The Brief

The Brief: Putting AI to work for Indigenous communities

ImpactAlpha · July 20, 2026

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

  • Putting AI to work for Indigenous communities
  • Acumen’s second resilient agriculture fund
  • Blended finance for conservation and restoration
  • Proximity pays in India

An Indigenous investor’s ‘net impact’ lens on AI: Extractive by design, reciprocal by choice. For investors seeking to assert human agency in the development of artificial intelligence, Sami Saad of Raven Outcomes suggests a simple test: net impact. “Technology exists to serve relationships between people, and between people and Mother Earth,” Saad writes in a guest post. “Communities decide which relationships are worth sustaining. Technology follows.” The Indigenous-led fund manager in Canada allows, for example, that AI could reduce costs and speed processes for documenting community projects in the language funders require. In that use case, Saad says, “more capital flows to community-led projects, funding economic and social development on community terms, and deepening community wellbeing for the generations ahead.” Conversely, “costs that fall on Mother Earth, on community, and on future generations are never evenly shared,” he writes. Like any investment or instrument, he argues, investors’ marginal contribution to harms must be weighed against their marginal contribution to benefits. 

  • Outcomes-based. The Raven Indigenous Outcomes Fund in February reached a second close of C$32.2 million (then about US$23.5 million) toward its C$50 million goal, to fund roughly a dozen green and community health-focused projects designed by Indigenous communities in Canada and the US. It works with community leaders to design projects for, say, rooftop solar installations, or diabetes clinics that align with community culture and traditional diets. It then approaches public agencies to secure purchase agreements for the projects’ results. Raven fronts the capital, verifies the outcomes, and gets reimbursed by the government payers, with a small upside for Raven and its investors. LPs in the fund include Realize Capital, Inspirit Foundation, Sorenson Impact Group and Trimtab Impact.
  • Ownership and control. Issues of sovereignty and agency have risen to the top of impact investors’ AI agenda. Saad writes that Raven, along with other impact investors, is working toward an economic system “that puts community, land and long-term wellbeing ahead of individual wealth.” But with AI developing quickly, he says, “we do not have the luxury of staying outside the present system while we work toward a better one.” Raven applies the OCAP principles (for ownership, control, access and possession) developed by the First Nations Information Governance Center for technology adoption. Who owns this data? Who decides how it is used? Where does it live? What is lost and what is gained by using this tool? Saad flags that the burden of data centers on power grids and water systems falls heavily on territories already under pressure. “For Indigenous-led organizations, engagement with AI is not endorsement,” he writes. “We can use these tools while flagging their costs and refuse them when our use would deepen the harms.”
  • Keep reading, “An Indigenous investor’s ‘net impact’ lens on AI: Extractive by design, reciprocal by choice,” by Sami Saad of Raven Outcomes. Catch up on all of ImpactAlpha’s Shaping the Algorithm coverage, in partnership with Siegel Family Endowment.

Dealflow: Climate-Smart Agriculture 

Acumen secures $90 million for resilient agriculture in Africa. The impact investment firm rolled out its first Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund in 2021, raising $58 million to support African farmers’ climate and livelihood resilience. It’s back in the market with a second fund and a fundraising goal of $120 million, according to an SEC filing. Acumen is three-quarters of the way to its goal, having secured $90 million from the multinational Green Climate Fund, the Financing for Agri-SMEs in Africa fund, or FASA, international development finance institutions FMO, Proparco, Swedfund and BIO, and an undisclosed family office. Green Climate Fund and FASA both invested as catalytic first-loss investors. The capital will be invested in businesses offering farmers financing for productive assets like solar-powered irrigation systems and processing equipment; supply chain optimization solutions; market connections; affordable protein; and agri-waste management.

  • Expanded scope. Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund I invested between $300,000 and $4 million each in more than a dozen startups in East and West Africa. That portfolio includes Nigeria-based agri-marketplace Winich Farms, and Kenya-based solar irrigation supplier SunCulture. Acumen says the fund has impacted more than three million farmers. In addition to financial returns, “what we want to see,” said Acumen’s Tamer El-Raghy, is “farmers feeling dignified as a result of working with our portfolio companies.” The second fund expands the geographic scope of Acumen’s initial strategy to farming communities and agri-ventures in Egypt and Morocco. “This is not just about farmers and food security. It’s about meeting the basic needs of our societies,” El-Raghy said. “There’s a lot to do.”
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SDG Impact Finance Initiative backs Agri3’s blended-finance fund. Amsterdam-based Agri3 Fund offers risk guarantees, credit enhancements and technical assistance to financial institutions lending to smallholder farmers, cooperatives and other sustainable agri-businesses. It was launched at Davos in 2020 by Rabobank and the UN Environment Programme as part of their effort to mobilize $1 billion for climate-smart agriculture and forest restoration, with Rabobank and the Dutch government anchoring the fund with $40 million each. Agri3 has landed $2.4 million from the SDG Impact Finance Initiative or SIFI, a Swiss public-private partnership that mobilizes private investments in emerging markets.

  • Partnerships. Agri3 Fund teamed up with irrigation products maker Rivulis and Dutch asset financier DLL earlier this year to finance sustainable irrigation practices, starting with a pilot in Peru. Agri3 and Rabobank expanded their Renova Pasto conservation and restoration initiative this year to include soy growers. The initiative started as a 10-year loan program to help cattle farmers restore degraded pastureland and forests. 

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • Chipotle’s Cultivate Next fund invested in Vermont-based crop treatment developer Imio and five other companies supporting sustainable food systems and supply chains. (Chipotle)
  • Family office A to Z Impact invested in Nigeria-based CropSafe to support agri-processing and exports. The company raised debt this year from the Miller Center for Global Impact and Beneficial Returns. (A to Z Impact)
  • Spain-based Bzero, which makes biodegradable packaging solutions, secured €1.5 million ($1.7 million) from Impact Shakers Ventures and Viscofan. (Seedcue)

Impact Voices: Investing in India

In India’s venture capital market, proximity pays. India’s sheer size makes it one of the largest venture markets in the world, with more than 200,000 registered startups and about $60 billion in private capital invested each year, according to impact venture capital firm Beyond Capital Ventures. But networks are narrow and capital tends to flow through familiar pathways. “Capital has become abundant, but context and access remain scarce,” writes Beyond Capital Ventures’ Pooja Monga. Sharing her experience navigating the Indian market for an overseas investment firm, she recalls, “I often found myself in rooms where I was one of very few women. At the same time, I was meeting others who were interested in venture capital but didn’t know how to access what felt like a closed network.” Local insight is crucial, she argues. “India’s most investable decade will reward those who understand it, namely those with the proximity to read it correctly.”

  • Reading risk. “Some of the most important parts of investing in India don’t show up in a pitch deck,” Monga notes. Many businesses with high-growth potential are solving essential problems, like how people access healthcare, how small businesses get credit, or how climate risks are managed; they don’t always call themselves impact companies. Also: “Return profiles can look very different once operational realities are layered in,” Monga says. She cites one of Beyond Capital Ventures’ Indian exits as an example: A company that appeared to yield a 2x return delivered closer to 1.6x when taxes and cross-border capital rules were layered in. Much of Monga’s day-to-day work is “helping investors understand why something that looks risky is actually normal for this market,” she says. “It’s rarely about convincing someone that the opportunity exists. It’s about helping them understand it well enough to not misread it.”

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Don’t miss these ImpactAlpha partner events:

Kirk Hourdajian joins Climate Lead as its first vice president of impact-first investing… Imtiaz Saithna joins British International Investment as its Pakistan lead… ResponsAbility is hiring a climate finance investment officer in Peru… Climate Group is on the hunt for a senior communications officer… Rabobank is recruiting an energy transition executive director… Impacct Brooklyn seeks a senior project manager. 

Harvard University seeks an impact investing project manager… Savannah Impact Advisory is on the hunt for a technical assistance manager… Gaia Impact is recruiting a principal… The World Economic Forum is recruiting an account manager for communications and technology… Africa Jobs Fund is hiring a fellowship lead. 

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

Thank you for your impact!

– July 20, 2026