The Brief

The Brief: The high-road to economic mobility for low-wage workers and solopreneurs

ImpactAlpha · May 5, 2025

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

  • Investing in upskilling and economic mobility for low-wage workers
  • Rare earths refining in the US 
  • Battery-swapping in Africa
  • First-person account of the Sustainable Investing Challenge finals in London

Tech solutions for solopreneurs are making self-employment more than a side hustle. The spinout venture capital fund JFFVentures is betting on a high-road vision of workforce innovation – and AI – to expand economic mobility for workers amid technological disruption and economic uncertainty. “The evolution of technology and innovation has created a ripe moment for us to invest in technology companies that help upskill, train and connect low- and middle-wage earners to better jobs,” JFFVentures’ Yigal Kerszenbaum says on the latest Agents of Impact podcast. With over 140 million adults in the US earning less than $55,000 a year, JFF Ventures sees a massive market in which positive social impact can drive attractive returns. The Boston-based for-profit fund is affiliated with the nonprofit Jobs for the Future. “We are a market-rate fund,” Kerszenbaum emphasizes, “delivering outsized impact and financial returns… by solving systemic problems that workforce agencies and higher education haven’t been able to address.”

  • Empowerment, not displacement. After a decades-long decline, new business starts soared in the pandemic and post-pandemic years, averaging more than five million a year from 2020 to 2024. The trend is driven both by necessity and a growing desire for autonomy. JFFVentures has backed platforms like Manifest Ed, which provides AI-powered upskilling for small and medium-sized businesses, and BeSolo, which streamlines access to benefits, tax support and financial tools for the self-employed. As an alternative to replacing workers, JFFVentures is backing workflow solutions that embed training, boost efficiency and create pathways to higher earnings (for background, see “JFF Ventures aligns VC with nonprofit to invest in the future of work”). The thesis: tech-enabled empowerment, not displacement. Listen to the podcast.
  • Small business starts. In a separate guest post on ImpactAlpha, Kerszenbaum calls the rise of solopreneurs and independent workers “a structural transformation in the economy.” Millennials and Gen Z are leading the charge. Solopreneurship offers freedom, but with it comes challenges ranging from unstable income to complex administrative burdens. “Solopreneurs are underbanked, underserved and underbuilt for,” writes Kerszenbaum. Digital tools can help people “monetize their skills, knowledge and passions.” To turn a promising trend into long-term prosperity, he advocates for financial tools, upskilling platforms and supportive ecosystems.
  • Keep reading, “Tech solutions for solopreneurs are making self-employment more than a side hustle,” by JFFVentures’ Yigal Kerszenbaum on ImpactAlpha.

Dealflow: Reshoring 

Amid trade war, Phoenix Tailings snags $76 million for US production of rare earth metals. The price of rare earth metals has surged in recent weeks as China flexes its muscle in its trade war with US President Donald Trump. China processes more than 95% of rare metals, which are critical for modern technologies like electric vehicles, wind turbines and batteries. “We’re witnessing the consequences of relying on a geopolitical competitor for materials essential to our economy and national defense,” said Nick Myers of Phoenix Tailings, a green mining and metals production company that operates a commercial facility in Massachusetts. Phoenix’s Series B funding will go to building a facility in New Hampshire that can produce up to 500 tons of rare earth elements annually. That’s close to the entire annual demand of the US’s defense-industrial sector. 

  • Minimizing waste. The new facility is expected to begin production this summer with an output of 200 tons a year, producing dysprosium and terbium, which are essential for magnets used in EVs, MRI machines and jet engines. The facility will employ Phoenix Tailings’ rare earth processing technology, which extracts valuable metals from mines, recycled products, coal fly ash, and other waste streams without using harmful chemicals and energy-intensive methods. Myers said the goal is “delivering critical metals without compromising on safety, environmental standards or cost.”
  • Supply chain independence. The Series B round includes a fresh $33 million from Escape Velocity, Builders Vision, Yamaha Motor Ventures, MPower, Sumitomo Corp.’s venture arm and other investors. An initial $43 million close in December was led by Envisioning Partners, a Seoul-based impact venture capital firm. Earlier backers of the company include In-Q-Tel, ARPA-E and BMW. “Reducing supply chain dependence in rare metals is good sustainable business, particularly when it can be done cheaper and cleaner using better technology,” Envisioning’s Yong Hyun Kim said.
  • Check it out.

Kofa secures $8 million for portable batteries in Ghana and Kenya. Kofa has built a battery-swapping network across Ghana that provides portable electricity for homes, businesses and electric motorcycles. The startup raised $3.3 million in equity, co-led by E3 Capital and Injaro Investment Advisors, to expand across Ghana and Kenya. Kofa secured $4.3 million in debt and $590,000 in grants from the Shell Foundation and the UK government’s Transforming Energy Access, or TEA, platform. Richard Thwaites, founder of energy-storage developer Penso Power, also participated. 

  • Battery power. Kofa teamed up with British clean energy impact investor PASH Global last year in a £6.2 million ($8.1 million) effort to deploy 6,000 batteries and 100 swapping stations, as well as e-bike financing, in Ghana. Kofa says it handles over 200 battery swaps daily, at an average two minutes per swap. The company has a “unique ability to build not just a product but an entire ecosystem to drive capital efficiency [and] the adoption of clean energy at scale,” said E3 Capital’s Andrew Darge. Another early player in battery swapping in West Africa, MOPO, raised $10 million in 2023 from CrossBoundary. 

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • Raleigh, NC-based Hoofprint Biome, which makes feed to reduce cows’ methane gas emissions, raised $15 million from SOSV, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Breakthrough Energy Fellows and others. (TechCrunch)
  • Kaleidofin secured $5.3 million in equity financing from IDH Farmfit Fund to help India’s lenders improve credit assessments of low-income borrowers and small enterprises. (Kaleidofin)
  • Potencia Ventures and LearnLaunch Fund + Accelerator backed Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Prentus’s gamified career development platform. (Prentus)

Overheard at the Sustainable Investing Challenge 

Direct experience informs students’ designs for sustainable financing mechanisms. Flood insurance in Bangladesh. Irrigation subsidies in India. Islamic finance for clean air in Egypt. Innovative climate financing was on stage at last week’s finals for the 15th Sustainable Investing Challenge, hosted by Morgan Stanley and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. In a first, solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation in emerging markets swept the top three spots in the competition. “We are getting greater penetration in emerging markets, and it’s one of the greatest things that has happened” in the competition, says Equilibrium Capital’s Dave Chen, who teaches at Kellogg and founded the challenge. Also notable: students’ first-hand experience of the challenges they’re addressing. The winning team from the University of Oxford proposed to blend “parametric,” or incident-based, insurance coverage with concessional loans to protect low-income families living in flood-prone areas of Bangladesh. The runners-up, from Northwestern University, developed a fund to help farmers in India’s water-stressed Punjab region finance irrigation upgrades. Team member Shagun Sharma spoke of his personal experience with water stress and agricultural transitions. “These perspectives made clear the value of bringing diverse lenses and experiences into sustainable finance,” writes Erik Stein, a finalist in this year’s competition from Columbia University’s Climate School, and a data journalism intern at ImpactAlpha. 

  • Collaborative finance. Stein’s team was among 150 contestants and one of two non-MBA finalists. His team proposed a “Harlem Renaissance Bond” to finance green building upgrades in the upper Manhattan neighborhood next door to Columbia. “I and other students on my team see, day to day, residents’ climate vulnerabilities,” says Stein. The bond would finance green roofs to cool buildings, lower energy bills, and reduce emergency room visits during heat waves. Team members brought diverse backgrounds in renewable energy finance, sustainable urban development, healthcare, and environmental justice to the design of the financing mechanism. “We approached the problem from the ground up,” writes Stein. “We came in thinking through policy levers and community needs and engagement.”
  • Keep reading, “Direct experience informs students’ designs for sustainable financing mechanisms,” by Erik Stein on ImpactAlpha.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:

Stephanie Cohn Rupp steps down as CEO and board chair of Veris Wealth Partners to become a board member and partner… Net Purpose welcomes Henry Brown, previously with ISS ESG, as an account manager… LearnLaunch Fund + Accelerator brings on Din Heiman as a part-time venture partner… Lukas Walton’s Builders Vision promotes Noelle Laing to chief investment officer. 

Santa Clara University seeks a program coordinator for its Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation… Impact Capital Managers is recruiting a talent and leadership development analyst in New York… Blue Forest is looking for a conservation finance director… Omidyar Network is on the hunt for reporters in residence… Save the Children UK has an opening for an enterprise and innovative finance associate in London… NESsT is recruiting a Peru-based associate for its Lirio Fund.

Jigar Shah, who led President Biden’s Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, is launching Multiplier, an advisory services firm for growth-stage companies focused on sustainability… E8 Angels is accepting applications for its 2025 Decarbon8-US Philanthropic Fund, which is targeting early-stage companies working at the intersection of technology and climate solutions. 

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

Thank you for your impact!

– May 5, 2025