The Brief

The Brief: Catalytic capital for India’s climate transition

Jessica Pothering · April 14, 2025
Varaha biochar project | Credit: Varaha

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

  • Catalytic capital for India’s climate transition
  • Bezos backs a Tesla rival
  • LGBTQ+ youth fear loss of online havens 
  • Using rewards to reduce chronic absenteeism

Catalytic investors look to India’s huge market for outsized climate impact. When British International Investment set up the solar developer Ayana back in 2018, there was little to no investor interest in renewable energy projects to serve the rural and low-income populations in India. The UK’s development finance institution typically would have made a minority investment into an independent company. “We couldn’t find an aligned partner with whom we could agree on valuations or on our mission of getting in the low-income states,” recalls BII’s Srini Nagarajan. Seven years later, India’s solar sector is among the most active in the world, adding 30 gigawatts of power last year. That’s more than double the capacity added in 2023, thanks to generous public and private financing, including from large private equity firms and global pension funds. Now, catalytic investors are looking for the new leading edge of climate opportunities in India – sectors like transmission infrastructure, electric vehicle charging, and climate-smart agriculture, where there aren’t yet sufficient flows of commercial and institutional capital. “Our job is to be catalytic,” Nagarajan tells ImpactAlpha, “kindling [these sectors] in anticipation of private equity and private investors coming in.”

  • Family finance. Family offices and philanthropic foundations have joined BII and other development finance institutions to provide market-making capital for India’s climate transition. “We have a lot of system thinkers and system investors for whom this is really about catalyzing others to come in,” says Anna-Liisa Goggs of the nonprofit CREO, a climate investing network for more than 200 wealthy individuals and families. India, the world’s most populous country, fifth-largest economy and third-largest carbon emitter, is ground zero for that work. One CREO member, Encourage Capital, set up a fund in 2019 to help India’s small businesses transition to solar energy by backing financial institutions building solar lending products and portfolios. The firm’s second fund aims to replicate the model for green lending in agriculture, mobility and insurance. Another of CREO’s members, a European family, invested in a growth-equity fund for companies focused on industrial decarbonization.
  • Local leaders. A new CREO publication helps network members identify underinvested climate opportunities in India. India’s domestic investors are “spurred on by economic growth imperatives as much as environmental ones,” the CREO report suggests. The Khemka family, which made its wealth in mining and commodities trading, is investing in solar energy and EV infrastructure through its business, SUN Group. The family is trying to prove that such infrastructure can be developed cost-effectively through strategic partnerships rather than subsidies. Theia Ventures in Bangalore was seeded with family money to invest in climate tech sectors that are not yet on many investors’ radar, like cooling systems to help communities cope with India’s intensifying heat. Theia’s Priya Shah says local investors “are excited to have a window into technologies that can be applied to and utilized by their industries.”
  • Keep reading, “Catalytic investors look to India’s huge market for outsized climate impact,” by Jessica Pothering on ImpactAlpha. 

Dealflow: Electric Vehicles

Bezos-backed Slate Auto amasses a warchest to take on Tesla. Move over, Elon Musk? Jeff Bezos is backing a Tesla competitor. The Troy, Mich.-based startup, called Slate Auto, is quietly building a small electric pickup truck, to be priced around $25,000, TechCrunch reported. The stealthy EV startup raised an initial $111 million in 2023, and has more recently closed a Series B round. In addition to Bezos, backers include Mark Walter of Guggenheim Partners and Thomas Tull, who also invested in Re:Build Manufacturing, which spun out Slate Auto. Bezos’ other company, Amazon, also owns a major stake in EV maker Rivian, which has a contract to provide 100,000 electric delivery vans to the online retailer by 2030.

  • Sweet spot. Sales of electric cars and light vehicles in the US grew by 11% in this year’s first quarter, even as overall auto sales were flat. Tesla sales dropped by 9% in the US and 13% globally, as Musk’s government cost-cutting efforts invited widespread protests. GM and Ford have seen brisk sales for Ford’s $40,000 Mustang Mach-E and GM’s Chevy Equinox EV, which sells for around $35,000 and has a range of more than 300 miles. Slate Auto expects to begin production in Indiana by 2027 for its electric pickup. It’s aiming for a low-cost sweet spot in the market: Tesla last week launched a less expensive Cybertruck – with a sticker price of $70,000.
  • Take a spin. 

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • Campbell Global, an investment manager specializing in timberland and natural resource investments, raised $1.5 billion for its second forest and climate solutions fund. The firm is owned by JPMorgan’s asset management group. (ESG Today)
  • Living Ink Technologies snagged $3 million from Savia Ventures, Evergreen Climate Innovations, Fashion for Good and other backers to transform algae waste into zero-carbon materials for packaging, footwear and apparel. (Savia Ventures)
  • Schwarzwald Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in fintech and creative economy startups, made a strategic investment in Oregon-based Vesta to help online creators manage fraud in digital transactions. (Schwarzwald Capital)

Signals: Healthy Youth

LGBTQ+ youth say social media can be safer than IRL, but see danger ahead. Social media companies including Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter), have rolled back rules protecting LGBTQ+ users from hate speech. The moves align with the Trump administration’s multi-pronged efforts to redefine gender. Many LGBTQ+ youth are concerned that the backlash against LGBTQ+ online communities will eliminate spaces where they’ve felt safe, or at least safer, in expressing their identities and connecting with peers. Three-quarters of LGBTQ+ youth aged 15 to 24 have serious concerns about federal and state government restrictions, according to a new study, “Without it I wouldn’t be here today.” The survey of more than 1,200 young people, half of whom identified as people of color, was conducted for San Francisco-based impact investor Hopelab and Born This Way Foundation, the nonprofit founded by the performer Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Bissett Germanotta. (Disclosure: Hopelab supports ImpactAlpha’s coverage of Healthy Youth.) 

  • Mental health support. Contrary to what their parents, teachers and others might think about social media, nearly half of respondents said they feel very safe in online spaces, compared to just 9% who feel “very safe” in person. The study comes amid a growing mental health and wellbeing crisis. More than 60% of participants in the study have screened positive for generalized anxiety disorder, and more than half for depression. The Born This Way Foundation offers free mental health training to help young people support their peers. Its youth-led Kindness in Community Fund has provided $5 million to 260 nonprofits to expand access to free mental health resources for young people globally.
  • Keep reading, “LGBTQ+ youth say social media can be safer than IRL, but see danger ahead,” by Roodgally Senatus.  

Hopelab backs Knowlej to tackle chronic absenteeism via personalized learning and engagement. A former school principal in Compton, near Los Angeles, Amen Rahh launched Knowlej last year to reward students with gift cards and sneakers for regularly showing up to school. San Francisco-based Hopelab sees the company’s approach as an alternative to punishments such as detention and suspension. “I saw firsthand that many students, especially those from underserved communities, weren’t disengaged because they lacked intelligence or potential,” Rahh said. “They were disengaged because they didn’t see the relevance of school in their lives.” Knowlej’s AI-powered software rewards students each time they complete a task. The platform, used by 15,000 students, offers financial literacy tools, counseling and mental health services for students, as well as resources for parents.

  • Youth mental health. Hopelab Ventures invests in solutions for mental health and wellbeing for adolescents and young adults aged 10 to 25, with a focus on low-income and underserved US communities. Its portfolio includes Miami-based Brave, which provides virtual behavioral health care for low-income teenagers; Boston-based Mightier, which offers gamified and evidence-based mental healthcare or youth eligible for Medicaid; and New York’s Lex, which offers a safe online community for LGBTQ+ youth to address mental health, loneliness and to make connections.
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Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:

Fair Trade USA appoints Felipe Arango as CEO… Roc USA adds Alejandro Salcido, previously with housing nonprofit Abode, as senior director of portfolio and asset management… Prosperity Strategies’ Randall Kempner launches the Climate Philanthropy Catalyst Coalition, made up of philanthropic foundations and advisory firms, in a bid to triple the amount of US climate philanthropy by 2028… Pathstone seeks an integration and optimization manager.

NESsT is recruiting a development director in Florida… Value for Women has an opening for a senior associate and project lead in London… EY is hiring a sustainable finance manager in Belgium… Self-Help is on the hunt for a climate capital director in Durham, NC… The NYC Department of Environmental Protection seeks a carbon analyst… NY Green Bank is searching for a vice president of investment and portfolio management… Big Issue Invest is looking for a London-based investment manager for its growth impact fund.

Environmental Defense Fund is looking for a sustainable finance engagement manager in New York or Boston… ResponsAbility is recruiting a senior investment officer to focus on climate finance in Latin America… US Bancorp Impact Finance seeks a business development officer focusing on renewable energy tax credit syndications… Sorenson Impact Institute is hosting, “Democratizing American prosperity: Unlocking economic opportunity for all,” with Jim Sorenson, Impact Evaluation Lab’s Terrence Keeley and Anthony Bugg-Levine, Tuesday, April 22.

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

Thank you for your impact!

– April 14, 2025