Greetings, Agents of Impact!
Welcome to this week’s ImpactAlpha LP/GP, where we take you inside the real business of impact investing and the dynamic relationships between owners, managers and intermediaries of impact capital.
📞 Today’s Call: Policy action for shared prosperity. Join Mindset’s Heather Slavkin Corzo, Ceres’ Andrew Collier, Economic Innovation Group’s Catherine Lyons, and Dafina Williams of Opportunity Finance Network, in conversation with Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance and ImpactAlpha’s David Bank, today at 10am PT / 1pm ET. There’s still time to RSVP.
In this week’s newsletter:
- Fixed income opportunities to scale impact capital
- Clean energy GPs press their case with Congress
- Scoop: Apis & Heritage closes on $85 million for employee-led buyouts
- LP Scan: African institutional investors
Featured: Better Bonds
Fixed income investments can deliver steady returns, reliable cash flows – and impact at scale. Asset managers like London-based TAM Asset Management are making fixed income their primary vehicle for impact investing, in part because the firms can know where their capital is going. TAM, which manages more than £1 billion ($1.4 billion), was attracted to T. Rowe Price’s Global Impact Credit Strategy because of its participation in the World Bank’s $225 million Amazon Reforestation-Linked Outcome Bond. Nuveen won an allocation from Mercy Investment Services, the investment arm of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, to its Core Impact Bond strategy for its ability to meet the nuns’ financial goals while elevating environmental and social justice themes. And Geneva-based NS Partners, with about $16 billion in assets under management, invested in BlueOrchard’s Emerging Markets Climate Bond Fund to address the challenges of climate change while reducing the risks of investing in emerging markets. These investment decisions are spotlighted in “Scaling solutions: The fixed income opportunity hiding in plain sight,” from Tideline, BlueMark and Builders Vision. “Fixed income is too big and too influential to remain a passive observer as we build a more resilient future together,” Builders Vision’s Noelle Laing writes in the introduction of the report, out today. “The opportunity to drive measurable outcomes – at scale – is already here. It just hasn’t been fully realized.”
- Power tool. Investor trust and established infrastructure makes fixed income “a go-to instrument for mobilizing capital to address time-sensitive challenges,” Builders Vision Joanna Cohen, BlueMark’s Sarah Gelfand, and Tideline’s Ngoc “Jade” Huynh write in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. Fixed income is well suited for raising significant amounts of capital for capital-intensive solutions; impact labeling and clear reporting of fixed income instruments give investors confidence about where their capital is going. After Japan’s Tohuku earthquake and tsunami in 2011, the JA Kyosai catastrophe bond, issued by Munich Re, raised $300 million for disaster payouts. A social bond issued by OneMain, a consumer finance company, supported lending of more than $560 million to women and minority borrowers. And Japan’s Climate Transition Bonds are funding solar, wind and thermal power generation, as well as household energy efficiency. “From municipal and sovereign bonds, to agency securities, asset-backed securities, and corporate debt, fixed income can be used to pursue impact outcomes across diverse sectors and geographies, while also hedging against financial risk,” the authors write.
- Economic engine. Nuveen, the $1.3 trillion asset management arm of TIAA, has been investing in impact opportunities in the public fixed-income market for over a decade. “The array of opportunity for an impact investor is much greater” than private markets, Stephen Liberatore, who heads fixed income strategy for Nuveen, tells ImpactAlpha in a video interview. “Public fixed-income has the ability to size and scale unlike any other sector or market.” Nuveem is an early investor in the emerging public debt-for-nature swap market, backing two deals in Ecuador for nature conservation. It also supported the World Bank’s Amazon Reforestation-Linked Outcome Bond to help Brazilian forestry company Mombak rewild degraded Amazonian land and generate carbon-removal credits. Nuveen’s fixed-income strategy includes bonds from private companies, sovereign issuers, municipalities and other issuers. “The environment impacts society, which impacts the economy,” said Liberatore. “We want to find securities that have an environmental outcome that also benefits society, which then helps the economy grow over time.”
- Keep reading, “Fixed income investments can deliver steady returns, reliable cash flows – and impact at scale,” by Joanna Cohen, Sarah Gelfand and Ngoc “Jade” Huynh.
Signals: Policy Corner
Clean energy fund managers rally support for clean energy tax credits. If you’re a clean energy investor, you probably know that section 45Y of the tax code is a production tax credit, and section 48E is an investment tax credit; both were introduced in the US Inflation Reduction Act to encourage generation of zero-emission electricity. Nearly 50 energy investors have signed a joint letter to Congress and the public to express concern over changes to those credits in the tax bill now before Congress. The current version of the reconciliation bill, they say, would “severely undermine American energy production and manufacturing at the very moment when our nation needs more energy to remain competitive in rapidly developing industries” (read the letter here). Signatories to the letter include SJF Ventures’ David Kirkpatrick, Abacus Wealth Partners’ Brent Kessel, Arborview Capital’s Carolyn Farley, Obvious Ventures’ Andrew Beebe and Aligned Climate Capital’s Peter Davidson. They cite estimates that the bill’s current provisions would raise household energy bills by $170 billion, cost the US more than 1.6 million jobs over a decade, and lower new electricity capacity by 450 gigawatts by 2035. “Our goal is to build a strong coalition of investors and business leaders,” and publish a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal, Builders Fund’s Tripp Baird tells ImpactAlpha.
- Senate amendments. The joint letter commends the Senate’s changes to the tax bill passed by the House of Representatives last month – and asks for further revisions. Among the requests: Keep Sections 45Y and 48E for wind and solar projects through 2030 to restore certainty for what are often multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investments. They also want to restore access to the 48E credit for third-party ownership and financing for wind and solar, and delay the sunset of the residential solar credit, 25D, until the end of 2027. “It is critical that we create a responsible phase-down for consumer and commercial leasing models to maintain US jobs and fortify investment certainty,” the letter states. Finally, proposed new rules around “foreign entity of concern,” intended to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers and investors, “could upend viable business models, jeopardize ongoing project financing, bankrupt businesses, and risk a significant slowdown of energy deployment,” the letter argues. “Investors and relevant businesses are creating American jobs, using American steel, building American-made inverters, and generating more energy security, not less.”
- Today’s Call. Energy policy provisions of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” will be among the topics on today’s Agents of Impact Call, “Policy action for shared prosperity.” RSVP now.
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Dealflow: Ownership Economy
Apis & Heritage closes $85 million and partners with Calvert Impact to finance employee-led buyouts. Apis & Heritage Capital Partners has commitments of $85 million toward its goal of $250 million for its second worker-ownership fund (see, “Apis & Heritage aims to help business owners ‘exit responsibly’ – to their employees”). A&H also formed a strategic partnership with Calvert Impact on a $50 million senior debt sidecar facility for employee-led buyout transactions. With its inaugural $58.1 million fund, the Washington, DC-based firm financed employee-led buyouts of five companies, creating more than 400 worker-owners. The second fund will finance employee-ownership transitions at larger companies. “We hope this facility accelerates A&H’s innovative strategy to convert companies to employee ownership,” said Calvert’s Catherine Godschalk. “Their model aligns with our vision of delivering more equitable financial outcomes for working people.”
- ‘Unitranche’ model. The speed at which A&H can close on these deals will be critical, as private equity buyers often make more lucrative offers to sellers, A&H’s Todd Leverette told ImpactAlpha. With the senior debt facility, Leverette says A&H will no longer need to seek partnerships with local banks to finance the employee-led buyouts. “We want to close the transactions by ourselves.” And because the senior debt tranche offers a different rate of return than A&H’s mezzanine debt, the facility will allow the fund to maintain its return profile. “It will basically help us to keep speed, scale and allow our investors to sit more in that mezzanine position,” Leverette said. “We have had a lot of great senior lending partners, but that process was sometimes slow and added a lot of complication to the transaction.”
- Fundraising. A&H kicked off fundraising for the second fund earlier this year. Investors from its first private credit fund have brought new limited partners into the second fund. Some of the $85 million committed is subject to achieving certain fundraising milestones. “We are keenly aware of the difficult fundraising environment that all managers are in,” said Leverette. “That’s why we feel extremely blessed and humbled to see so many of our Fund I investors not just increase their support, but also bring others along with them.” Leverette declined to share names of LPs in the first close.
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:
- Austin-based private equity firm Greenbelt Capital closed its third fund at $1 billion to invest in energy transition and efficiency solutions. (Greenbelt Capital)
- Dutch impact investor Triple Jump invested $12.5 million in TBC Bank Uzbekistan to finance Uzbekistan’s women-led businesses. (The Asian Banker)
- UK’s renewable energy infrastructure investor Bagnall Energy acquired peer Downing Renewables & Infrastructure Trust in a £175 million ($234 million) deal. (Renews.BIZ)
LP Scan: Institutional Investors
Ten African LPs investing in African impact funds. Africa’s impact investing ecosystem is undergoing a transformation. Development finance institutions are still among the most active investors, but a growing number of fund managers and companies are attracting more local institutional investors as limited partners (see, “African investors warm to regional funds of funds to finance small business growth”). ImpactAlpha’s recent reporting has covered African LPs backing funds in Tunisia, Ghana and Egypt. Four Egyptian banks and investment managers, for example, invested in DPI’s Nclude Fund, a fintech fund focused on North Africa. Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie is among the local LPs in Anava, a fund of funds designed to funnel capital to Tunisian startups and small businesses.
- Local pension funds. In Ghana, fund of funds Ci-Gaba has raised capital from local institutional investors, including pension funds. Mirepa Investment Advisors, also in Ghana, raised its first fund entirely from local investors, including Petra Trust Pensions, Secure Pension Trust, Fidelity Asset Management, Stanbic Investment Management and Venture Capital Trust Fund (see, “African GPs are trading out their LPs”). “For us, that’s pretty significant,” Mirepa’s Samuel Yeboah told ImpactAlpha. “It demonstrates that we actually can mobilize capital locally.”
- Keep reading. Know an LP investing in African impact strategies? Let us know.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, previously with Balderton Capital, joins Owl Ventures as general partner to lead the firm’s edtech expansion in emerging markets… Revolution Foods, the California-based vendor of healthy school meals, names George Blanco as CEO… Eddine Sarroukh will succeed Margot Cooijmans as senior director of the Philips Foundation in August.
Impact Experience Institute is hiring an executive vice president in San Francisco… Inclusive Prosperity Capital seeks an asset management and reporting manager in Hartford, Conn… City Year has an opening for an impact managing director in Denver… Education Leaders of Color is recruiting a senior director of network strategy and membership engagement.
The Inter-American Development Bank is looking for a pension investments and risk analytics associate in Washington, DC… National Equity Fund is searching for an investor relations senior manager… SoLa Impact is on the hunt for an investment associate in Los Angeles… CEO Africa seeks an investment analyst in Accra… ImpactAssets is on the lookout for a senior associate of energy investments.
👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.
Thank you for your impact!
– June 24, 2025
