The Brief: Searching for solutions in Davos

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

• Davos watch: Searching for solutions amid threats and uncertainty
• Investing in agribusinesses in Kenya and Latin America
• Lendable’s asset-backed lending in emerging markets
• SOCAP’s move to Chicago

Featured: World Economic Forum

Uncertainty reigns, impact investing shines, as Davos searches for solutions. From great power brinksmanship to real-time dealmaking, the signals from the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps are clear: challenges are mounting, governance structures are straining, and instability is opening space for new solutions. “We are at an inflection point,” Isabelle Hau of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning writes from Davos. “Technology is accelerating faster than our social contracts. The work ahead is not just technical or economic; it is relational, ethical and deeply human.” The Trump administration’s increasing hostility to Europe brought calls to tax the rich and boycott US goods. In a defiant speech, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called on “middle powers” to unite in the face of increasingly hostile “great powers,” now including the US alongside China and Russia. As a central banker in both Canada and the UK, Carney had earlier sought to put climate risk and income inequality at the center of global finance. Collective investments in resilience, he said in Davos, “are cheaper than everyone building their own fortresses. Shared standards reduce fragmentations. Complementarities are positive sum.” Buried in Carney’s speech was a call to build coalitions with partners that share common ground and to create a “dense web of connections across trade, investment, culture on which we can draw for future challenges and opportunities.” 

• Bridging divides. Around Davos, “there’s a lot of attention on impact investing,” reports Amit Bouri of Global Impact Investing Network, who was among the community of impact investors making the scene. “Through its inherent focus on finding solutions, impact investing remains a bright spot that can bridge a lot of divides.” Also spotted in Davos: TPC Chairman Chavalit Frederick Tsao, Katapult Ocean’s Jonas Skattum Svegaarden, Second Muse’s Todd Khozein, Aruwa Capital’s Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, and Hamdiya Ismaila and Dinah Hammond of Savannah Impact Advisory. Alongside WEF, the International Rescue Committee launched Airbel Ventures, an impact investing fund designed to accelerate the entry and scale of breakthrough technologies in crisis-affected communities. Nonprofit Canopy introduced a blended finance model to mobilize at least $2 billion for low-carbon materials and transform paper, packaging and textile supply chains in India. Reckitt committed $10 million to WaterEquity’s Everspring Fund to provide long-term financing to financial institutions in Asia, Africa and Latin America that provide loans for water and sanitation solutions.
  
• EU Inc. At Davos, entrepreneurs and investors from across Europe network and critique without regard to national borders. Back home, their businesses are hamstrung by the welter of financial and legal requirements in each of Europe’s 27 member states. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen took the European startup scene by surprise with the launch of “EU Inc.” The aim is a single, simple set of rules for entrepreneurs from Rome to Vilnius to enjoy the same capital regime across the bloc – and register a company online in any member state within 48 hours. “Ultimately, we need a system where companies can do business and raise financing seamlessly across Europe just as easily as in uniform markets like the US or China,” von der Leyen said. “This shows that Europe’s politicians are being bold and serious about creating the conditions for innovation and scale-up to happen at home, rather than elsewhere,” Impact Europe’s Jana Bour told ImpactAlpha. “Sometimes the most important news at Davos isn’t the headline-grabbing stuff,” wrote Lennard Kooy of Lleverage, a Dutch startup building AI operating systems for medium-sized companies. Go deeper.
  
• Shaping the algorithm. The Gates Foundation and OpenAI committed $50 million to Horizon1000 to help Rwanda and other countries in Africa improve their health systems amid cuts to global aid. “AI can be a gamechanger in expanding access to quality care,” Bill Gates said in a blog post. “These AI tools will support health workers, not replace them,” he added. In Davos, the pace of technological advancement was unmistakable, said Stanford’s Hau. So too was the undercurrent of unease about governance. In many rooms, “people pushed beyond what AI can do to ask what it should do, and what it must never replace,” she said. “There was growing recognition that learning is not only individual, and that progress without human connection is fragile.”
  
• Keep reading, “Uncertainty reigns, impact investing shines, as Davos searches for solutions,” by Dennis Price. 

Dealflow: Investing in Agriculture

Truvalu exits African agricultural distributor to a Dutch family office. Netherlands-based impact investor Truvalu Group exited GrowPact Kitale, a Kenyan seedling distributor it backed in 2017, through a strategic sale to an undisclosed Dutch family office and co-investor in the business. The exit represents a glimmer of equity liquidity for investors in African agribusiness. GrowPact Kitale has worked closely with Dutch agricultural tech company Viscon to modernize seedling production and distribution. GrowPact, Viscon and the family office together launched GrowPact Global, a new vehicle to invest in and provide technical assistance to seedling nurseries across Africa, starting in Ghana.

• Getting in early. Truvalu’s Peter Owaga says investments in the agriculture sector are becoming expensive because investors wait until companies are heavily de-risked before committing capital. High valuations put pressure on companies to scale quickly and achieve fast exits for their investors. Owaga hopes the GrowPact deal will prove the value of supporting businesses earlier in their growth process. “I hope it will show investors that there is opportunity in that ‘missing middle’ that’s often talked about,” he told ImpactAlpha. 

• Permanent capital. Truvalu is backed primarily by Dutch investors. In Kenya, it manages an active portfolio of eight companies and is deploying approximately €5 million ($5.8 million), with ticket sizes of $250,000 to $500,000. Truvalu’s Jaap-Jan Verboom said most investor capital in agriculture remains concentrated in closed-ended funds, reflecting continued risk aversion (see, “In impact fundraising drought, novel strategies and private credit stand out and, yes, size matters”). More patient, long-term capital, including permanent-capital structures, is better aligned with the realities of small agribusinesses in emerging markets, he added. “There is a lot of capital floating around the globe that is not connected to the real entrepreneurial opportunities on the ground.” “The difficulties of raising capital are not on par with the immense amount of opportunities that we see.” 

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Beneficial Returns lends to agriculture companies sourcing from smallholder farmers in Latin America. The impact lender provided a $150,000 loan to Delpla, a Colombian plantain processor that buys from more than 100 small farmers. Depla signs long-term purchase agreements with farmers and pays them weekly in cash, sometimes more than double local market rates. The company will use the capital to buy processing equipment and expand its supplier network. Beneficial Returns also provided $500,000 in working capital to Nelixia, a women-owned essential oils producer that sources from 650 farmers in Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay and El Salvador. “Small businesses in Latin America struggle to secure affordable, long-term capital, but this is especially the case for agricultural businesses and Indigenous businesses,” Beneficial Returns’ Ted Levinson told ImpactAlpha. Both investments came through Beneficial Returns’ Reciprocity Fund, the larger of its two lending vehicles for small businesses in Asia and Latin America.

• Smallholder farmers. Other food and agriculture companies in the region have adopted similar farmer-first sourcing arrangements. Alcasa sources cassava from 350 farmers in Nicaragua, offering contracts before planting begins and providing low-interest loans for farm inputs. In Peru, Cotton Nation is partnering with Lululemon to source cotton from thousands of farmers in the Amazon, paying above-market rates and covering regenerative certification costs. Pacari, an Ecuadorian chocolate company, sources cacao directly from 4,000 Indigenous Kichwa and smallholder farmers and manages production, from fermentation to export. Amapuri, based in the Colombian Amazon, sources açaí and through partnerships with Indigenous and river communities in Guaviare and Vaupés.

• More.

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

• Berlin-based Cloover, which provides energy optimization, financing and procurement services for renewable energy installers, raised $22 million from MMC Ventures, QED Investors, Bosch Ventures, Earthshot Ventures and others, alongside $1.2 billion in debt. (Cloover)

• French asset manager Mirova invested $19 million in Kenya-based Cold Solutions Kiambu, which provides solar-powered cold storage for agriculture and pharmaceutical businesses. (Mirova)

• Indian solar finance firm Aerem raised 1.4 billion rupees ($15 million) from Sumitomo’s SMBC Asia Rising Fund, the University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners, SE Ventures, British International Investment and others. (Aerem)

Signals: Responsible Fintech

Lendable returns to asset-backed lending for the green transition. In a tough year for fundraising, the emerging markets fintech lender Lendable said it has raised $300 million across two funds to provide capital to digital financial services providers in emerging markets and to finance commercial solar, electric vehicles and electric cooking. The commitments, including $86 million from the International Finance Corp., suggest investors remain optimistic about the growth of business and consumer demand for fintech. London-based Lendable has nearly doubled its assets to about $750 million. “Each business is growing, and the number of fintechs, period, is growing,” Lendable’s Daniel Goldfarb tells ImpactAlpha. “There’s just growth built into the business.”

• Green assets. The company has backed more than 45 companies in 16 markets, including in relatively established fintech ecosystems like Mexico, Kenya and South Africa, and frontier markets like Benin, Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire. Its newest market is India, where it’s focusing on e-mobility and other still-niche sectors that local lenders aren’t serving at scale. Lendable’s dedicated Transportation and Energy Fund represents a return to Lendable’s original mission of providing asset-backed financing in the then-nascent market for renewable energy systems and other sustainability solutions. The market wasn’t ready then, Goldfarb says; with falling costs for solar and storage, it is now. “Fintech back in 2015 was a cute, exotic, weird asset class. We proved you could do it commercially,” he said. “We believe the same dynamics apply today for electric two-, three- and four-wheelers, for residential energy, for small commercial and industrial energy, and for the supporting infrastructure.”
  
• Keep reading, “Lendable returns to asset-backed lending for the green transition,” by Jessica Pothering and David Bank.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Long associated with San Francisco, SOCAP, the annual fall gathering of impact investors and entrepreneurs, will relocate to Chicago for at least two years. “Chicago is a world-class destination, and the Midwest is where some of the most important work in our field is happening anywhere in the world,” said SOCAP’s Robert Munson. This year’s gathering is set for Oct. 12-14 at the Convene Willis Tower downtown (early bird tickets are available now). SOCAP has moved before within high-priced San Francisco. Last year’s event was notably smaller than previous years and some attendees complained about downtown San Francisco’s urban grit. Munson said such concerns played no role in the decision. “SF is home for us and we’ll be back,” he told ImpactAlpha. 

Theresa Taylor and David Miller are re-elected as board president and vice president respectively at California pension CalPERS… British infrastructure group Balfour Beatty is hiring a social impact advisor… The Mastercard Foundation seeks a gender-focused director in Kenya… The Climate & Clean Energy Equity Fund is searching for a strategic partnerships associate… FSD Africa is looking for a manager for its nature programs in Kenya.

UBS is hiring a program lead for its social impact and philanthropy division… The American Council on Renewable Energy is recruiting a manager for its Accelerate program for leadership in growing renewable energy companies… Ecology Action is hiring a climate resilience program manager… TRC Companies seeks a climate resilience associate… Netherlands-based Van Leer Foundation is recruiting a mission-related investments officer.

The Innovative Finance Initiative Academy will kick off its first live session on Wednesday, Jan. 28. Spots are still available… Luxembourg-based Inclusive Finance Network is hosting an impact-linked finance training with Roots of Impact, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation on Thursday, Feb. 5. 

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

Thank you for your impact!

– Jan. 22, 2026