The Brief

The Brief: Candide’s Morgan Simon on pointing private assets toward shared prosperity

ImpactAlpha · July 21, 2025

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

  • Candide’s Morgan Simon on impact investors and the social contract
  • Financing heat pumps in Europe
  • Accelerating community solar in the US
  • Investing in ethical supply chains

Federal funding cuts have left gaps in the ‘care economy’ – and a pipeline of opportunities for private investors. Funding gaps left by the Trump administration’s budget cuts make more visible the spaces where private markets can do better at creating systemic equity and shared prosperity, says Candide Group’s Morgan Simon. In a guest post on ImpactAlpha, Simon points to investable strategies such as worker ownership, healthy food access, affordable housing and clean energy that demonstrate how mission-driven capital can plug government deficits to build a more equitable economy. Candide’s portfolio companies are already doing the work. Everytable, for example, combines affordable healthy food with franchise ownership in underserved communities (see, “Bringing healthy fare to food deserts via franchises”). “As SNAP and Medicaid benefits get cut, private organizations like social enterprises and nonprofits that work to provide communities healthy food access are increasingly important,” says Everytable’s Sam Polk. Candide Group, which has made more than 150 investments in funds and companies, is “thinking more granularly about how our investments can help fill gaps that the Trump administration is leaving,” Simon says. “We can use this time to get our private assets working more proactively towards the future we want to see.” 

  • Project pipeline. The ramp up to deploy the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund helped educate and prepare impact investors for projects bringing the asset-building power of renewable energy to low-income communities. Even with the federal funds in jeopardy, impact investors can step up and fill capital gaps, Simon says (see, “Green lenders are all dressed up and ready to roll”). Solar Holler delivers cheap, clean power to Appalachian schools, churches and nonprofits. “Every panel we put up means more money for teachers and supplies,” says Solar Holler’s Dan Conant. “The electricity generated by the solar is 20% cheaper than what the out-of-state monopoly utility is charging.” Apis & Heritage builds equity for low-income workers while giving business owners a fair deal (see, “Apis & Heritage helps business owners ‘exit responsibly’ – to their employees). “This creates a path toward higher wages and improved working conditions in the short term, and a long-term path to retirement security,” Simon writes.
  • Social contract. Simon, author of “Real impact: The new economics of social change,” makes her position clear. If President Lyndon Johnson was known for the War on Poverty, “Donald Trump will be known for waging the War on Poor People,” she writes. “We’ve seen not just a deluge of random bad policies, but an agenda seeking a fundamental reorganization of the agreements we keep as tax-paying Americans with each other and our government.” That social contract reflects an understanding that each individual member of society is better off when all of us are healthy, housed and fed, and know that our children have safe learning environments. The private sector is the third party in the social contract. “Private markets are increasingly expected to regulate themselves, with investors voting with their dollars towards the world they want to see,” Simon says, urging investors to enhance “our offensive ability to build a different economy that doesn’t require as much clean-up from, at best, an unresponsive government, and, at its worst, an antagonistic government.”

Dealflow: Low-Carbon Transition

Germany’s Thermondo secures €50 million loan to help households adopt heat pumps. Europe’s adoption of heat pumps skyrocketed in 2022, as soaring gas prices had households and businesses seeking alternative ways to heat and cool. Demand has since slowed, with too few installers, high upfront costs and inadequate financing options. Thermondo helps homeowners avoid large upfront payments with installment-based financing plans of up to 15 years. Payments average about €300 per month and, with state subsidies, can be as low as €100 per month, the company says. Thermondo has installed more than 9,000 heat pumps (out of 50,000 total heating and cooling systems) since 2013.

  • Lending facility. Thermondo secured the debt financing from an unnamed bank. It set up a special purpose vehicle to house its installment financing business, which “minimizes financial risks and decouples them from Thermondo’s core business,” the company said. “The structure stabilizes Thermondo’s cash flow and creates a basis for efficiently scaling the installment.”
  • Policy push. The European Union’s €86.7 billion Social Climate Fund comes into effect next year to help member countries decarbonize heating and cooling systems in buildings. A Heat Pump Accelerator program will identify barriers and promising policies for heat pump deployment. For example, the EU estimates that the bloc needs 750,000 more trained heat pump installers to achieve its 2030 climate goals. Half of existing heat system installers need to be retrained.
  • Share this post. 

Kimmeridge backs 38 Degrees North to ramp up US community solar. Sausalito, Calif.-based 38 Degrees North has built a 400-megawatt portfolio of community solar projects since 2015. About $230 million in growth capital from Kimmeridge Energy and Climate Adaptive Infrastructure will help “accelerate the deployment of local clean energy projects that provide homeowners and small and medium-sized business owners with meaningful long-term savings,” at a time when data centers, AI and electrification are driving up the costs of energy, said 38 Degrees North’s Ryan Bennett, Jake Carney and Chris Bailey.

  • Low-carbon transition. The investment by New York-based Kimmeridge adds to the energy investor’s growing green portfolio. Kimmeridge is known for backing oil and gas projects. In 2022, it launched and capitalized Chestnut Carbon, which restores and manages forestland and then sells carbon offsets to companies (see, “Corporate buyers nudge voluntary carbon markets toward higher-quality projects“). Through the latest deal, 38 Degrees North will acquire Kimmeridge portfolio company US Light Energy, another community solar developer, and its 250-megawatt pipeline.
  • Gift this post.

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • GeologicAI secured $44 million for its AI-based mineral scanning and identification technology, which supports the “significant increase in the supply of critical minerals is essential for the energy transition.” Investors include Blue Earth Capital, Breakthrough Energy and mining giants BHP Ventures and Rio Tinto. (GeologicAI)
  • The Gates Foundation invested in Argentina-based Puna Bio, which is developing climate-resilient crop treatments using “extremophiles” – microorganisms that can survive in extreme conditions. (AFN)
  • Las Vegas-based Ultion Technologies closed a Series A investment round, backed by micro power plant developer Torus, Nevada state’s Battle Born Venture and other investors, to produce lithium iron phosphate batteries for energy storage. (Ultion Technologies)
  • Vaulted Deep inked a carbon removal offtake agreement with Microsoft to store organic waste underground, preventing carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. (Vaulted Deep)

Impact Voices: Ethical Sourcing

Strong conviction, strongly held: Investing in responsible supply chains. “Strong conviction, loosely held” has been a mantra in the technology and venture community. Be open to change when presented with new evidence, the wisdom suggests. In today’s turbulent political and economic landscape, where human rights and sustainability initiatives face unprecedented headwinds, it seems some convictions are perhaps too loosely held by impact investors, Ed Marcum of Working Capital Fund argues in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. San Francisco-based Working Capital Fund is doubling down on its mission of addressing human rights and sustainability risks in opaque global supply networks. “We believe now is the time to hold conviction more strongly than ever,” Marcum writes. Impact investors, he says, “are built to address the challenges of the moment. When you’re solving meaningful problems that require new solutions, market demand inevitably follows, even if this truth sometimes gets obscured by short-term noise.” 

  • Ethical supply chains. Investors and their portfolio companies “need to adapt tactically while holding firm strategically,” Marcum writes. Working Capital portfolio company Altana uses AI to help businesses identify high-risk suppliers, as well as manage complex tariff regimes. Prewave supports adaptation to evolving European regulations while maintaining social and environmental standards. Radical AI leverages AI to accelerate critical minerals discovery while reducing dependence on unethically sourced resources, and exemplifies how dual imperatives like national security and sustainability can align. Says Marcum, “We’re undaunted by the current sustainability headwinds and optimistic about contributing to a future world where responsible and ethical supply chains are the norm.”
  • Keep reading, “Strong conviction, strongly held: Investing in responsible supply chains,” by Working Capital Fund’s Ed Marcum.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:

Swati Mehta, previously with o3 Capital, joins LeapFrog Investments as director on the healthcare investment team… Open Road is recruiting an investment officer in Washington, DC… Capricorn is hiring an investment analyst… Inter-American Development Bank seeks a general manager for IDB Lab.

Creo is looking for an investment analyst… Impact Europe is recruiting a content and marketing operations specialist… Boston Impact Initiative is hosting an info session about the ARC Fellowship, a national program for fund leaders and capital stewards transforming capital flows in service of people and planet, Wednesday, July 23.

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

Thank you for your impact!

– July 21, 2025