Greetings Agents of Impact!
In today’s Brief:
- Protecting portfolios from bird flu
- Mental health funding partnership
- Distributed carbon capture and storage
- Data-driven insights to drive impactful policymaking
Featured: Systemic Risk
How investors can prepare for the growing risks of bird flu. Empty aisles. Carton quotas. Per-egg surcharges. The US presidential election was in part about the price of eggs – and they’ve only gone up since then. Egg prices rose nearly 14% in January, and the US Department of Agriculture forecasts they’ll rise more than 41% this year. Avian influenza A, or bird flu, is running rampant on farms in the US and beyond, wreaking havoc on food supply chains. Millions of laying hens, thousands of dairy cows and some humans have been infected. A single unlucky mutation of the virus could lead to human-to-human spread, a potential pandemic, and a systemic risk to food security and the global economy. Bird flu already presents material risks to investors’ portfolios. “Understanding the links between bird flu, intensive animal agriculture, and the associated material risks, and engaging with holdings to mitigate these, is crucial for investors seeking to protect their investment portfolios,” warns Megan Waters of the investor network FAIRR in a guest post on ImpactAlpha.
- Infecting business. Since it first hit commercial poultry facilities in 2022, the USDA has spent more than $1.7 billion combatting bird flu. That includes reimbursements to farmers who have had to cull their flocks. Such payments may not be available in low- and middle-income countries. And the payments “do not eliminate other materially relevant consequences of bird flu outbreaks and culling that can impact companies and investor portfolios,” explains Waters. Tight supply in the US has led to increased prices with “potential for supply chain disruptions and increased operating costs for farmers, retailers and restaurant chains, and other food manufacturers that rely on eggs.” Denny’s and Waffle House are among the first US restaurant chains to introduce a surcharge on eggs. Disruptions at USDA and the Centers for Disease Control in the early weeks of the Trump administration have hampered the response to the epidemic, Reuters reported. The USDA fired and then tried to rehire USDA employees responding to the outbreak. In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the department would allocate $500 million for biosecurity measures on farms, $400 million for financial relief for farmers and $100 million for vaccines and therapeutics for laying hens, as well as authorizing the import of eggs from other countries.
- Investing in resilience. To protect their portfolios, Waters says, investors should look to mitigation strategies, such as improving livestock welfare, building resilient supply chains, and diversifying into alternative protein and health technologies. The plant-based protein company Burcon NutraScience launched an alternative egg protein last year. Plant-based egg producer Eat Just, which is backed by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund and private equity manager Charlesbank Capital Partners, saw its January sales quintuple over the past 12 months. Life sciences company Labcorp has developed a test to diagnose bird flu in humans. Investors who prioritize these areas may better navigate future shocks within the agrifood sector. The Trump administration is said to be reexamining funding for a $590 million contract with Moderna for a bird flu vaccine that was issued by the Biden administration.
- Keep reading, “How investors can prepare for the growing risks of bird flu,” by Megan Waters on ImpactAlpha.
Dealflow: Healthy Youth
Mission Driven Finance extends loan to Psyched Services for school mental health services. Elevance Health Foundation announced a $150 million, five-year commitment to grantmaking, impact investing and community engagement in under-resourced communities. The foundation is the philanthropic arm of Elevance Health, formerly Anthem Blue Cross, which rebranded in 2022 as part of its shift beyond traditional health insurance. Part of the new commitment is a $10 million partnership with San Diego-based Mission Driven Finance, which will provide a $300,000 low-interest loan to Psyched Services for personalized mental health services in California schools. The loan “is crucial in advancing and expanding our mental health initiatives, which will enable us to provide critical support to underserved students, caregivers and educators throughout California,” said Psyched’s Kristyn Corley. Psyched has a team of psychologists that provide online one-on-one counseling, group therapy and specialized mental health for adolescents and the adults supporting them. Psyched serves 380 schools through partnerships with school districts in San Mateo, Palo Alto, Redwood City, Oakland and other California municipalities.
- Impact lending. Elevance Health formed the partnership with Mission Driven Finance last year to drive social impact beyond grantmaking. Through the partnership, MDF provides loans ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 at below-market interest rates. “Through impact investing, we are able to collaborate with small businesses and social enterprises such as Psyched Services to support our communities and enhance the health and wellbeing of Californians,” said Elevance Health’s Beth Andersen. Elevance Health is focused on maternal and infant health, food as medicine, behavioral health, and community health.
- Check it out.
CarbonQuest snags $20 million for its distributed carbon capture and reuse technology. The Spokane, Wash., startup captures CO2 from buildings as well as from power generation systems and delivers it to industrial users, such as concrete makers. In New York, CarbonQuest has been capturing emissions from five large residential buildings in Manhattan and trucking the carbon in liquified form to a masonry supplier in Brooklyn. “CarbonQuest brings a stellar team and a critical decarbonization solution to a wide range of industries, including utilities, manufacturing, data centers and facilities with onsite power,” said Vic Pascucci with Energy Capital Ventures, a Chicago-based investor in “green molecules.” Also participating were Riverbend Energy Group, which led the round, Aligned Climate Capital and two unnamed institutional investors. CarbonQuest says the funding will help it achieve the lowest price per ton of captured carbon and expand into additional sectors that rely on onsite power or re-use CO2 onsite.
Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:
- The nonprofit Inclusiv is providing $147 million in grants to 38 Puerto Rican cooperatives under the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator Program, part of the embattled Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. It’s the first batch of grants out of a total $651 million Inclusive plans to distribute to 108 credit unions. (Inclusiv)
- Floodbase, a New York provider of flood data and parametric insurance, secured $5 million from Ecosystem Integrity Fund and Pulse Fund. (Fintech Global)
- India-based Vidyut raised $2.5 million from Flourish Ventures, to offers battery swapping for passenger and commercial EVs. (BW Disrupt)
Signals: Policy Corner
Lafayette Square’s data tool for government leaders and investors aims to advance economic mobility. A Republican budget proposal calling for cutting taxes by $4.5 trillion and slashing federal spending by $2 trillion is sparking heated debates around which federal programs to cut. A possible area of bipartisan agreement: promoting economic mobility for hardworking Americans through ownership of homes and businesses. Legislators need detailed data at their fingertips to make the case for policies that promote housing affordability and ownership pathways, said Lafayette Square Institute’s Jack Moriarty. The Washington, DC-based nonprofit affiliate of Lafayette Square, has launched “535 Insights” to provide data-driven insights on housing and small business risks and opportunities at a state and district level. “We’ve been heartened by the level of bipartisan appetite to address economic mobility challenges, housing affordability and homeownership,” Moriarty tells ImpactAlpha. “The meetings we’ve had with congressional staff, it’s full speed ahead.” This week, Senators Angus King of Maine and Jerry Moran of Kansas, announced plans to introduce the Farmhouse-to-Workforce Housing Act to expand a grants program to support rural homeowners in building more rental housing on their land.
- Housing and wealth. The new data tool draws from public and private data sources to show, for example, that more than half of renters nationally are burdened by housing costs. Among the other insights: A typical US homeowner has 38 times the wealth of a renter. More than a quarter of residents in the US are facing eviction or foreclosure. More than half of US business owners are aged 55 and older. “Without a policy strategy to address business succession, we risk the loss of American businesses and their local jobs,” the “535 Insights” document states. With more than half of Americans aged 15 to 64 without a retirement account, it also positions employee ownership as a source of retirement wealth for US workers.
- Accelerating impact. Moriarty hopes “535 Insights” will spark conversations with congressional leaders. The tool can also help investors develop solutions for affordable housing, homeownership and employee ownership, says Antony Bugg-Levine, an advisor to Lafayette Square Institute. “It’s going to take trillions of dollars to capitalize the transition in ownership of companies whose owners are retiring and selling to workers,” Bugg-Levine says. “Given that these are highly capital-intensive solutions, they also need private investment. We also know that there needs to be conducive policies to make those opportunities available to impact investors.” In Colorado, tax credits and a cash collateral program are boosting the number of employee-owned companies (see, “Colorado is demonstrating how states can accelerate conversions to employee ownership (video)”). The cash collateral program enabled Apis & Heritage Capital Partners to finance the ownership transition of Sky Blue Builders, a Denver-based contractor and construction management firm, to its 40 employees last year.
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Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Allie Burns plans to step down as CEO of Village Capital at the end of this year. Village Capital is on the hunt for a replacement… Sonen Capital adds Judy Belk, former president and CEO of the California Wellness Foundation, and Holden Lee, former chief financial and investment officer of Tides, to its board of directors… Alliance Healthcare Foundation adds Sydney Paige Thomas of Symphonic Capital to its impact investment committee.
Radical Flexibility Fund welcomes Jorge Antonio de la Hoz Ramirez, a former director at Cube Ventures Accelerator, as a fund manager… Keith Kinch, co-founder of BlocPower, becomes interim operations director of Browning the Green Space, an inclusion-focused clean energy nonprofit… Builders Vision has an opening for a portfolio analytics vice president in Chicago… Haitian Educational Initiatives is recruiting a fundraising board member in Fairfield, Conn.
Ceres seeks a financial institution engagement director and an investor network associate… Climate Power is hiring a climate senior advisor in Washington, DC… Mission Driven Finance seeks a senior data analyst… Nuveen is looking for a quantitative ESG research vice president… Sagana has an opening for a climate consulting senior director… Wilson Sonsini is on the hunt for a head of community impact in San Francisco or Palo Alto, Calif.
Triple Jump is looking for an investment manager in Amsterdam… Impact Ag Australia seeks a business operations manager… VC Include is accepting applications from emerging venture capital and private equity managers with first-time funds for its 2025 Fellowship cohort… SJF Ventures and UpMetrics are co-hosting an event on leveraging impact reporting as a practice for adding value to portfolio companies, Wednesday, March 5 in New York.
👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.
Thank you for your impact!
– Feb. 27, 2025
