ImpactAlpha LP / GP

ImpactAlpha LP/GP: Investors signal a renewed appetite to reduce food waste

ImpactAlpha · October 22, 2025

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.

☎️ Tomorrow’s Call: The surprising resurgence of impact-first investing. A growing number of wealthy family offices are adopting impact-first investment strategies, with all the complexity that entails. What does it take to seek the highest risk-adjusted impact possible, rather than the highest risk-adjusted financial returns? Spring Point Partners’ Margot Kane, Ceniarth’s Greg Neichin, A to Z Impact’s Alex Evangelides, and Trimtab Impact’s Caleb Ballou will explore strategies for outperformance – on impact, this tomorrow, Oct. 23, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. RSVP today.

In today’s LP/GP newsletter:

  • Taking a bite out of food waste
  • European climate tech investors
  • BII sells another stake to Blue Earth
  • Private equity’s 401(k) gold rush

Private investors regroup to fight food waste as federal funding dries up. After a three-year slide in capital for companies seeking to reduce staggering amounts of wasted food, private investment levels appear to be rising, despite – or perhaps because of – a drop in federal funding for such solutions. Private investors deployed about $640 million in food waste infrastructure and solutions last year, down from a peak of nearly $2 billion in 2021. Deals so far this year are closing in on 2024’s total funding, according to the nonprofit ReFED. The latest: Generate Capital secured $43 million in long-term debt to support its organic waste recycling business Generate Upcycle. The company’s portfolio of anaerobic digestion plants convert up to 400,000 tons of food, farm, yard and other organic waste annually into renewable natural gas, or RNG. Fiera Infrastructure Private Debt, a Canadian private infrastructure debt investor, provided financing to enable Generate Upcycle to invest in its plants in Canada and the US. It is the first outside capital Generate’s has sought for the three-year-old company. “Food-waste RNG is scaling, and this transaction shows how creative capital can unlock solutions with real-world environmental and economic impact,” said Generate Upcycle’s Bill Caesar.

  • Fundraising landscape. Active investors include New York-based Closed Loop Partners, which makes equity and debt investments in recycling technologies and businesses. Acre Venture Partners in Santa Monica, Calif., has since 2016 been investing in food and agriculture tech and infrastructure companies with backing from Campbell’s Soup, Stepstone, Merck Family Foundation, the Grantham Foundation and others. Denver-based Trailhead Ventures is investing in early-stage technologies to support regenerative food systems, including food waste. Trustbridge Partners in May led a $9.4 million round for Metafoodx, in San Jose, Calif., which uses AI to help commercial kitchens pinpoint future production needs. Blue Bear Capital, Struck Capital, Amasia and Wonder Ventures invested $8 million in Topanga, another AI-based startup cutting waste in commercial kitchens.
  • Going local. Private investment in food waste reduction in the US has been catalyzed and derisked by federal funding, namely grants and project financing for infrastructure, like the anaerobic digesters Generate Upcycle is building. This year, The Trump administration took an ax to the Environmental Protection Agency and has sought to roll back the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided such. “Historically, we have seen federal grants support research, food purchasing for food rescue, and recycling and supply chain infrastructure,” ReFED’s Alejandro Enamorado tells ImpactAlpha. “We see state and local support playing a more outsized role in supporting food waste infrastructure than federal funding.”
  • Policy corner. Some federal policy initiatives to address food waste still have momentum along with a number of state initiatives. The federal Food Date Labeling Act, originally proposed in 2023 to standardize food date labels to prevent retailers and consumers from tossing good food, was reintroduced this year with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. California passed its own version of the Food Date Labeling Act, with new label standards taking effect next July. And the Trump EPA announced its Feed it Onward initiative to cut food waste and boost food security. “Preventing perfectly good food from going to waste is something that everyone can get behind,” Enamorado says, “regardless of your political ideology.”
  • Keep reading, “Private investors regroup to fight food waste as federal funding dries up,” by Jessica Pothering and Erik Stein. 

Dealflow: Climate Tech

First-time manager SevenGen raises $50 million for European climate tech fund. Amsterdam-based SevenGen Investment Partners was founded in 2022 by a small group of ABN AMRO bankers specialized in climate finance. It focuses on profitable companies with proven technologies that can accelerate Europe’s climate goals. SevenGen this week announced a €50 million ($58 million) first close for its fund with backing from the European Investment Fund and Invest International, a government-backed Dutch investment institution. Impact investors including Victrix, Alphatron and Phase2.earth, and climate tech entrepreneurs also invested. It is looking to raise €150 million ($174 million) by next year. 

  • First time fund. SevenGen provides growth capital to companies supporting the energy transition, industrial decarbonization, circular materials and sustainable mobility, all of which are key to Europe’s ambitious climate plans. “The fundraising market is very tough for first-time funds at the moment, and this first close confirms our investment proposition is an attractive one for institutional investors,” SevenGen’s Frederik Deutman told ImpactAlpha. The fund plans to make investments of €5 million to €15 million. “We back companies that drive costs down and make climate solutions accessible to everyone, not just early adopters,” added SevenGen’s Pieter Smit. “That’s how you move from niche to mainstream.”
  • LP scan. ImpactAlpha has tracked more than two dozen LP commitments to European climate tech funds over the past year. The list includes development finance institutions, strategic corporate investors and family offices. Paris- and Singapore-based Shift4Good closed €220 million ($236 million) to decarbonize transport with backing from Renault, BNP Paribas, Bpifrance and Edenred. Barclays anchored Anthemis’ $50 million Female Innovators Lab Fund alongside Aviva, Visa and Bank of Montreal. Builders Vision, the family office of Walmart heir Lukas Walton, backed Archipelago Ventures’ circular economy ACE Fund. Milan-based Maia Ventures raised €55 million ($64 million) to support tech startups working in Italy’s food industry, drawing investment from Teseo Capital, Grey Silo Ventures and Andriani. More.
  • More.

Burnt Island Ventures raises $50 million fund for water tech and infrastructure. The New York-based firm closed its second fund to tackle the increasing water demand from AI data centers and semiconductor manufacturers, and to back other early-stage water tech and infrastructure companies. It raised from a number of global family offices and foundations that had not previously invested in the water sector. “It means that influential people speak water in a way that they didn’t before,” Burnt Island’s Tom Ferguson told ImpactAlpha. “Most of our initial conversations are getting around the usual reasons why people would be skeptical of a water fund.” Water tech giant Xylem, a backer of Burnt Island’s first fund, anchored the new fund, and was joined by climate fund-of-funds WovenEarth Ventures. Burnt Island’s first fund, which closed in 2022, raised $30 million and invested in 18 companies, with two exits to date.

  • Investing in water. Water-related disruptions cost the US economy more than $46 billion each year. Burnt Island joins a small but expanding cohort of water-focused GPs, such as Emerald Technology Ventures, which has backed nearly 20 water companies, with four exits. It is raising €180 million ($209 million) for its second Global Water Fund, with support from Veralto. 

Blue Earth buys BII’s – and employees’ – stake in Nigerian fintech startup Moniepoint. Swiss impact investor Blue Earth Capital acquired a minority stake in Moniepoint, a Nigerian fintech company, from British Impact Investment and Moniepoint’s employee share option program, or ESPO. The secondary deal returned capital to some of Moniepoint’s early African LPs and offered “life-changing liquidity to our dedicated employees,” said Moniepoint’s Tosin Eniolorunda. It coincided with Moniepoint’s $90 million Series C extension round, led by Development Partners International and LeapFrog Investments, bringing the full round to $200 million.

  • Secondary market. BII had invested $15 million in Moniepoint over four rounds to help the company reach more small businesses and jobs by expanding its agent network into rural areas. This transaction marks the second secondary sales deal between BII and Blue Earth (see, “British International Investment sells stakes to seed impact secondaries market”). “Deepening secondary market activity in Africa is a key priority for Blue Earth Capital, as we seek to mobilize new investor capital to the continent through enabling access to high impact, category leading businesses,” said Blue Earth’s David Moore.
  • More. 

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • Ardian snagged $20 billion for its latest infrastructure fund. The Europe-focused fund manager attracted investments from 229 limited partners from around the globe. (Ardian)
  • California-based Bloom Energy, which produces oxide fuel cells to provide onsite power for utilities and data centers, signed on to a $5 billion partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to deploy its cells across Brookfield’s AI data centers. (OneStop ESG)
  • Fidelity International raised €710 million ($823 million) for its Fidelity Real Estate Logistics Impact Climate Solutions Fund. The fund acquires, refurbishes and operates logistics assets with net-zero emissions. (Adviser Voice)

Impact Voices: Policy Corner

Private equity’s 401(k) gold rush has regulatory strings attached. Millions of ordinary Americans will soon be able to invest a slice of their retirement savings in private equity, real estate, digital assets and infrastructure projects. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in August “democratizing access to alternative assets.” Government agencies are relaxing their positions on retirees’ holdings in private markets to open the $12 trillion retirement market to the private equity sector. Investment giants such as Apollo Global and BlackRock are downright ecstatic. Individual investors “have the potential to be as large as institutions in the same sorts of products, and they will not take anywhere near 40 years to get to that size,” Apollo’s Marc Rowan said on a recent earnings call (see, “Larry Fink’s private path to economic populism”). Plan administrators and retirement consultants have urged caution. “While this is an exciting shift for the sector, it will bring its fair share of challenges,” writes Amr Jomaa of Navys, an AI-powered data service for legal teams, in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. “Private equity will find itself under the spotlight, and with increased public exposure comes intensified regulatory scrutiny.” 

  • Reporting requirements. Jomaa foresees compliance and fiduciary challenges. As 401(k) providers allocate retirement capital to alternative assets, expect additional oversight from the Employee Benefits Security Administration. The agency last year recovered $741.9 million from enforcement actions, and removed or barred nearly 40 fiduciaries. Increased public attention could put pressure on the Securities and Exchange Commission to impose stronger disclosure and reporting requirements on private fund advisers. “Private equity is in for an era of heavier oversight – from investors, the media, 401(k) plan providers and regulators alike,” Jomaa says. The executive order envisions alternative assets as a way to improve “long-term net returns and broader diversification” for ordinary savers.
  • Keep reading, “Private equity’s 401(k) gold rush has regulatory strings attached,” by Navy’s Amr Jomaa.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

The Principles for Responsible Investment appoints Cambria Allen Ratzlaff as interim CEO. She replaces David Atkins, who is staying on as an advisor to facilitate the leadership transition… Moody’s is recruiting a senior community impact analyst in New York… Also in New York, PVH Corp. seeks a corporate responsibility strategy manager.

Pivotal Ventures is looking for an interim senior investments analyst in Seattle… Cardano has an opening for a responsible investments officer… Regenerative Social Finance is on the hunt for a chief financial officer in Chicago… JUST is looking for a bilingual communications associate in Texas.

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

Thank you for your impact!

– Oct. 22, 2025