ImpactAlpha LP/GP: Taking stock of Alterra’s impact on emerging market climate finance

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In this week’s LP/GP:

• Taking stock of Altérra’s impact on climate finance in emerging markets
• Galvanize hops on the fleet electrification bus 
• Exclusive: Enduring Planet raises $12 million for climate startups
• Working Capital Fund aims to empower supply-chain workers

Featured: LP Profile

Is Altérra’s ambitious effort to mobilize climate finance for the Global South working? The places that need climate capital the most often get the least. Direct investments in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America deliver far deeper reductions in greenhouse gas emissions per dollar than do investments in more developed economies. Yet the case for private climate investments in the Global South has been undercut by project setbacks, currency fluctuations and political risk. One of the most ambitious efforts to overcome these obstacles and mobilize private capital for the low-carbon transition is Altérra, the $30 billion initiative announced by the United Arab Emirates at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in December 2023. Two-and-a-half years later, it has attracted some additional capital – and underscores the challenges of raising the roughly $1 trillion in private capital needed each year by 2030 to meet climate goals. “One of our top line goals is to mobilize capital, and we’ve done really well,” Altérra’s Majid Al Suwaidi told ImpactAlpha at the Milken Global Conference last month. 

• Under-mobilization. Unpacking Altérra’s performance reveals a more complicated picture. The $30 billion commitment includes a $25 billion “Acceleration” fund for commercial investments through asset managers like Brookfield Asset Management, TPG and KKR, and a $5 billion “Transformation” fund for catalytic investments in funds focused on the Global South. The Acceleration investments, which anchors large climate vehicles in developed markets without concessional structuring, have indeed helped attract commercial investors. Seeded by Altérra, Brookfield’s Catalytic Transition Fund fund and TPG’s Rise Climate fund have mobilized roughly nine dollars in outside capital for every dollar invested, well above early projections. In contrast, Altérra expects its investments from the Transformation fund to mobilize just four dollars for each dollar it invested, or about $6 billion. So far, the two flagship strategies backed by Alterra have attracted approximately $2.4 billion of outside capital; the firm says both are on track to meet fundraising targets. Altérra’s Transformation investments include caps on its own returns, a catalytic or concessional feature designed to boost returns for other investors. “The best minds are now focused on how to partner with us to deploy capital at scale into the climate transition,” Al Suwaidi said.
  
• Usual suspects. A closer look at Altérra’s fundraising underscores the challenge of attracting the kind of commercial investors the initiative targets. Much of the capital raised for the Global South has come from Altérra, the fund managers themselves and development finance institutions. Back in 2024, TPG said Altérra had been joined in TPG’s Global South Initiative by “a broad and diverse set of institutional investors from across Asia and North America.” According to the firm’s most recent reports, the initiative has raised $2.4 billion in total. That figure includes the original $500 million commitment from Altérra and a $1 billion allocation from TPG’s own Rise Climate II strategy – making one TPG fund the biggest investor in another. TPG’s Global South Initiative vehicle has otherwise attracted roughly $880 million from other investors, leaving it about $120 million short of its target for a final close later this year.
  
• Keep reading, “Is Altérra’s ambitious effort to mobilize climate finance for the Global South working?,” by Erik Stein, Amy Cortese and David Bank.

Live on Edge: Impact in Emerging Markets

These LPs (and not just DFIs) are investing in the Global South. ImpactAlpha Edge is tracking 130 GPs raising capital for climate solutions in the Global South and almost 200 LPs backing those funds in the growing database. 

• Corporates and pensions. Development finance institutions remain the most prominent funders of emerging market climate funds. But Lightrock’s $500 million Accelerate7 Fund, which recently reached a final close, has attracted corporate energy LPs including Eqiunor, Shell and TotalEnergies. And KawiSafi Ventures’ second fund, which focuses on clean energy access in Africa, is backed by Heading for Change, Schmidt Family Foundation and Quadrature Climate Foundation, along with the Green Climate Fund. Miami-based I Squared Capital successfully closed its first Growth Markets Infrastructure Fund, bringing in the Florida State Board of Administration, Employees Retirement System of Texas and Teacher Retirement System of Texas, along with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; it’s now raising its second growth fund with a target of $3 billion.
  
• Impact first. Ceniarth is signaling the value of social co-benefits from climate investing in emerging markets by backing funds Deetken Impact’s Inclusive Climate Action Fund, Enabling Qapital’s Spark+ Africa Fund, and Mirova’s Gigaton Fund, alongside other LPs such as Osprey Foundation, Ashden Trust and Netri Foundation. 

Dealflow: Climate Resilience

Working Capital Fund secures $31 million for its third supply chain resilience fund. Working Capital Fund, an early-stage venture firm focused on equitable and resilient supply chains, raised $31 million for its third fund. The first close was anchored by the Omidyar Group, Soros Economic Development Fund, and Minderoo Foundation. SAP and Stardust Equity also joined as new investors. The San Francisco-based firm is expanding its thesis for the AI age, including investing in startups that use AI to empower, rather than displace, workers. “Technology should strengthen human dignity, not undermine it,” Minderoo Foundation’s John Hartman said. “By backing entrepreneurs developing solutions that lift transparency and empower workers, Working Capital Fund is creating a future where economic growth and human rights go hand-in-hand.”

• Future of work. Since 2018, Working Capital has made two-dozen investments in more than 60 countries (see, “These startups are deploying AI to embed labor rights and resilience into supply chains”). Its three exits include sustainable supply chain software maker SupplyShift, sold in 2024 to Sphera; supply chain risk management company Versed AI, acquired the same year by Exiger; and Ulula, a startup that crowdsources worker feedback and grievances, which was bought in 2024 by EcoVadis. Another portfolio company, Altana, a supply chain mapping provider that provides labor rights intelligence, is valued at more than $1 billion. “We’ve demonstrated that responsible supply chain solutions are a serious commercial market,” Working Capital’s Ed Marcum told ImpactAlpha. Fund III shows “that impact-oriented venture capital can protect workers facing environmental disruption, and AI can be used to upskill and empower rather than displace and exploit.”
  
• More. 

Exclusive: Enduring Planet raises $12 million for lending to climate startups. Enduring Planet provides working capital, contract advances and term loans to climate-focused startups and small businesses (see, “Enduring Planet’s loans help climate startups facing the chicken-or-egg dilemma”). Blue Haven Initiative, Cisco Foundation, ImpactAssets, DF Impact Capital, and Green Spark Ventures were among more than a dozen impact investors backing its second fund. The raise was boosted by a $500,000 recoverable grant from Realize Impact that serves as first-loss capital. It also received a credit guarantee from the Locus-managed Community Investment Guarantee Pool. “Blended finance structures like this are essential to scaling climate solutions,” Enduring Planet’s Erin Davis told ImpactAlpha. “Leveraging catalytic capital and guarantees, we can help unlock significantly more private investment into businesses that are ready to grow but underserved by traditional lenders.”

• More.

Galvanize backs Highland Electric Fleets with $75 million for electric school buses. As billionaire Tom Steyer waits for the results of yesterday’s California gubernatorial primary, Galvanize, the investment firm he co-founded, committed to helping to electrify bus fleets, including in the state he hopes to run (Steyer has taken a leave of absence from the firm). Galvanize pledged $75 million in preferred equity to Highland Electric Fleets. The Massachusetts company is a one-stop shop for municipalities looking to electrify school buses and other vehicle fleets. The investment is the first for Galvanize’s Credit and Capital Solutions fund, which raised $1.3 billion last year to structure tailored financing for clean energy companies and projects (see, “Galvanize debuts $1.3 billion credit fund to finance renewable energy companies and projects”). 

• Electrification-as-a-service. Highland has projects in 30 states, including Georgia, Washington and Illinois, and is contracted to supply 500 electric buses for the upcoming Los Angeles Olympic Games. The company secured a $150 million equity investment from Aiga Capital Partners last December. The Coalition for Green Capital had greenlighted a $75 million loan to Highland in 2024 to finance the rollout of 1,300 electric buses, but the Trump administration’s freeze on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund scuttled the deal. And a Biden-era tax credit for green fleets was ended by the Trump administration. “The underlying demand and the maturing operator models make this a compelling moment for capital providers to step in,” Highland’s Li Shi wrote in a recent guest post on ImpactAlpha.
  
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

• NextEnergy Capital closed $974 million for its fifth flagship fund, targeting utility-scale solar and battery storage projects in developed markets. (NextEnergy Capital)
  
• Palo Alto, Calif.-based DCVC is looking to raise $500,000 for its second Energy and Climate fund, according to an SEC filing. (DCVC)
  
• Generationship raised $2.7 million for its debut fund for tech companies founded by women and diverse founders. (Generationship)
  
• By 2028, Swiss pension fund Luzerner Pensionskasse will increase its impact private equity allocation to 25% of its total private equity portfolio, up from 15%. (IPE)
  
• The European Investment Fund committed €200 million ($233 million) to Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ second advanced bioenergy fund, a planned €1.5 billion vehicle for biomethane and biogas projects in European markets. (EIF)

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Bill Clapp, a long-time impact investor with Global Partnerships, has died… Triodos Investment Management names Marie Heydenreich as fund manager of the Hivos Triodos Fund… Crux welcomes Eric Heintz, who spent 15 years with M&T Bank, as head of investments… Liberty Mutual Investments seeks a senior analyst of impact investing, in New York or Boston… The National Community Investment Fund is hiring a director of impact in Chicago… Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is looking for a San Francisco-based investment associate for its venture group, Teachers’ Venture Growth… Also in San Francisco, Decarbonization Partners, the BlackRock-Temasek joint venture, has an opening for an associate… CalPERS seeks an associate investment manager for its sustainable investments team in Sacramento.

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

Thank you for your impact!

– June 3, 2026