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May 21, 2024
The Brief
Featured: Returns on Inclusion
Billions of low and middle-income consumers represent trillions in impact investment opportunities. Off-grid solar companies were once dependent on grants and highly-concessional capital to prove that low-income and energy-disconnected households make good and reliable business customers. Now, early movers like Sun King, Zola and d.light are securitizing customer payments – and banks and institutional investors are clamoring to invest. “We see a lot of appetite from investors for these kinds of assets,” says Borja Garcia Fernandez of Citi Social Finance, who will join tomorrow’s Agents of Impact Call to help investors seize such opportunities (see, “A cheat sheet to ‘inclusive business’ investing”). Citi last year structured a $130 million securitized loan for Sun King, with backing from British International Investment and Stanbic Bank Kenya. Opportunities to invest in the global mass market are indeed massive, Garcia Fernandez says, in energy services, financial services, education, healthcare, housing, agriculture, logistics and other sectors.
Dealflow: Water Infrastructure
KETOS clinches $10 million for ‘water data as a service.’ Aging global water infrastructure threatens water quality. San Francisco-based KETOS makes AI-powered water testing and monitoring systems to provide utilities and other water providers real-time intelligence on water quality and usage. Sensors monitor water for lead, alkalinity, mercury and more than two dozen other parameters. Dan Levine of venture capital investor Tenfore Holdings, which led KETOS’ $10 million equity financing, touted the company’s “efficient turnkey solutions.” KETOS monitors over 45 billion gallons of water, and is conducting research to address PFAS, cancer-linked “forever chemicals” that the US Environmental Protection Agency will begin regulating next month.
Signals: Impact Products
Impact products aim to shift portfolio allocations in bonds, private credit and cash. Short duration green bonds. Private credit for regenerative agriculture. Cash management that can accelerate lending for climate-smart community infrastructure. Financial service providers are rolling out investment products for impact investors in asset classes far afield from venture capital and private equity, which have typically been limited to high-net worth individuals and institutional investors. What new impact products are you seeing? Drop us a note.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Pacific Community Ventures names Aisha Benson of Nonprofit Finance Fund, Brian Vo of Connect Humanity, and Leslie Lindo of Candide Group to its board of directors… Shareholder Rights Group is looking for a project director... The Sorenson Impact Institute is recruiting a venture capital and impact investing director in Salt Lake City.
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Rural economic development is a complex issue, including in Colombia. Rural regions are often culturally diverse areas, but have limited access to quality …
- Agents of Impact
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May 21, 2024
The Brief
Featured: Returns on Inclusion
Billions of low and middle-income consumers represent trillions in impact investment opportunities. Off-grid solar companies were once dependent on grants and highly-concessional capital to prove that low-income and energy-disconnected households make good and reliable business customers. Now, early movers like Sun King, Zola and d.light are securitizing customer payments – and banks and institutional investors are clamoring to invest. “We see a lot of appetite from investors for these kinds of assets,” says Borja Garcia Fernandez of Citi Social Finance, who will join tomorrow’s Agents of Impact Call to help investors seize such opportunities (see, “A cheat sheet to ‘inclusive business’ investing”). Citi last year structured a $130 million securitized loan for Sun King, with backing from British International Investment and Stanbic Bank Kenya. Opportunities to invest in the global mass market are indeed massive, Garcia Fernandez says, in energy services, financial services, education, healthcare, housing, agriculture, logistics and other sectors.
Dealflow: Water Infrastructure
KETOS clinches $10 million for ‘water data as a service.’ Aging global water infrastructure threatens water quality. San Francisco-based KETOS makes AI-powered water testing and monitoring systems to provide utilities and other water providers real-time intelligence on water quality and usage. Sensors monitor water for lead, alkalinity, mercury and more than two dozen other parameters. Dan Levine of venture capital investor Tenfore Holdings, which led KETOS’ $10 million equity financing, touted the company’s “efficient turnkey solutions.” KETOS monitors over 45 billion gallons of water, and is conducting research to address PFAS, cancer-linked “forever chemicals” that the US Environmental Protection Agency will begin regulating next month.
Signals: Impact Products
Impact products aim to shift portfolio allocations in bonds, private credit and cash. Short duration green bonds. Private credit for regenerative agriculture. Cash management that can accelerate lending for climate-smart community infrastructure. Financial service providers are rolling out investment products for impact investors in asset classes far afield from venture capital and private equity, which have typically been limited to high-net worth individuals and institutional investors. What new impact products are you seeing? Drop us a note.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Pacific Community Ventures names Aisha Benson of Nonprofit Finance Fund, Brian Vo of Connect Humanity, and Leslie Lindo of Candide Group to its board of directors… Shareholder Rights Group is looking for a project director... The Sorenson Impact Institute is recruiting a venture capital and impact investing director in Salt Lake City.
Muni Impact | March 22, 2024
How green banks are blending finance for community infrastructure and greenhouse gas reduction (video)
In New Orleans, the city’s housing finance agency has become a “green bank” to underwrite community solar, water treatment projects, and resilience hubs. …
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The Call: Impact value-creation isn’t just for impact investors (but they’re better at it)
Private equity fund managers looking for value-creation opportunities are increasingly finding their way to impact themes like climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture, employee engagement …
Call Recording | January 19, 2024
The Call: Moving from the ‘why’ to the ‘how’ of impact incentives
ImpactAlpha, January 19 – Impact investors have for years debated the need for embedded structures to incentivize impact outcomes for impact fund managers. …
Muni Impact | December 15, 2023
The arbitrage opportunity in high-impact municipal bonds (video)
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – The $4 trillion muni market is so big that small movements in the pricing of bonds can mean shifts of …
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To be effective, climate solutions need a gender lens (video)
ImpactAlpha, November 17 – That women are more adversely affected by climate change is well established (in impact and development circles at any …
Impact Investing | October 13, 2023
State of the Impact Field: Unprecedented opportunity tempered by sober realism (video)
This week’s Agents of Impact Call continued a tradition started nearly a decade ago by Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance …
Ownership Economy | September 29, 2023
Labor and capital align in new movement for worker ownership (Video)
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 29 – It’s the age-old struggle: labor vs capital, workers vs. owners. But what happens when employees get a stake in the …
Call Recording | August 25, 2023
Mobilizing capital in Indian Country (video)
ImpactAlpha, August 25 – A growing ecosystem of Native-led entrepreneurs, lenders, financial intermediaries and nonprofits are driving Indian Country’s emerging economy. “It’s kind …
Muni Impact | June 22, 2023
Connecting supply and demand for racial equity strategies in muni markets (video)
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 22 – Even as some politicians ramp up anti-ESG rhetoric, asset owners and allocators are signaling an appetite for investment strategies …
Call Recording | March 31, 2023
Metrics Madness: Wealth, ownership and ‘quality adjusted life years’ (video)
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 31 – The search for a universal metric to guide investments in racial justice and equitable wealth-building was…aspirational. “We are still a …
Policy Corner | February 24, 2023
Policymaking for workers and communities in the Year of the ‘S’ (video)
ImpactAlpha. Feb. 24 – “A labor market where workers have more opportunities and have more power and have more leverage is a good …
Memphis skyline
Muni Impact | February 9, 2023
Engaging racial-equity risks and opportunities in municipal finance (video)
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 9 – The fatal beating by police of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month exposed risks to the city’s finances that have …
Impact Investing | May 17, 2024
Chinese tariffs, the Global Fund for Coral Reefs, and valuing the care economy
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Biden’s new Chinese tariffs and how they impact …
Podcasts | May 10, 2024
David’s dispatch from MIE and Milken
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: The divergent vibes at Mission Investors Exchange and …
Podcasts | May 2, 2024
The state of blended finance, restoring forests and carbon market credibility, and investing endowments for DEI
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: The rebound in blended finance; how Big Tech …
Podcasts | April 24, 2024
Franchising indoor farms to build a billion dollars in Black wealth (podcast)
When one door closes, another one opens. For Zarû Systems’ Loren Taylor, that second door may open onto a self-contained modular vertical farm …
Podcasts | April 12, 2024
Reconnecting communities, impact investing in Puerto Rico, and how business owners are exiting to employees
🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: federal funds to …
Photo credit: Bess Adler (used with permission)
Corporate Impact | April 10, 2024
Alison Taylor: The broken chain from transparency to accountability to corporate action (podcast)
The era of cake-ism (as in having it and eating it, too) has come to an inglorious end. “I think we’re in an …
Podcasts | March 29, 2024
This week in impact: green bank who’s who, emerging market catalytic climate capital, brazilian impact.
Host Brian Walsh dives into ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. Up this week: Tracking the players building the US’s …
Podcasts | March 26, 2024
Building an inclusive economy with Lenore Champagne Beirne
ImpactAlpha podcasts are back! We’re pleased to share our revamped interview show, Agents of Impact, hosted by David Bank and Sherrell Dorsey, founder …
Podcasts | March 26, 2024
Impact(ed): An introduction to CDFIs and equitable community lending
Impact(ed) is part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network, a set of shows hosted and produced by leading voices in impact and sustainable investing, …
Podcasts | March 21, 2024
How Texas’s anti ESG campaign is costing it money, cookstoves and carbon markets, and Vanguard gets punked
On This Week in Impact, Brian Walsh dives into some of ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. This week: the …
Podcasts | January 11, 2024
Impact(ed): Harnessing the potential of VC for good (podcast)
Venture capital invested nearly $500 billion in 2022. By investing into startups seeking transformational scale, successful venture-backed companies have the potential to change …
Impact Voices | May 20, 2024
How raising pay for retail employees can strengthen the global economy and portfolio performance
Around the world, as many as 214 million workers live in poverty, unable to meet their families’ basic needs because their wages fall …
Th US imposed steep tariffs of Chinese EVs and solar panels
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As trade wars heat up, climate investors look to back homegrown ‘Challenger technologies’
The fight against climate change relies on global supply chains. Clean energy technologies are exceptionally materials-intensive, the supply of which relies on the …
Inclusive Economy | May 14, 2024
A guide to investing in better livelihoods and expanded access for low-income people
The global challenges of poverty and income inequality can often seem insurmountable. But investors and companies can help to tackle these critical issues, …
Blockchain/AI/IoT | May 13, 2024
Why VC investors need a 1.5°C goal for responsible tech
Like the 1.5°C goal for climate, responsible tech needs a clear North Star to guide investments and innovations. To build an ecosystem of …
Creative Economy | May 9, 2024
The talk outpaces the walk: Three tough truths about impact investing
U.S. impact investors, we have a problem. In truth, there are several, and they all center around just how challenging it is to …
Impact Voices | May 8, 2024
ESG will be key to supplying ‘green’ metals needed for the energy transition
Achieving net-zero emissions requires transitioning from a fossil-fueled economy to one energized through metals and materials. Nearly $2 trillion in investment in mining …
Catalytic Capital | May 6, 2024
Pension funds help catalyze gender-lens investments in Asia
In the dynamic economic environment of the Asia-Pacific region, a significant investment opportunity is emerging: institutional investors’ capacity to champion gender equality through …
Matt Onek at MIE 2022 National Conference | Photo Credit: Mission Investors Exchange
Catalytic Capital | May 3, 2024
Inspiring impact at Mission Investors Exchange 2024 national conference
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
Photo Copyright 2023 Caroline Yang. Used with permission from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Inclusive Economy | May 1, 2024
Changing how capital flows through communities to improve health
This series of guest posts is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Yuvo Health team photo | Photo provided by Cal Wellness
Impact Voices | May 1, 2024
Investment manager diversity matters when investing for health equity
Editor’s note: This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Latin America | April 30, 2024
Latin American family offices add investing tools to philanthropic toolkit
Latin America is witnessing a transformative trend in family office philanthropy: the shift towards impact investing. Traditionally, philanthropy in the region has been …
Inclusive Economy | April 30, 2024
How Fundación Bancolombia invests in Colombia’s small businesses for rural economic development
Rural economic development is a complex issue, including in Colombia. Rural regions are often culturally diverse areas, but have limited access to quality …