The Brief

The Brief: Iran war speeds Asia’s pivot away from oil and gas

ImpactAlpha · March 30, 2026
kitchen article shop at district Katni Madhya Pradesh in India shot captured on 1 Aug 2019

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

  • Iran war speeds Asia’s pivot away from oil and gas
  • Trustworthy AI agents
  • Workplace mental health in Europe
  • Advisors Corner: Impact by another name

A war in the Middle East fuels the transition away from oil and gas in Asia. An unexpected war in 2022 forced Europe to confront its energy insecurity and hit the accelerator on its green transition. With the war in Iran, Asia is now in the same position. Most of the supplies of oil and liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, that flow through the Strait of Hormuz go to Asia. “We already know that we must switch to renewable energy, to our own energy sources. We understand that. This accelerates things,” Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said this month. “It forces us to work harder.” Indonesia, the third-largest country in Asia by population, is a major importer of Middle Eastern oil and LPG. It is speeding up a massive buildup of solar and geothermal energy capacity that the government announced last year, phasing out diesel plants, and electrifying thousands of rural villages. Also: it’s redirecting more of its coal production for domestic use, at least in the short-term. “In the current geopolitical situation and with ongoing war, we cannot guarantee the long-term continuity of energy supply. Therefore, we must optimize all domestic energy resources,” said the country’s energy and mineral resources minister, Bahlil Lahadalia.

  • One step back, two forward. Asian economies are among the most coal-dependent in the world. Many countries are now burning more coal to meet their immediate energy needs. Falling back on coal may just be a short-term setback for their climate-transition plans. Like in Indonesia, the war in Iran has prompted other Asian countries to hit the accelerator on renewable energy development. Vietnam last week breathed new life into its long-delayed Just Energy Transition Plan with new targets for increasing renewable energy use to 47% by 2030 and to stop building and phase down coal-fired plants. Nepal’s electric vehicle boom has cushioned some of the impact of the oil and LPG disruption. So has Pakistan’s growing solar capacity. “Pakistan serves as a great case study as to how renewables can provide a hedge against dependence on fossil fuels,” said Haneea Isaad of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
  • Electric kitchens. Signals of a green transition are visible in the streets, from EV adoption in Nepal and Vietnam, to rooftop solar adoption in Pakistan, to electric cookstove use in India. LPG is the most widely-used cooking fuel in India. A shortage of canisters and long lines at refuelling stations have spurred many households to switch to electric cooktops, ImpactAlpha contributor Shefali Anand reports from Delhi. “I was scared that if I didn’t get it, I would have no options,” Anju Singh, a housemaid in the Delhi suburb of Noida, told Anand. Singh spent about 20% of her monthly pay on an induction cooktop, becoming a datapoint in India’s 30-fold surge in electric cookstove sales during the first two weeks of the Iran war. Makers of solar and high-efficiency biomass cookstoves, which mostly cater to rural customers, have seen a spike in demand from cafes, food vendors and even large restaurant groups. “It has been a great shift,” said Ketaki Kokil of biomass cookstove maker Ecosense Appliances. “This type of product is becoming a solution in times of crisis.” Keep reading.
  • Bangladesh’s climate opportunity. India’s neighbor is taking a hard look at its energy future in light of the war. Only about 5% of Bangladesh’s energy needs are met with renewable sources. The war forced the country’s month-old government to institute short-term fuel rationing to prevent panic buying. Longer-term, a number of green incentive programs make Bangladesh attractive for international investors seeking climate investment opportunities in the Global South, writes ImpactAlpha contributing editor Marilyn Waite. In microfinance, more than 700 financial institutions are supporting climate resilience with loans for sustainable farming, EV adoption and rooftop solar. Investment incentives through the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority encourage green manufacturing and textile factories, and plastic recycling plants. “Bangladesh has been actively encouraging investment in its green transition,” writes Waite. “Coupled with its rapid economic development, strong GDP growth, and proactive stance toward climate adaptation, the South Asian country makes a compelling case for climate investors.” Take a closer look.

Dealflow: Shaping the Algorithm

Barcelona startup Galtea raises $3.2 million to ensure AI agents are trustworthy. AI coding tools are helping companies large and small spin up agents to handle everything from internal workflows to customer service. Building an AI agent is the easy part; making sure it operates as intended in the real world is the challenge. Galtea raised a €2.7 million ($3.2 million) seed round to help companies test their AI solutions before deploying them. “As enterprises race to deploy generative AI, the gap between what models can do and what companies can trust them to do is widening fast,” wrote the team at 42CAP, a German VC fund that led the round. JME Ventures, Masia, ABAC Nest Ventures and Mozilla Ventures, a $35 million venture capital fund set up by the open source nonprofit to invest in startups developing safe and inclusive AI, also participated.

  • Assurance tech. Galtea is tapping the growing demand for “assurance tech” that ensures AI systems are safe, compliant and trustworthy. The company, spun out of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center in 2024, says high testing costs push many AI teams to rely on generic benchmarks that fail to reflect real-world conditions. Galtea simulates user interactions, including adversarial inputs. It also generates hundreds of scenarios and flags where an agent breaks down. Among its customers: Spanish telecom giant Telefónica, regional bank ABANCA and Punto, an AI-based platform for dementia care. “Without strong evaluation data, enterprises are guessing whether their AI is behaving correctly,” wrote Mozilla Ventures in a post. “As AI systems become more autonomous and agentic, that guesswork becomes riskier.”
  • More.

B2B platform OpenUp lands €20 million for employee mental healthcare. Stress and burnout affect nearly one-third of Europeans workers, yet the wait for mental health services can take months. Amsterdam-based OpenUp offers a subscription-based mental health platform for employees and their families to supplement conventional mental healthcare. Smartfin and Rubio Impact Ventures invested €20 million ($23 million) in OpenUp. Funding will help the startup pursue acquisitions in the fragmented mental health market. “We saw a team with a clear answer to a persistent problem: Anyone in Europe who needs mental health support waits months,” said Rubio’s Ilonka Jankovich. The firm hopes to see OpenUp become “the European standard for workplace mental health support.”

  • Tech and touch. OpenUp was founded in 2019 by psychologist Gijs Coppens and Floris Rost van Tonningen, co-founder of Dutch social networking site Hyves. Coppens founded another mental health platform, iPractice, which was acquired last year by Netherlands-based Smile Invest. OpenUp serves more than 1.5 million people connected to 2,000 companies, including Rabobank, KPMG, Oatly and Decathlon. Its latest round follows a €15 million raise in 2022 from Rubio, Achmea Innovation Fund and angel investors. “We strongly believe in a combination of tech and touch,” Jankovich told ImpactAlpha.
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • UK-based Climate Investment raised $450 million for its first growth equity vehicle, the Decarbonization Acceleration Fund, with backing from Saudi Aramco, Baker Hughes, Development Bank of Japan, and others. (Climate Investment)
  • BFA Asset Management’s Kimbo Fund invested $1.2 million in Angolan ride hailing and asset financing company Anda. Anda, said BFA’s Rui Oliveira, is “proof that the next generation of Angolan entrepreneurs can compete with anyone, from anywhere, on their own terms.” (AVCA)
  • Morocco-based electric scooter and battery services company GoSwap landed seed funding from VC Azur Innovation Fund to support fleet management for logistics and last-mile delivery companies. (Wamda)

Impact Voices: Advisors’ Corner

The conversation advisors think they aren’t having: Impact by another name. The question is not whether clients are interested in impact investing. The question is whether advisors are listening for it. “When clients talk about climate, community development, ethical considerations or legacy, they are often expressing a desire for their investments to reflect their values,” CapShift’s Ben Kramer writes in a guest post. “Advisors who can translate those priorities into thoughtful portfolio strategies will be better positioned to serve clients, and to retain them. Increasingly, the most meaningful investment conversations are not only about returns but about purpose.”

  • Wealth transfer. Financial advisors who engage with clients about their values and offer credible impact strategies can deepen their relationships and prepare for the $125 trillion generational wealth transfer now underway (see, “How financial advisors are starting ‘the values conversation’ with their clients“). “As younger family members ask more questions about the potential to do more with the family’s investments, those who are left unsatisfied with an advisor’s offerings are more likely to move assets,” Kramer writes. “Situations like these rarely start as a dramatic break. More often they begin with a few questions that never really get traction; over time, clients look for someone who can take them further.”
  • Getting started. Supporting impact investing need not require a complete portfolio overhaul, Kramer says. “For some clients, that may mean allocating a small portion to aligned causes while maintaining a diversified traditional portfolio,” he writes. For advisors, the goal is not to entirely replace an existing mandate, it is to expand the toolkit, he adds. “Otherwise, the risk is losing 100% of a mandate because you couldn’t support 5% of it.”
  • Keep reading, “The conversation advisors think they aren’t having: Impact by another name,” by CapShift’s Ben Kramer. For more Getting Started columns and Deep Dives for financial advisors, visit ImpactAlpha’s Advisors’ Corner, produced in partnership with CapShift. 

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:

The Chicago Housing Authority is hiring a sustainability analyst for its green and healthy homes division… The National Advisory Board for Impact Investment Zambia has an opening for a communication officer… Liberty Mutual Investments seeks an impact investing senior analyst… Acumen is on the hunt for a government partnerships manager in New York… One Acre Fund is looking for a gender, youth and social inclusion lead in Tanzania… The American Heart Association is hiring a managing director for its social impact fund… Alterra has an opening for a climate change specialist in Abu Dhabi.

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

Thank you for your impact!

– March 30, 2026