nearly six times that amount in private investment. The second auction will focus on mobilizing capital to restore degraded land in five ecological zones. As such nature-based financing initiatives reach milestones, “it’s important to bring data and case studies with relevant information” to mobilize more capital, Capital for Climate’s Tony Lent said.
  • Keep reading, “Teeing up COP30 in Brazil with inclusive, nature-based and catalytic climate capital,” by Gilberto Lima. ImpactAlpha Latin America, our monthly newsletter of impact investing in the region, drops later this morning. Opt-in to receive it at no additional cost. 

Dealflow: Gender Smart

Latam fintechs and funders scope new tools to advance women’s financial inclusion. US and European investors may be in retreat on gender-lens investing, but Latin America is holding the line. “There’s a big window of opportunity for the region,” said Carmen Correa of Pro Mujer at the recent Gender Lens Investing LATAM forum in Mexico City. “In other parts of the world, investing with this perspective is becoming more questionable. In Latin America, it’s more welcome.” Fintech startups and lenders are rolling out new tools to make financial services more accessible and affordable for women, ImpactAlpha’s Erik Stein reported from the GLI forum. BancoSol’s Avanza Mujer initiative blends gender-focused lending with education and digital tools to help women in Bolivia grow their businesses. Avanza Sólido, in southern Mexico, provides loans to rural women for their small businesses and household expenses without requiring traditional forms of collateral. Also in Mexico, Kiva and Fundación Capital have partnered to offer rural female farmers flexible loans with terms tailored to seasonal income cycles. “You have to get to know [women’s] needs in order to give them access to the right instrument,” said Correa.

  • Inclusive fintech. Latin America’s broader landscape of financial inclusion deals this month include a 50 million reais ($8.7 million) funding round for Brazil’s Blips, which finances, rents and sells business equipment to micro and small business owners working in essential sectors like food and construction. Two startups in Mexico secured funding to develop AI-driven lending for small businesses: Xepelin secured $54 million from BBVA Spark for AI-based credit underwriting to small businesses, while Lounn raised $1 million from Kolab Ventures and Highline Beta to “automate” credit for small businesses using AI. In New York, Kiwi raised $7.8 million in a round led by LIP Ventures and Advent-Morro Equity Partners to provide credit to unbanked Latino immigrants in the US.
  • Keep reading.

Other investment news crossing our desks:

  • Agrifood investing. Brazil’s Mágio raised $1.6 million from impact investment firm CBKK to expand its range of Amazonian chocolate products and develop blockchain-based tracing for its supply chain… Future Cow, also in Brazil, secured early-funding for its animal-free milk that is made through precision fermentation.
  • Circular economy. Brazil’s Circular Brain raised $3.9 million, led by Lorene Urban Mining, to recycle e-waste. 
  • Energy transition. Brazilian oil and gas company Petrobras is raising 500 million reais ($89 million) for a corporate VC fund to invest in renewable energy, decarbonization and other clean tech… Exagon Impact Capital, a New York and Bogota-based energy transition investor, took a controlling stake in SunRoof, a commercial and industrial renewable energy provider in Mexico and Chile.
  • Fund news. Nascent VC announced a $15 million first close for its second fund for early-stage Latin American startups.
  • Inclusive economy. NESsT partnered with Conexsus to provide technical assistance for the AmazonBeEco initiative, backed by the Inter-American Development Bank and Green Climate Fund, to support sustainable land management in the Amazon.
  • Investing in health. Impact Ventures PSM Seed invested in Preventix to develop non-invasive cervical cancer screening.
  • Investing in water. EQT’s fourth infrastructure fund will acquire Seven Seas Water Group, which operates water treatment plants in the US, Latin America and the Caribbean, from Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners. 

Impact Voices: European Connection

From risk to resilience: Latin America is primed for European investors. Fresh from a European roadshow to promote impact investing in Latin America and the Caribbean, the team at Latimpacto argues that the region is ready for global investment. “Pilot projects are proven. Public and philanthropic actors have laid the groundwork. And the infrastructure for transparent and measurable investment is in place,” Latimpacto’s Carolina Suárez writes in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. Impact-focused capital can make its mark in biodiversity conservation, food security, renewable energy and other high-impact sectors. “The question now is not whether the region is investment-ready,” Jimenez says, “but whether global capital is ready to meet it with aligned intent.”

Follow the Talent

On the move

Borja García Fernandez is stepping down as head of structuring and Latin America at Citi Social Finance (for context, see “Citi makes a $15 million social trade loan to boost small business lending in El Salvador”). Citi is on the hunt for Fernandez’s replacement… Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, previously with Balderton Capital, joins Owl Ventures as general partner to lead the firm’s edtech expansion in Latin America and other emerging markets.

Step up

Mastercard is on the hunt for a Colombia-based social impact director for Latin America and Caribbean… The ImPact is looking for a Latin America-focused community manager in Chile… Triodos Bank has an opening for an investment intern for the Latin America region… Rabo Foundation is on the hunt for an impact finance consultant in Mexico.

Meet Up

Don’t miss these upcoming impact investing events: