The Brief

ImpactAlpha LP/GP: Competition is on for investing by, in and for women

ImpactAlpha · May 27, 2026
Carmen Correa, Pro Mujer (center)

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In this week’s LP/GP:

  • Competition is on for investing by, in and for women
  • AHL Venture Partners’ African private credit fund
  • Elemental Impact’s data center deployment initiative 
  • Private equity firms eye retirement account trillions

Spurring a global race to the top in gender-lens investing. A large private equity firm in Asia isn’t satisfied with merely being “advanced” in its practice of gender lens investing. For its next fund, it’s aiming to be considered “best in class.” “We said, ‘The bar is here, and you’re not there,’” recalls Jessica Espinoza, who heads 2X Global, which has developed criteria and a third-party assessment regime for fund managers around the inclusion of women in finance as investors, founders and customers. Espinoza says the private equity firm, which she declined to name, complained that the highest standards were impossible to meet when it missed out on the top rating for its fourth fund. A year later, the managers were back with their fifth. “‘We have a new fund and we’ve changed the carry economics. We want best in class,’” they told Espinoza. The firm’s revamped profit structure allocates more of the fund’s carried interest, or carry, to female partners. “They literally changed the economics of the whole fund,” she tells ImpactAlpha.

  • Gender alpha. Espinoza told the story on the sidelines of this week’s GLI Forum LatAm in Lima, Peru, where the “alpha” in investments in, and by, women is taken as a given. Female fund managers, along with mixed teams, tend to outperform, as do companies with women’s leadership in management and on their boards. “Women are the dynamic force in the economy,” said Carmen Correa, head of Pro Mujer, which hosts the annual gathering of gender-lens investors in Latin America (ImpactAlpha is the event’s media partner). “We need women in every stage and in every position. We need more women being able to participate at those tables where decisions are taken. We need more women in investment committees. We need more women investing. And of course, we need more women becoming entrepreneurs” (see, “Standing by low-income women to lift Latin America”). Meeting those needs for more women in finance can also be a boon to fundraising. Espinoza said fund managers have reported that they have attracted new LPs as a result of the 2X global certification as “Good,” “Advanced” or “Best-in-Class.”
  • Certified and catalytic. 2X Global dates to the 2X Challenge announced at the G7 Summit in 2018, where development finance institutions from major countries set a modest goal of mobilizing $3 billion for gender-lens investments by 2020. Since then, Espinosa says, 2X members have so far directed $34 billion toward gender-lens investments, albeit under a relatively loose standard. The lure of such allocations has many fund managers claiming to be “aligned” with 2X Global’s gender-lens criteria. Actual certification requires third-party assessments by auditing firms such as PwC. “Any fund can slam like gender onto their pitch deck, and that’s what they’re doing,” Espinoza says. “LPs were coming to us to say, ‘I want to invest in a fund that’s really doing great gender work. They’re all saying they are. Can you tell us which one is good, which one is better, which one is best?’”
  • Impact hushing. Demand for the certifications from fund managers in emerging markets and even from commercial private equity firms in Europe has remained strong, Espinoza said. The exception, in the past year, has been fund managers based in the US. “In the US, funds are more cautious because they are afraid of lawsuits, of being associated very clearly with the gender lens,” she said. “So they are doing the work, but they’re not talking about it, and they don’t want to get a certification.” And to be sure, female fund managers continue to struggle to win mandates from institutional asset allocators. Women manage only a tiny slice of investment capital and, at least partly as a result, female-only founding teams attract less than 3% of invested capital. To help emerging managers “warehouse” early deals in order to establish the kind of track record that can attract investors, 2X Global is getting into the fund management business itself. The 2X Ignite fund has raised $26 million, Espinoza said, including from the German development finance institution KfW, Visa Foundation and Global Affairs Canada.

🟢 Live on Edge: Gender Smart GPs

LPs and GPs seeking gender alpha. ImpactAlpha Edge now tracks 140 GPs raising funds taking a gender-smart approach, and over 200 LPs that are investing into those strategies. More than 150 LPs, GPs and others are members of 2X Global, including Acumen, Graça Machel Trust and Innpact.


Dealflow: Private Credit

Family offices provide $30.5 million for AHL Venture Partners’ private credit fund. Liechtenstein-based Adolf H. Lundin Charitable Foundation has deployed a range of financial tools to invest more than $110 million in African companies and funds. Its Nairobi-based group AHL Venture Partners has focused for the last six years on debt deals. “We see ourselves as an on-ramp for private capital looking to allocate for impact and returns in the African market,” said AHL’s Rosanne Whalley. The firm sees debt as a “more liquid, risk-managed and scalable pathway for investors seeking both financial returns and long-term developmental impact.” It has reached a $30.5 million first close for its first Africa Credit Fund, backed by its parent foundation and three family offices. The fund will provide working capital, bridge loans and mezzanine debt to companies addressing financial inclusion, climate change and agriculture and food systems.

  • Debt portfolio. Despite some worrisome broader market signals, impact LPs have gravitated to private credit funds, which offer more liquidity and exit certainty than equity funds (see, “In impact fundraising drought, novel strategies and private credit stand out and, yes, size matters”). The Africa Credit Fund is geared toward wealthy individuals, families and foundations. The fund’s portfolio includes Robust International, which processes and exports cashew and sesame seeds, as well as Burn Manufacturing, the People’s Pension Trust, Wasoko and Ampersand. The nine fund managers it has invested in include XSML Capital, responsAbility, I&P, and AfricInvest.
  • More

Elemental Impact partners with AI hyperscalers to deploy clean tech solutions. The data center buildout has speeded the deployment of solar and wind energy as hyperscalers scramble for power. It may also accelerate low-carbon cement, eco-friendly industrial cooling and advanced electrical systems. That’s the goal of the Data Center Innovation Initiative launched today by Elemental Impact and some of the largest data center operators. Microsoft, Google, Meta and Amazon will pilot a range of clean tech solutions and share results to pave the way for other data centers — and ultimately schools, hospitals and manufacturing plants. Elemental will invest $500,000 to $5 million per project in up to 10 technology startups through 2027. Breakthrough Energy Discovery, Builders Vision Philanthropy, Salesforce and the Stolte Family Foundation are funding the initiative via philanthropic commitments that could reach $50 million. “The massive industrial buildout that’s coming through data centers presents a unique window of opportunity to accelerate the commercialization of technologies that reduce emissions, have better water use, reduce local environmental impact and make all of our lives better,” Elemental Impact’s Dawn Lippert told ImpactAlpha (for background see, “Pulling climate tech to commercial scale with the energy demand from data centers (podcast)”).

  • Pull through. Elemental has already seen the impact from data centers across its portfolio. An early deal with Google helped Fervo Energy commercialize its geothermal energy solution and lay the groundwork to scale. The Houston-based company raised $1.9 billion in an IPO earlier this month. Energy storage startups Noon Energy and Energy Dome are working with Meta and Google, respectively, to roll out their storage solutions. Transaera, a Somerville, Mass. startup developing ultra-efficient air cooling systems, has been testing its technology at Amazon’s Houston facilities. Big Tech firms that once touted climate pledges are under pressure to tamp down their soaring emissions and water usage from data centers. Elemental worked with its tech partners for more than a year to identify the solutions they need, which are spelled out in an RFP. It will coach the selected startups on early engagement with local stakeholders, workforce development and communicating project benefits. “Technology brings half a solution, and communities bring the other half,” said Lippert. Creating mutually beneficial arrangements with communities is “part of our DNA.”
  • More. 

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • The European Investment Fund committed €200 million ($232.6 million) to Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for its second bioenergy fund, which invests in European biogas projects. (EIF)
  • HSBC provided a green loan facility to Singapore-based Circulate Capital to invest in recycling and sustainable packaging and materials businesses in South and Southeast Asia. (Circulate Capital)
  • France-based Finergreen, an energy transition-focused investment bank, has divested its African businesses to focus on Europe and Asia, where it says its largest hubs and operating capabilities are. Amara Infrastructure Partners and Honeywood are taking over its African entities. (Finergreen)
  • Convective Capital raised $85 million for its second fund from the Arbor Day Foundation, StepStone Group, WovenEarth Ventures, and insurance companies and pension funds. The fund invests in wildfire prevention and disaster resilience companies. (Convective Capital)

Podcast: Policy Corner 

In the name of ‘democratization,’ private equity firms eye US retirement savings (podcast). Private equity giants have long sought access to the $14 trillion parked in Americans’ retirement accounts. The White House is no longer standing in their way. In August of last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for the “democratization of access to alternative assets for 401(k) investors.” In March, the US Department of Labor proposed new regulations aimed at doing just that. The Securities and Exchange Commission seems to be moving in a similar direction. “Anytime I start to hear the democratization of financial solutions to the public, the hair raises on my back,” Ian Fuller of Westfuller, a values-driven investment advisory firm, says on the latest episode of Impact(ed). “Alarm bells start to go off.” Fuller joined Ben Schiffrin of Better Markets and co-hosts Rodney Foxworth and Eric Horvath to discuss what such a move could mean for retail investors on the first episode of the new season of “Impact(ed),” part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network.

  • Holy Grail. BlackRock’s Larry Fink is among the asset managers that have forcefully made the case for merging public and private markets. “Assets that will define the future — data centers, ports, power grids, the world’s fastest-growing private companies — aren’t available to most investors,” he wrote in his annual letter last year (see, “Make Asset Management Great Again: Larry Fink’s private path to economic populism”). Big private investment firms like Apollo Global and Blue Owl Capital have launched “semi-liquid” funds to tap into the retail market. Some investors in those funds are finding out the hard way that getting their money out is not so easy. Critics say that big PE and private credit funds facing liquidity constraints may see the retail market as a convenient exit option. “It’s not that retail investors are clamoring for greater access to these illiquid, opaque, risky private market assets,” says Schifrin, who directs securities policy at Better Markets. “It’s that the private funds industry is pushing to get access to retail investors.”
  • Rethinking retirement. The democratization of financial markets holds appeal as a path to broader wealth creation, especially as growth companies stay private longer or avoid public markets altogether. Most of the highest impact funds are private, meaning they are only accessible for institutional or high net worth investors. Some impact advocates, for example, see an opportunity for impact credit funds, which generate regular dividends, in long-term target-date retirement funds. Yet the complexity, risk, long lockup periods and cost of private market vehicles, especially by less mission-driven actors, is often at odds with the retail market. The DOL proposal amounts to “a flawed replacement for the traditional corporate pension plans that many Americans used to enjoy,” former Treasury advisor Steven Rattner wrote in The New York Times this month. He argued for “an ambitious rethinking of the architecture of our retirement system.” One Trump proposal has been received more favorably: so-called “Trump accounts” that set up retirement accounts for workers without employer-sponsored plans and match contributions up to $1,000 annually. Another fix: raising taxes to shore up Social Security funds.
  • Keep reading and listen to “In the name of ‘democratization,’ private equity firms eye US retirement savings,” by Rodney Foxworth, Eric Horvath, Isaac Silk and Amy Cortese on ImpactAlpha. Catch up on all the episodes of Impact(ed) on the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Soros Fund Management seeks a media partnerships and investments analyst… KKR Capstone is hiring an associate for its Next Generation Technology strategy… Reviva Transition Partners is on the hunt for an investment associate in Malaysia… Blueleaf Energy is looking for an investment manager in Singapore… The Global Green Growth Institute has an opening for a senior associate for climate finance in Rwanda… Apollo Agriculture is hiring a chief of staff… Old Mutual is on the hunt for an ESG analyst in South Africa… Accion is looking for a consultant for financial sector engagement and climate finance partnerships in Africa. 

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– May 27, 2026