Greetings, Agents of Impact!
Welcome to the latest ImpactAlpha Open. Our free weekly newsletter keeps you in the know and ahead of the curve in impact investing and sustainable finance.
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In this week’s Open:
- Why’s VCs love Kamala
- Incentivizing impact on this month’s Liist
- How the EPA’s Jahi Wise designed a green bank
- The ethical fashion of Black VCs
Ok, let’s get to it. – Dennis Price
Must-reads on ImpactAlpha
- VCs for Kamala. Impact VCs from across the country, including Bronze Capital’s Stephen DeBerry, Rarebreed Ventures’ McKeever (Mac) Conwell and Emmeline Ventures’ La Keisha Landrum Pierre showed up on a “VCs for Kamala” call. As Lynnley Browning, Amy Cortese and I report, they made a business case for the vice president. The case for an inclusive economy.
- This month’s Liist of funds raising capital. Managers like Beyond Capital Ventures, Raven Group and Renaissance Partners are coming to market with funds that incentivize impact and share profits with communities and founders, as Jessica and Lucy Ngige report. See the funds.
- Bonds to finance climate resilience. A flurry of bonds targeting climate adaptation are emerging to finance the resilience of communities, businesses and public infrastructure. Such bonds offer benefits for investors beyond coupon payouts, in the form of reduced risk and improved performance, reports ClimateProof’s Louie Woodall. See how.
- Africa-led blended finance. Africa-led development finance institutions, including the Development Bank of Rwanda and the African Development Bank, are implementing first-of-a-kind blended finance models to rally capital for development, Convergence’s Aakif Merchant shares in a special report for ImpactAlpha. Check it out.
- Yunus returns to power. Microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus’ vision of inclusive prosperity captured the imagination of Bangladesh’s youth, who were instrumental in bringing down Sheikh Hasina, the country’s former prime minister. The young protesters effectively anointed Yunus to lead Bangladesh through the political crisis, as Jessica Pothering reports. Read more.
- A primer for investing in employee ownership. The “silver tsunami” of retiring Baby Boomers is teeing up a $10 trillion transition of wealth and assets, and ample opportunities for investors to finance transitions to employee ownership. “Timing and signaling matters,” write Julie Menter and Curt Lyon of Transform Finance, in a brief outlining entry points to employee-ownership investing. Get the primer.
Agents of Impact
🌱 🏦 Jahi Wise, US Environmental Protection Agency: Architecting a green bank for the US
When the $27 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund starts rolling out any day now, it will kick off an inclusive green energy transition that promises to reach deep into long-neglected communities. Jahi Wise was instrumental in making that happen. Wise was an advisor to a newly elected President Joe Biden when ideas began to take shape for a “green bank” to spur lending for energy retrofits, heat pumps, community solar and other green projects.
- The Inflation Reduction Act, passed two years ago this week, carved out $27 billion for such a bank, to be overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency. Wise, appointed director of the GGRF in December 2022, was tasked with designing the program to leverage up to $7 in private capital for every $1 in government money.
- Keep reading, “Jahi Wise, EPA: Architecting a green bank for the US,” by Amy Cortese on ImpactAlpha and share the story on Instagram.
🏃 On the move
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Kimberlee Cornett, Invest for Better’s Janine Firpo and Ellen Remmer, Grameen America’s Andrea Jung, SDS Capital’s Deborah La Franchi, Resilience Capital Ventures Gillian Marcelle, Calvert Impact’s Jennifer Pryce and Green Century Funds’ Leslie Samuelrich are among the Agents of Impact on Forbes’ “50 Over 50: Investment” list. MacArthur Foundation’s Debra Schwartz, Kellogg Foundation’s La June Montgomery Tabron and Pivotal Ventures’ Melinda French Gates made Forbes’ “50 Over 50: Impact” list.
- US SIF named Sireen Hajj, previously with Morningstar Sustainalytics, as its director of investor outreach.
- Sorenson Impact Foundation named Eliza Roady, formerly with Sorenson Impact Institute, as managing director.
The Week’s Podcast
🎧 This Week in Impact
Host Brian Walsh discusses ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Impact VCs embrace Kamala Harris’s economic vision. African financial institutions blend finance for development. And microfinance pioneer Muhmmad Yunus steps up to lead Bangladesh out of its political crisis.
- Listen to the new episode of This Week in Impact. Get the podcast in your feed by subscribing on Apple or Spotify.
Dealflow Spotlight: Sustainable Fashion
Black VCs carve a niche at the intersection of fashion and sustainability. Before the big names moved in, Baltimore-based RareBreed Ventures provided seed funding to Oakland, Calif.-based Unspun to develop its 3D textile-weaving technology. The startup hadn’t yet deployed the technology then and was “just selling jeans to show these big apparel brands what the device could do,” RareBreed’s Mac Conwell told ImpactAlpha. “My immediate reaction was that every Black woman on the planet needs to hear about this, because they finally have a company that can actually make jeans that fit.” The company’s on-demand production also reduced textile waste.
- Last week, Unspun raised $32 million in a Series B financing round, backed by Lowercarbon Capital and DCVC. RareBreed Ventures is among a flurry of Black VCs that have carved out a niche at the intersection of fashion, hair, beauty and sustainability.
- Keep reading. Cordes Foundation is a sponsor of ImpactAlpha’s coverage of sustainable fashion.
Get in the Game
💼 Step up
- Impact Capital Managers seeks a finance and operations analyst in New York or Washington, DC.
- Jordan Park is looking for a senior analyst for impact in San Francisco or New York.
- Dalberg Advisors is hiring a project manager in Bogotá, Colombia for a hybrid position.
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- October 7-9: AFSIC Investing in Africa (London)
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