Essential news and insights to keep you ahead of the curve on impact investing and sustainable finance.
January 15, 2021
The Brief
The Week’s Big 6
1. Getting the rules right for a community-led COVID recovery. The COVID disruption could be a watershed moment for the expansion of community lending. The emergency appropriation of $12 billion in last month’s relief package for community development financial institutions, or CDFIs, and minority depository institutions, or MDIs, is intended to bolster the balance sheets of lenders to low-income communities and underserved populations. But details of the legislation may hinder the effectiveness of the capital infusion. In a guest post on ImpactAlpha, Laurie Spengler of Courageous Capital and George Surgeon of GSJ Advisors suggest how the Treasury Department can get the rules right. “We encourage impact investors to join Treasury in this effort by increasing their investment in MDIs and CDFI depository institutions – especially common equity investments,” they write. “The time is now.” Keep reading.
The Week’s Agents of Impact
Georgia’s organizers. “Welcome to the New Georgia,” proclaimed Senator-elect Raphael Warnock. “It is more diverse, and it's more inclusive. And it readily embraces the future.” Warnock, the first Black person to be sent to the Senate by the state – and fellow Senator-elect Jon Ossoff, a Jewish man, signal the profound demographic and cultural shifts that also helped tip Georgia for President-elect Joe Biden. But demographics alone can’t explain their historic achievement. For that, you have to thank the civic leaders and community organizers that worked for years – decades – to educate, mobilize and register new voters in overlooked, under-represented communities. They knew Georgia was up for grabs long before Democratic party leaders caught on. If demographics shifts are the fire, says Nsé Ufot of New Georgia Project, “organizing is the accelerant.”
The Week’s Dealflow
Low-carbon future. Daystar Power raises $38 million to expand commercial solar power in West Africa… The Rise Fund acquires renewable energy company Element Markets… Electric fleet company Proterra to go public through merger with ArcLight SPAC… SilviaTerra raises $4.4 million to build a carbon marketplace from forestlands… Gro Intelligence secures $85 million to build climate risk-adjusted indexes.
The Week’s Talent
Maëlle Gavet, previously with Compass, joins Techstars as chief executive officer… Patricia McCarthy, ex- of Common Future, joins Candide Group as managing director. Candide named Hope Newsome, previously with Virtus LLP, as chief compliance officer and promoted Laurika Harris-Kaye to portfolio manager… New Forests names Adrian Williams, ex- of AMP Capital, as chief financial officer… Leticia Peguero steps down as vice president of programs at Nathan Cummings Foundation.
The Week’s Jobs
BLCK VC is recruiting an executive director… The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility seeks a deputy director… One Acre Fund is hiring an associate writer in New York… Prime Coalition is looking for summer fellows… Global Forest Generation seeks a communications director… Sistema.bio is looking for a national technical manager in Pune, India… The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation seeks an impact investment officer in Princeton, N.J.
Editor's Picks
Podcasts | January 15, 2021
Impact Briefing: Week of January 15
On this week’s podcast, host Monique Aiken engaged Frontline Solutions’ Jessica Barron and Marion Johnson on the political power of women of color. …
Agents of Impact | January 15, 2021
Agents of Impact: Georgia’s organizers
“Welcome to the New Georgia,” proclaimed Senator-elect Raphael Warnock. “It is more diverse, and it’s more inclusive. And it readily embraces the future.” …
Conservation | January 14, 2021
Coral Vita secures $2 million to help corals adapt to climate change
ImpactAlpha, January 14 – Healthy coral reefs foster biodiversity and provide food, income and protection for more than 500 million people. But pollution and …
Latest News
Coral Vita secures $2 million to help corals adapt to climate change
Conservation | January 14, 2021
Daystar Power raises $38 million to expand commercial solar power in West Africa
Africa | January 14, 2021
Sustainability is the new new thing at the Consumer Electronics Show
Climate and Clean Tech | January 14, 2021
Canadian pension fund backs Taylor Guitars’ conversion to employee ownership
Creative Economy | January 14, 2021
Medical Credit Fund blends $19.2 million to finance Africa’s frontline health clinics
Africa | January 13, 2021
Electric fleet company Proterra to go public through merger with ArcLight SPAC
Clean Energy | January 13, 2021
What the U.S. return to the Paris Agreement means for investors
Climate Finance | January 13, 2021
Morgan Stanley invests $100 million in Lafayette Square to support housing, jobs, and financial inclusion
affordable-housing | January 13, 2021
Community lenders can lead the COVID recovery for small businesses – with an infusion of common equity
Community Finance | January 12, 2021
Looking Ahead to 2021
Looking Ahead to 2021 | January 7, 2021
Here are 10 ways investors are riding the sustainability wave into 2021
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 7 – The table was set with last year’s flows of capital into sustainable funds, renewable energy ‘SPACs,’ community development financial …
Call Recording | January 6, 2021
The Call: What Agents of Impact are expecting in 2021 (replay)
ImpactAlpha, January 6 — A few of the keywords thrown around on last month’s Agents of Impact Call No. 26: accountability, electrification, institutional, …
ESG | December 18, 2020
Looking Ahead: Investors, asset managers and, yes, corporations, set their sights on impact outcomes in 2021
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 18 – The COVID-19 pandemic revealed global financial systems as one disruption away from disaster. If the markets’ legacies of shareholder …
Climate and Clean Tech | December 17, 2020
Looking Ahead: With alarm bells ringing, investors step up for dramatic climate action in 2021 – or else
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 17 – The COVID pandemic was just a warm-up for the coming catastrophe: climate change. As wrenching as was this year’s …
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Looking Ahead to 2021 | December 16, 2020
Looking ahead: Centering Blackness in the U.S. economic recovery and reconstruction in 2021
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 16 – The period after the Civil War was a time of great ferment, division – and systemic change. Today’s confluence …
Catalytic Capital | December 15, 2020
Looking ahead: Catalytic investors sharpen their tools for deep impact in 2021
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – Catalytic capital is always ‘impact on.’ That intention has rarely been more important than this year, when investors able …
Photo credit: Horn Products Uganda
Frontier & Growth Markets | December 14, 2020
Looking ahead: Helping small businesses in emerging markets survive and thrive in 2021
ImpactAlpha, December 14 – The stabilization and revival of the micro, small and medium-sized businesses sector has been the emerging markets story of …
Climate Finance
Photo credit: Daystar Power
Africa | January 14, 2021
Daystar Power raises $38 million to expand commercial solar power in West Africa
ImpactAlpha, January 14 – Mauritius-based Daystar Power installs and manages commercial and industrial solar installations in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire. The …
Conservation | January 14, 2021
Coral Vita secures $2 million to help corals adapt to climate change
ImpactAlpha, January 14 – Healthy coral reefs foster biodiversity and provide food, income and protection for more than 500 million people. But pollution and …
Climate Finance | January 13, 2021
Jigar Shah: Deployment, deployment, deployment are keywords for sustainable infrastructure in 2021 (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, Jan 13 – First came solar and wind energy. Then batteries and storage. Now, a raft of better, cheaper and more sustainable …
Clean Energy | January 13, 2021
Electric fleet company Proterra to go public through merger with ArcLight SPAC
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 13 – Burlingame, Calif. electric bus maker Proterra announced a merger with ArcLight Clean Transition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition …
Climate Finance | January 13, 2021
What the U.S. return to the Paris Agreement means for investors
After years of signaling its intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement to fight climate change, the United States made the decision official …
Climate and Clean Tech | January 11, 2021
SilviaTerra raises $4.4 million to build a carbon marketplace from forestlands
ImpactAlpha, January 11 — San Francisco-based SilviaTerra started in 2010 to build a detailed forestland map of the U.S. to promote better forest …
Conservation | January 5, 2021
What if they threw an Arctic oil auction and no one came?
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 5 – The Trump administration tomorrow will unseal bids for drilling rights on more than a million acres of pristine land …
Clean Energy | January 4, 2021
The surprising climate carveouts in the U.S. spending package
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 4 – President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to ramp up the U.S. response to climate change. The massive spending and stimulus …
Photo credit: Aqgromalin
Agrifood Tech | January 4, 2021
Indian agrifood tech startups raise rounds to get ready for 2021
ImpactAlpha, January 4 – Three early-stage Indian startups covering the spectrum of emerging agrifood technologies closed out funding rounds ahead of 2021. Gramophone, …
Clean Energy | December 21, 2020
The Renewables Infrastructure Group secures £500 million ESG-linked line of credit
ImpactAlpha, December 21 – The Renewables Infrastructure Group has secured a £500 million ($663 million) line of credit from a consortium of global …
Africa | December 21, 2020
Financing for climate adaptation can drive Africa’s economic development and climate goals
Power is critical to Africa’s development. At least 600 million people across the continent that don’t have access to affordable and reliable power. …
Clean Energy | December 18, 2020
Institutional Shift: The Great Burp Forward and other trends to watch in 2021
ImpactAlpha, December 18, 2020 – As it’s fit and proper to take stock of last year’s predictions before venturing new ones, we looked back …
Catalytic Capital
Photo credit: Medical Credit Fund
Africa | January 13, 2021
Medical Credit Fund blends $19.2 million to finance Africa’s frontline health clinics
ImpactAlpha, January 13 – Small, privately-run clinics are often the only providers of essential health services in remote and low-income parts of Africa. …
NAHUALA, GUATEMALA | Photo credit: Sarine Arslanian
Catalytic Capital | January 11, 2021
How to invest in an inclusive business recovery in Latin America
Small and growing businesses are significant actors in economic production, employment, and growth in Latin America and the Caribbean. According to the OECD, …
Bill Gates illustration | by Wahyu97
Catalytic Capital | December 23, 2020
Bill Gates says the world (sorta) came together to fight COVID-19. Next up: Climate
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 23 – “This is like a world war, except in this case, we’re all on the same side,” Gates wrote last spring, …
Asia | December 23, 2020
Northern Arc Capital scores debt financing to serve India’s underbanked
ImpactAlpha, December 23 — Northern Arc Capital, an East India-based non-banking finance company that provides access to debt for underbanked individual borrowers and …
Catalytic Capital | December 15, 2020
Looking ahead: Catalytic investors sharpen their tools for deep impact in 2021
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – Catalytic capital is always ‘impact on.’ That intention has rarely been more important than this year, when investors able …
Photo credit: Nacro
Catalytic Capital | December 14, 2020
MacArthur Foundation, Big Society anchor UK’s Women in Safe Homes fund
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 14 – Through a lease-to-own model, Women in Safe Homes fund, a residential property investment fund, will acquire properties and lease them …
Catalytic Capital | December 2, 2020
Texas foundations sets up fund for COVID-impacted health clinics
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 3 – Health facilities in many parts of the U.S., and particularly low-income and rural areas, are buckling under the weight of …
Catalytic Capital | December 1, 2020
Refugee investments provide blueprints for Biden’s reset on immigration
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 1 – As the Trump administration was building walls and new restrictions, impact investors and innovative humanitarians were creating a marketplace of …
Africa | November 24, 2020
CrossBoundary Energy’s fund exit is a proof point for Africa’s commercial solar market – and catalytic capital
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 24 – An African solar energy fund that only five years ago appeared too risky even for impact investors has delivered, …
Africa | November 23, 2020
An ‘impact-first’ approach to investing for climate justice in rural communities
If you are an investor interested in learning more about how to invest in climate justice solutions, join us on December 3rd for …
Photo credit: Cergios
Catalytic Capital | November 10, 2020
Gates Foundation’s role in Pfizer’s promising COVID vaccine is part of a strategy, not a conspiracy
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 10 – The Gates Foundation’s $55 million equity investment last fall into a German biotech company could have big payoff: an …
Catalytic Capital | October 29, 2020
How a portfolio of inclusive businesses prioritized the poor through COVID
The spread of COVID-19 and the economic devastation in its wake have shown just how necessary for-profit approaches are to serving the poor …
Agents of Impact
Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact.