The Brief

The Brief: Redemption Bank expands the possibilities for Black-owned banks

ImpactAlpha · March 9, 2026
Credit: Brandon Lee

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In today’s Brief:

  • Redemption Bank expands the possibilities for Black-owned banks
  • Galvanize’s $1 billion real estate fund
  • The portfolio risks lurking inside private prisons
  • War in Iran as a turning point for the climate transition

Redemption Bank builds an engine for Black wealth in Utah (podcast). The newest Black-owned bank in the US is in an affluent, mostly white suburb at the base of the Wasatch mountains just north of Salt Lake City. Redemption Holding Co. last fall completed the acquisition of Holladay Bank & Trust in Holladay, Utah, the first non-minority-owned bank in the country ever to be purchased by Black investors. Now called Redemption Bank, it’s flipping the script on Black bank ownership, which has been in decline for decades. “What separates us from every other African American-owned bank in history is that all of the previous banks have operated out of, and were birthed out of, low to moderate-income areas, and they were surrounded by a lot of economic challenges that made it really hard for those banks to succeed,” Redemption’s Ashley Bell says on the latest Agents of Impact podcast. “We flipped that on its head and started a Black-owned bank in a very affluent area, with a great deposit base, with a great regulatory environment. We think the sky’s the limit for what’s possible.”

  • Financial inclusion. In the pandemic, Bell, a former White House policy advisor and regional administrator for the Small Business Administration, teamed up with Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., and went looking for an institution to anchor a nationwide financial services provider. Redemption’s choice of Utah was no accident. The state is a financial services powerhouse and is home to many of the nation’s credit card issuers. Redemption is preparing to issue its own credit card, to be called “Bank King,” in time for this year’s Juneteenth celebration. The card could have widespread appeal for its flat 12% interest rate, about half the average credit card rate in the US. Redemption will give half of its transaction fees to a network of programs providing a monthly income stipend to single mothers living in poverty, shifting minds from hoarding points to investing in hope, as King puts it.
  • Technology gap. Bell and King were spurred to create Redemption by the racial disparities revealed by the pandemic. Many small businesses in low-income communities were unable to access the Paycheck Protection Program’s flexible loans, which were intended to keep enterprises afloat through the shutdown (see, “Closing racial gaps in Covid-19 response and recovery”). “Those who were the most influential and the most powerful were first in line, and the money ran out very quickly. And the rest, the least, the last and left behind, didn’t get access to the first phase,” Bell says. In Holladay, Redemption has moved to improve technology and services for all of the bank’s customers, and has grown assets by 10% in less than a year. It’s now going to the market to raise $20 million to expand its lending capacity. “There’s not enough African Americans in Utah for the bank to exist just off African Americans,” Bell says, “so you have to be good at representing and serving everybody.” 
  • Keep reading and listen to, “Redemption Bank builds an engine for Black wealth in Utah (podcast),” by David Bank. Get the podcast in your feed by subscribing on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.

Dealflow: Green Real Estate

Galvanize raises $370 million to drive real estate value through decarbonization. Tom Steyer sees an opportunity in America’s aging building stock. Steyer’s climate investment firm, Galvanize Climate Solutions, launched a real estate strategy three years ago with a thesis that decarbonizing commercial buildings could boost asset value and net operating income. The strategy targets undercapitalized buildings in high-growth, supply-constrained markets that could benefit from solar installations, electrified heating and cooling, and other energy-efficiency upgrades. The thesis looks prescient as a widening war in Iran drives up oil and gas prices. “In an environment where the combined impact of rising electricity prices and market volatility is accelerating, there is a large and ongoing opportunity for the team to leverage decarbonization as a driver for value creation,” said Katie Hall, who co-founded Galvanize with Steyer after his brief presidential bid in 2020. The billionaire investor has now taken leave from Galvanize to run for governor of California (see ImpactAlpha’s Q&A with Steyer). 

  • Grey to green. The Galvanize Real Estate Fund secured commitments from global pension funds, family offices, foundations, registered investment advisers, banks and other institutional investors. Galvanize allocated $15 million of its own capital to the fund. The real estate fund has amassed a total of $1 billion, including debt financing. Galvanize has acquired 15 commercial properties, including 150 Milford Road, a 600,000-square-foot industrial complex in New Jersey. An in-house team of scientists, climate technologists and policy experts map out the decarbonization potential of the assets. Galvanize aims to achieve portfolio-wide emissions reductions of 153% and avoid roughly 8,000 metric tons of emissions per year. About 30% of Galvanize Real Estate Fund’s carried interest is dependent on meeting its impact goals.
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • Sunwealth secured a $15.8 million line of credit from North Easton Savings Bank to build distributed solar projects for commercial and community organizations in Massachusetts’ low-income neighborhoods. (Sunwealth)
  • Zeal Capital Partners, Prudence and Atlanta Seed Co. backed a $13 million Series A equity round for City Detect, an Alabama startup that helps local governments identify and manage illegal dumping, storm damage and overgrown lots, via AI and cameras. (City Detect)
  • San Francisco-based Vor Systems snagged $3 million, led by Gigascale Capital, to build a transaction platform for complex renewable energy deals. (Vor Systems)
  • Swedish battery tech maker Holyvolt acquired Wildcat Discovery Technologies, a US-based “materials discovery” company to accelerate sustainable, next-gen batteries. (Holyvolt)

Impact Voices: Fiduciary Future

Profit and punishment: The portfolio risks lurking inside private prisons. Kristi Noem may be out as head of the Department of Homeland Security, but the $45 billion in federal funding for immigration detention in the One Big Beautiful Bill remains. The tax bill’s passage led to a surge in share prices for CoreCivic and Geo Group, the two dominant publicly-traded operators of detention centers in the US. Despite expected growth in contracts and profits, the private prison sector is full of risk for investors, says As You Sow’s Andrew Behar in his latest Fiduciary Future column. Behar explains that “private prison operators exhibit concentrated customer exposure, high sensitivity to electoral outcomes and recurring litigation tied to labor practices and detainee treatment.” CoreCivic and Geo face a long trail of legal exposure: detainee wage claims; alleged forced labor under threat of solitary confinement; inadequate medical care; chronic understaffing. These risks, argues Behar, must be considered by fiduciaries as they construct their portfolios. 

  • Underlying risk. For institutional investors, especially those managing retirement assets, mitigating such risks is not so much an ideological question, but a financial one, says Behar. “The earnings may look predictable,” he writes. “The underlying risk is anything but.” The business model depends on incarceration volume, enforcement priorities and local political acquiescence – all of which can reverse quickly. Passive index fund exposure won’t insulate beneficiaries from the volatility that can follow high-profile incidents, contract terminations or policy shifts. Behar’s bottom line: “It’s critical that shareholders take a hard look at their holdings so they are fully aware if their portfolio includes problematic private prison, border security and detention facility companies.”
  • Keep reading, “Profit and punishment: The portfolio risks lurking inside private prisons,” by Andrew Behar Catch up on all of the Fiduciary Future columns by Behar and his colleagues at As You Sow. 

More Impact Voices on ImpactAlpha. Agents of Impact are sharing their knowledge and mobilizing their networks through guest posts on ImpactAlpha. Submit yours here. 

  • Why war in Iran marks a tipping point for fossil fuels and the energy transition. Some pundits have argued that, with growing demand for power, the addition of renewable energy capacity will supplement fossil fuels, not replace them. Carbon Collective’s Zach Stein takes aim at the “energy addition” theory. He lays out why the energy transition is alive and well, especially amid geopolitical upheaval and a war in the Middle East. The economics already favor clean energy; a less rules-based, more fragmented world only strengthens the appeal. Hear him out.
  • As global leadership shifts, Canada steps up on impact investing. Canada is emerging as a leading “middle power” in impact investing, writes GSG Impact’s Elizabeth Boggs Davidsen. Under Prime Minister Mark Carney, Canada is aligning policy and capital through sustainability disclosures, a “made-in-Canada” taxonomy, and international development partnerships, which offer what Boggs Davidsen calls a blueprint of pragmatic, values-based economic leadership. Learn more.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:

Symbiotics taps Yvan Renaud to become CEO… New Majority Capital Foundation adds Aisha Weeks of Gary Community Ventures as a board member… The Builders Fund promotes Ani Ajith to principal… Sue Dorsey returns to Gates Family Foundation as chief operating officer and chief financial officer… Maria Gil Mendoza is promoted to senior associate at FMO. 

Ownership Works welcomes Jane Schumacher, previously with High Lantern Group, as a senior associate of networks and partnerships… The National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders appoints Elizabeth Nimmons, previously with the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, as public policy director. 

Liberty Mutual Insurance is hiring an impact investing vice president in New York… Also in New York, BlackRock has an opening for a vice president of social impact strategic initiatives… Sandisk is recruiting a sustainability data and governance lead… Wells Fargo seeks a head of national community relations in Washington, DC… Common Trust is looking for a transaction advisory associate.

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

Thank you for your impact!

– March 9, 2026