Impact Management | February 24, 2021

ImpactAssets 50 showcases an increasingly diverse impact ecosystem

Amy Cortese
ImpactAlpha Editor

Amy Cortese

ImpactAlpha, Feb. 24 – Worker ownership. Small business relief. Impact real estate. Climate solutions. This year’s Impact Assets 50 showcases a diversity of impact investment options, from billion-dollar funds to first-time managers. The public database of 50 funds with at least $25 million in assets and three years of track record span asset classes, sizes and geographies. 

Emergent impact. The tenth edition of the IA50 includes a separate list of 41 emerging impact managers, up from 16 last year. New on the emerging managers list (but not to ImpactAlpha readers) are Apis & Heritage Capital Partners, which supports transitions to employee ownership (see, Black and brown employee ownership for the post-COVID economy) and Open Road Alliance, which provides bridge loans to global social entrepreneurs facing unexpected disruptions (see, “Short-term loans are a safety net as social enterprises face an ‘unexpected OMG moment’).

Kachuwa Investment Cooperative PBC invests in social enterprises and impact real estate. Among its investments: Bloc Power, Democracy Brewing, and Namaste Solar. Undeterred Capital, launched last year, is targeting companies retooling health, manufacturing and food for the post-COVID world. 

Community lenders. Community development financial institutions figured prominently this year, reflecting their role as financial first responders in the COVID pandemic. On the list: Capital Impact Partners, Craft3, Enterprise Community Partners, Local Initiatives Support Corp., Low Income Investment Fund, The Reinvestment Fund, and Capital Good Fund (“see As politicians dither, a consumer lender bridges the chasms in the social safety net). 

Inclusion alpha. More than 60% of managers focus on rural communities, 54% seek to benefit people of color and 48% to advance women-led businesses. Radnor, Penn.-based De-Carceration Fund looks for early stage enterprises with solutions to mass incarceration. Slauson & Co. in Los Angeles is run by managers of color and invests in under-represented entrepreneurs.

Old guard. The IA50 was created a decade ago to showcase the diversity of impact investment options in the young but growing field. ImpactAssets has added an “Emeritus” category this year highlighting fund managers have made the IA 50 five years or more. The 27 managers with combined assets under management of $8.8B include Bamboo Capital, Calvert Impact Capital, Capria, DBL Partners, Media Development Investment Fund and Vital Capital, among others.