Greetings Agents of Impact!
In today’s Brief:
- Catalytic and nature-based funds in Brazil get ready for COP30
- Flexible capital for natural fiber and textile producers
- Bringing South Africa’s waste collectors into the formal economy
- Investing to address inequities of aging
Featured: Impact in Latin America
Teeing up COP30 in Brazil with inclusive, nature-based, Indigenous-led and catalytic climate capital. All eyes are on Brazil for climate action with the approach of the COP30 summit in the city of Belém in November. A raft of impact fund managers are designing climate financing for inclusivity and scale in the Amazonian region. Estímulo, a Brazilian impact fund manager, is coming to market next month with a blended-finance debt fund that aims to raise 60 million reais ($11 million) for small businesses in the Amazon. Sao Paulo-based fund manager KPTL is in the market with a blended-finance fund, anchored by the Inter-American Development Bank’s IDB Invest program, the Green Climate Fund and family offices, to encourage private investors to back restoration projects in seven Amazonian countries. Even Brazil’s state-owned oil and gas company, Petrobras, is leaning into impact finance with its impact-linked Petrobras Bioeconomy Fund. The fund, launched in February with sustainable investment management firm Régia Capital, is directing 100 million reais ($18 million) to companies and projects protecting and regenerating Brazil’s natural ecosystems. With biodiversity and nature conservation on the agenda at COP30, “impact and climate finance players in the country are scrambling to match investors with nature-based project developers and entrepreneurs,” reports ImpactAlpha contributor Gilberto Lima from this month’s Converge Capital Conference in São Paulo.
- Supply and demand. Conference host Converge Capital, a Sao Paulo-based asset management firm, and Capital for Climate, a climate investment platform, have ambitions to mobilize $5 billion for nature-based projects in Brazil in time for COP30 (Capital for Climate says its nature-based solutions platform “stimulated” over $300 million in investment last year). Supporting their expansive fundraising target is a Deloitte survey identifying nearly two dozen nature-based project developers in Brazil that are trying to raise a total of $5.5 billion. On the supply side, about 16 investors surveyed have pledged $3.8 billion for nature-based solutions in the country through 2027. There isn’t a scarcity of investment opportunities, lack of pipeline maturity or industry sophistication, observes Cristina Penteado of Blue Like an Orange. To mobilize private capital, she says, “three areas need to be addressed: scale, liquidity and the risk-return equation.”
- Indigenous-led. Local fund managers are seeking to reset the norms of finance in the Amazon, where much of the impact opportunity, both social and environmental, runs through Indigenous communities and lands. A blended-finance fund from first-time manager Aliados in Colombia and Ecuador was co-designed with Indigenous entrepreneurs to match them with appropriate forms of working capital, results-based financing and technical assistance. Amazonia Ventures finances early-stage ventures aligned with the ecological and livelihood priorities of Indigenous communities in the Amazon. IMPAQTO Capital in Ecuador invests in companies rooted in the Andean Amazon and which partner with Indigenous producers and cooperatives. “This region holds extraordinary potential: strong Indigenous governance, rich biodiversity and fast-emerging regenerative markets,” Michelle Arévalo of IMPAQTO Capital told ImpactAlpha’s Erik Stein at the CLIIQ impact summit in Quito. “We’re building the missing financing infrastructure for this region.” Read Erik’s dispatch.
- Nature-based. Blended finance is key to lowering the risk and mobilizing private investment in nature-based and bioeconomy projects in the Amazon, “where the project pipeline is less mature,” said KPTL’s Danilo Zelinski. The Brazilian government’s Eco Invest program seeks to mobilize billions of dollars in nature-based financing by hosting auctions for low-cost capital from its National Fund for Climate Change. Banks can bid at the auctions with commitments to leverage the capital they “win” to raise funding from domestic and international private investors. The first auction, held last year, put up nearly seven billion reais ($1.3 billion) in public funding with a goal of leveraging nearly six times that amount in private investment. The second auction will focus on mobilizing capital to restore degraded land in five ecological zones. As such nature-based financing initiatives reach milestones, “it’s important to bring data and case studies with relevant information” to mobilize more capital, Capital for Climate’s Tony Lent said.
- Keep reading, “Teeing up COP30 in Brazil with inclusive, nature-based and catalytic climate capital,” by Gilberto Lima. ImpactAlpha Latin America, our monthly newsletter of impact investing in the region, drops later this morning. Opt-in to receive it at no additional cost.
Dealflow: Catalytic Capital
Nathan Cummings Foundation backs Fibers Fund to support textile entrepreneurs. The Fibers Fund, a Washington, DC-based fund that supports small natural fiber and textile producers, has been selected for a program-related investment of up to $500,000 from the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Fibers Fund is among a growing number of funds applying climate justice and racial equity lenses to overlooked parts of the economy, such as farmed fiber crops like hemp, wool, flax and cotton. The PRI will enable grants, forgivable loans, low-interest debt and other flexible capital to underserved fiber entrepreneurs, and includes a matching challenge to attract additional investors. “Access to patient and flexible capital can unlock so many opportunities for these businesses to build community wealth, advance regenerative agriculture, and create a more resilient US fiber and textile supply network,” said Fiber Fund’s Sarah Kelley.
- Environmental equity. Fibers Fund has backed enterprises including Seed2Shirt, a Black woman-owned sustainable apparel manufacturing company, and Acadian Brown Cotton, which preserves heirloom cotton seeds and promotes regenerative agriculture in Louisiana. The fund was incubated by Petaluma, Calif.-based Fibershed and Santa Barbara-based Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders. It transitioned to independent operations last year and is administered through Broadstreet Impact and Impact Charitable.
- Patient capital. The investment was part of Nathan Cummings’ first batch of PRIs since the foundation committed last year to allocating 5% of its endowment, or $22 million, to low-cost loans and flexible investments in support of its mission of advancing racial, economic and environmental justice. “Using flexible capital and creative solutions, we can repair past harms and invest in the future by supporting these entrepreneurs who are building a more equitable and regenerative domestic economy,” said the foundation’s Bob Bancroft.
- Gift this article.
With mobile app and virtual currency, Regenize incentivizes waste recycling in South Africa. Nearly 90,000 waste collectors in South Africa collect up to 90% of all recycled paper and packaging in the country. Regenize works with these informal waste collectors to offer recycling services for South African households while integrating the waste collectors into the formal economy. The company has raised an undisclosed amount of financing from South African early-stage investor E Squared Investments, which made its first “venture philanthropy: transaction. Venture philanthropy includes recoverable grants, equity and blended finance as well as operational support. “We view our capital as catalytic – enabling social enterprises to thrive and creating an ecosystem where innovation and impact can flourish through venture philanthropy,” said E Square’s Thato Ntseare. Keep reading.
Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:
- Blue Earth Capital led a $23 million Series B funding round for Zeelo, a London-based startup that optimizes bus and shuttle routes for employers and schools. Zeelo is looking to expand to the US. (Zeelo)
- Boston Ujima Project, through its democratically-governed Ujima Fund, will make a $300,000 investment in the Boston Neighborhood Community Land Trust for community-led affordable housing. (Boston Ujima Project)
- Brazil’s Mágio raised $1.6 million from impact investment firm CBKK to expand its range of Amazonian chocolate products and develop blockchain-based tracing for its supply chain. (Startups Latam)
- Future Cow, also in Brazil, secured early funding for its animal-free milk, which is made through precision fermentation. (Startupi)
- A to Z Impact invested in Swahili Honey, an international supplier of honey and beeswax sourced from small-scale beekeepers in Tanzania. (A to Z Impact)
Signals: Valuing Aging
A market hiding in plain sight: The case for aging-lens investing. Investors are starting to pay attention to the fastest-growing demographic in the US: older Americans. “Older adults are not a niche for impact investors. They are the future,” write Brendan Ahern and Xenia Viragh of SCAN Foundation in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. SCAN is taking a “population-lens” approach to investing that centers the unique challenges and strengths of older adults. Primetime Partners and AgeTech Capital are financing tech solutions to assist aging populations. Investors at ResilienceVC and Impact Engine are targeting investments to address the financial resilience of older Americans. And Next50 Foundation is aligning its endowment portfolio to value and support aging (listen to ImpactAlpha’s podcast conversation with Next50’s Peter Kaldes). SCAN is focused on the structural disparities – especially around race, income and health – that continue to define the lived experience of many older adults. For instance, Black and Latino seniors face significantly higher rates of chronic illness and report frequent discrimination in healthcare settings. “Lower-income older adults are more likely to die younger and to have disabilities,” write Ahern and Viragh, calling for more intentional investment strategies to address aging and the inequities that come with it.
- Addressing bias. SCAN uses an aging lens to inform its investment decision making, targeting questions such as, “Does the solution address the root causes of aging poorly?” and “Would the investment encourage others to invest in similar models?” Take Dandelion Health, which is working to reduce algorithmic bias in healthcare. With support from SCAN, Dandelion is embedding social determinants of health like income, race and geography into their healthcare audit service to ensure marginalized older populations benefit from fairer care systems. Ahern and Viragh argue that “by applying an aging lens, investors can uncover overlooked market gaps, catalyze scalable innovation, and promote equity and resilience in aging.”
- Keep reading, “A market hiding in plain sight: The case for aging-lens investing,” by SCAN Foundation’s Brendan Ahern and Xenia Viragh. Next50 Foundation supports ImpactAlpha’s Valuing Aging coverage.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
The Indigenous Prosperity Foundation welcomes Alejandra Metallic-Janvier, a former program lead at Indigenous Clean Energy, as a program officer… Baani Kaur Sethi steps down as marketing and development coordinator of the Boston Impact Initiative… Blueridge Climate Ventures welcomes Frances Gurzenda, a Duke University MBA candidate, as a summer intern.
Supply Chain Capital adds Alexa Iadarola, an MBA candidate at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, as a summer fellow… Corwin Thomas joins Capitalize Good as its partnerships and field building director… Social Finance seeks an associate for impact first investments in Boston… ImpactAssets is looking for a senior associate of portfolio management and monitoring and a managing director of business development… Nuveen has an opening for a responsible investing data and technology director in Chicago and New York.
SOLV Energy is on the hunt for an ESG and impact analyst in San Diego… AlphaMundi Group, Latimpacto, Sonen Capital are co-hosting a virtual conversation on opportunities for impact investing in Latin America, today at 9am ET… Impact Capital Managers is looking to survey portfolio companies of managers in its member network for an impact measurement and management research project.
👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.
Thank you for your impact!
– June 25, 2025
