The Brief: Cutting neighborhood residents into commercial real estate investments

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

• Cutting neighborhood residents into real estate investments (podcast)
• Restructuring agricultural supply chains 
• Investors warm to Africa’s creative economy 

Featured: Ownership Economy

Locals get the same terms as big investors in Chicago TREND’s neighborhood shopping centers (podcast). Investments in commercial real estate assets, such as office buildings, industrial warehouses and retail shopping centers, have long been the domain of wealthy, accredited investors. Shutting out small investors means local residents rarely get a stake in the uplift of their neighborhoods. With “community equity,” Lyneir Richardson’s Chicago TREND is starting to dismantle that long-standing barrier. Neighborhood residents can invest, and earn real returns, in TREND’s local shopping centers on the same terms negotiated by institutional investors. “Nobody ever invites the church member, the charter school parent, or the guy who used to do crime in the neighborhood that turned his life around, to have an ownership stake in making the neighborhood better,” Richardson tells David Bank on the latest episode of ImpactAlpha’s Agents of Impact podcast. “How do you democratize ownership? My belief is that you just gotta make it work for more people.”

• Matching funds. Richardson is in the final stretch of fundraising for his first commercial real estate fund, which is targeting a $15 million final close this year. Chicago TREND has purchased seven neighborhood shopping centers, with an eighth deal close to completion. The strip malls house health services like urgent care, eye doctors and physical therapists, as well as food spots and nail salons. Two of the centers have grocery stores. He recruits residents at meetings in church basements, community halls, libraries and even barber shops.The 460 low- and moderate-income neighborhood investors in Chicago, Baltimore and other US cities have made an average investment of about $2,000, on the same terms as bigger investors. Most of them are people of color, and nearly half are women. Their capital represents as little as 5% and as much as 49% in each project. When TREND launches its next campaign to raise capital from unaccredited neighborhood investors, some residents will receive matching funds to amplify their investments through a grant from one of TREND’s LPs.
  
• Buying back the block. TREND is part of a group of local strategies combating speculative actors who are displacing longtime residents by raising rents and pushing up property values. In Kansas City, Mo., LocalCode is buying blocks of mixed-use commercial real estate developments to offer ownership to residents. In East Portland, a community investment trust allows residents to invest as little as $10 a month for an ownership stake in neighborhood shopping malls. In Philadelphia, Kensington Corridor Trust has designed a community stewardship trust that will allow residents to buy a stake in the apartments and commercial properties in its portfolio. With the Brookings Institution, Richardson has produced “A playbook to buy back the block.” “That’s how we’re going to democratize ownership,” he says. “You democratize information. You make the education and the resources available to people.”
  
• Keep reading and listen to, “Locals get the same terms as big investors in Chicago TREND’s neighborhood shopping centers.” Get the podcast in your feed by subscribing on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
  

Dealflow: Food Systems

Wikifarmer raises $7.7 million to digitize agricultural supply chains. Cross-border trade in the food and agriculture sector is still largely reliant on old methods – phone calls and brokers rather than predictive software and logistics. “The farmers who feed the world still capture the smallest share of the value they create,” said Illias Sousis of Wikifarmer. The Athens, Greece-based startup aims to give farmers greater leverage by eliminating some of the middlemen between them and buyers. “We are not just matching buyers and sellers – we are using AI to restructure the supply chain and unlock value that is currently lost to inefficiency, opacity and outdated processes,” said Sousis. The startup raised $7.7 million in a funding round led by Luxembourg-based Brighteye Ventures and Greek lender Piraeus Bank. Climate tech investors Satgana and Climate Club, as well as Point Nine Capital, Metavallon VC and Inveready, participated.

• Farmer’s almanac. Sousis and his business partner Petros Sagos founded Wikifarmer in 2017 as a free agricultural knowledge library available in more than a dozen languages. “Over time, the ones who trusted us started asking: ‘Can you also help me sell?’” said Sousis. The platform facilitates transactions in 45 countries, covering olive oil, dried fruits, nuts, table olives, spices and fresh and frozen produce. Wikifarmer and Piraeus Bank are launching FarmClick, an online marketplace for seeds, fertilizers, crop protection and equipment in Greece. 
  
• Check it out. 

Elea & Lili raises $2.9 million to develop plastic-free materials for hygiene and agriculture. Made with plastic and other non-biodegradable materials, disposable diapers are a problematic stream of waste. Finnish startup Elea & Lili’s absorbent, cellulose-based polymers could be an alternative to materials used in diapers and other hygiene products. “We are not creating a niche eco-product. We are replacing a global material category,” said Elea & Lili’s Tatu Miettinen. The company also envisions the use of its polymers in the agriculture sector. “In both markets, absorbent materials are mission-critical components – and today they are fossil-based,” Miettinen said. The startup’s €2.5 million ($2.9 million) seed round was led by Helsinki-based Lifeline Ventures. Finnish family office Ikorni Invest and industrial holding company Baltiska Handels Sverige also participated in the round.

• Impact incubation. Elea & Lili is a spin-out from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, which helps high-impact deep tech companies transition out of the lab. Six VTT spin-offs have raised a combined €445 million ($512 million) in equity in the last year, including insect farming startup Volare, and Onego Bio, which is making an alternative to egg protein using precision fermentation. 

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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

• India-based lender BlackSoil Capital raised two billion Indian rupees ($22 million) in debt from Impact Fund Denmark to offer green loans to micro- and small businesses in the country. (Impact Fund Denmark)
  
• BNP Paribas Asset Management, British International Investment and Shell Foundation invested $53 million in Sistema.bio’s financing vehicle FarmCarbon, which will help farmers acquire small-scale biodigesters for managing farm waste and producing clean energy. (Sistema.bio)
  
• KKR invested $310 million for e-buses in India, taking a majority stake in electric public-transport provider Allfleet and minority stake in electric vehicle maker PMI Electro. (KKR)

• Commercial and industrial solar provider Starsight Energy Africa Group secured $15 million from British International Investment to expand its services in Nigeria and Ghana. (Starsight Energy Africa)

Signals: Creative Economy

Now playing in Africa: Home-grown film productions that shift the narrative. In South Africa, a Trevor Noah-backed film project explores the unlikely alliance of the daughter of a water tycoon and a gangster, who lead a rebellion. In Sierra Leone, British rapper and film director Rapman is co-writing and directing a film about a young soldier thrust into power after a bloodless coup. Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani and Khaled Alwaleed, his partner on the Cannes favorite, “Goodbye Julia,” are co-writing a drama that takes place in 1983 Sudan as Islamic law takes hold. The projects are among the first nine selected by Next Narrative Africa, a $40 million mission-driven film fund launched two years ago by Akunna Cook, a former US State Department official. “By pairing world-class storytelling with key financing and data validation, we are shaping the African narrative, positioning it for global investment, and sustaining thousands of jobs and economic development across Africa,” said Cook. 

• Creative assets. Next Narrative Africa is one of several funds empowering local artists and promoting local ownership of creative works. Africa’s film sector employs some five million people, contributing around $5 billion to the continent’s GDP. The continent’s investors are catching up with Afrifa’s cultural cache. In Kenya, Heva Fund is pioneering ways to finance artists and creative businesses. The fund lends against the value of an artist’s intellectual property or revenues generated from copyrights and royalties. Africa’s Export-Import Bank launched a $1 billion fund last year to promote the production and global distribution of high-quality African films and television shows. 

• New majority. Next Narrative’s first projects were selected from more than 2,000 submissions from 80 countries. The fund is looking to finance “high concept” films and media with global appeal. At least half of the production must be based in Africa. “This is the time to expand the thinking about what the global entertainment industry is going to look like, and who the players are going to be,” Cook told The Hollywood Reporter. “We intend to shape how Africa, and how people of African descent, are going to play in the industry and reshape it for the better.”

• Keep reading, “Now playing in Africa: Home-grown film productions that shift the narrative,” by Lucy Ngige.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Anup Jagwani, formerly with the International Finance Corp., is named World Bank Group’s farming and agribusiness director… Arbonics is recruiting a nature-based carbon projects developer… Goldman Sachs has an opening for a clean energy and equity research associate… Rev Renewables seeks a strategy manager in New York.

Cypress Creek Renewables seeks a senior analyst for its data center and utility strategy… Arnold Ventures is recruiting a criminal justice innovation fellow in Houston… Pyramidia Ventures has openings for a junior venture builder and a venture scale lead in Nairobi… ClimateShot Investor Coalition and FINCA Ventures are accepting applications until Friday, April 10, for their CLIC Connector program for businesses supporting sustainable agriculture and food systems. 

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

Thank you for your impact!

– March 19, 2026