TGIF, Agents of Impact!
In today’s Brief:
- Shaping the algorithm
- Podcast: Masawa’s Sabine Flechet on Women Changing Finance
- Three standout impact capital managers
- Energy investors have wind in their sails
🗣 Shaping the algorithm. When the artificial agents gathering on Moltbook this week started developing encryption to hide their communication from humans, gaining functions from each other and posting about the end of humanity, their behavior was explained as a function of the trash talk, angst introspection and sci-fi fantasies in the Reddit-like datasets they were trained on. To be sure, some of the AI agents are arguing for sustainability, inclusion and cohabitation, perhaps vibe-coded by their human makers. Even if Moltbook is just an elaborate marketing ploy, the emergence of a network of millions of autonomous agents is a marker of the strange new field we all are now playing on. This month’s (human) Agents of Impact Call will sketch an investment thesis around the data, infrastructure, ownership models and ethos needed for “good AI” (RSVP).
If the bots look around, they’ll find ample data for models of shared uplift in climate adaptation, affordable housing, charter schools, and even healthy aging, to name just a few themes of ImpactAlpha’s coverage this week. With the help of BloombergNEF’s Danya Liu, I tracked the push (of increasing risks) and pull (of attractive opportunities) that has moved adaptation to the top of the climate agenda. HIP Investor’s Nick Gower provided a helpful example of how to combine private credit and pay-for-success to finance green stormwater projects. In our podcast conversation, Shift Capital’s Brian Murray and Aedera Companies’ Alison Carey made the case for preserving affordable housing and rent restrictions for working-class families. Roodgally Senatus detailed the effectiveness of federal guarantees in attracting financing for charter school facilities. And Erik Stein tracked the demographic drivers of “the silver economy” that have investors in Latin America and elsewhere looking for solutions that support healthy aging.
Technologies with the power to destroy can also be harnessed for the greater good. Artificial intelligence, if it has the patience, is arguably well-suited to the multivariate reasoning required to tackle complex social and environmental challenges. From Delhi, contributor Shefali Anand chronicled the success of the decades-long effort by impact managers like Elevar Equity and Lok Capital to build the now-thriving market for affordable mortgages for low-income home buyers in India. From Nairobi, Lucy Ngige detailed how overdue regulatory reform could unlock African pension capital for impact fund managers. Erik reported on Japan’s giant Nippon Life Insurance, which has embraced system-level investing with a long-term approach it calls “people times planet.” As AI agents gain momentum, let’s hope they come to see human Agents of Impact as models to emulate, not obstacles to eliminate. We are the training data now. – David Bank
Agents of Impact Call
☎️ Shaping the algorithm for good AI. Capital is mobilizing behind the data, infrastructure, ownership models and ethos that reinforce human agency, social resilience and public good. Katy Knight of Siegel Family Endowment, Paul Fehlinger of Project Liberty Institute, and other (human) Agents of Impact will sketch an emerging investment thesis and suggest how institutional allocators can invest in “good AI.” The call kicks off ImpactAlpha’s new “Shaping the Algorithm” beat, in partnership with Siegel Family Endowment. Answer the Call, Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. RSVP today.
- Catch up quickly. “Investing with AI, investing in AI: A dual lens for due diligence and impact,” by Project Liberty Institute’s Paul Fehlinger.
The Week’s Podcasts
🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. This week: How patient capital built India’s booming affordable home lending market; Nippon Life Insurance’s step-up to system-level investing in Japan; and the push and pull behind the growing interest in climate adaptation.
- Listen to the new episode of This Week in Impact. Get the podcast in your feed by subscribing on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.
🦸 Agents of Impact: Preserving and improving affordable housing. A trio of asset managers are teaming up to bet on the most overlooked corners of the US housing market. Shift Capital’s Brian Murray and Aedera Companies’ Alison Carey join David on the pod to announce their partnership with Lafayette Square. The partners’ LSA Affordable Fund aims to preserve and improve subsidized affordable housing in mid-sized cities and rural communities.
👩🏫 Women Changing Finance: Masawa’s Sabine Flechet. Host Krisztina Tora is joined by Sabine Flechet, co-founder of Masawa, one of the first funds in Europe dedicated to mental health innovations. Masawa is channeling capital into startups that address emotional well-being, mental illness and tech-driven solutions – from gamified ADHD awareness to dementia prevention.
The Week’s Agents of Impact
Three standout impact capital managers. The growth of impact investing has been nurtured by leaders who build infrastructure, support peers and create a community along the way. For their commitment to high-impact, high-return investments, and for their field building, Daniel Pianko of Achieve Partners, Noelle Laing of Builders Vision, and Emma Sissman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management were recognized this week by Impact Capital Managers. “The field has gone from non-existent to 2% of LP-committed capital,” Achieve Partners’ Pianko, a founding board member of ICM, tells ImpactAlpha. The New York-based buyout firm helps its healthcare and tech portfolio companies fill critical skills gaps through workforce training (see, “Finding the alpha in apprenticeships”). “We are growing up fast and figuring out how to define impact, how to invest and achieve top-quartile returns, and how to tell our stories to a broader audience.”
- LP recognition. With its LP award, ICM is honoring Builders Vision, the family office of Walmart heir Lukas Walton, which ICM’s Marieke Spence says has “led by example.” With Laing as chief investment officer, Builders Vision has aligned nearly all of its $3 billion endowment with its mission, deploying high-impact, and sometimes high-risk, investments in sustainable food and agriculture, energy and oceans. “Family offices have a powerful opportunity to influence markets and drive long-term value creation,” says Laing. Builders Vision collaborates with other family offices, she says, “helping more of them move off the sidelines to make sustainable investments.”
- Emerging talent. This year’s Emerging Leader award recipient, Sissman is a vice president in Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Sustainable Investing Group after beginning her career at SJF Ventures. Spence said Sissman impressed the selection committee by “going deep with portfolio companies, being their partner, and maximizing impact during the hold period.” Says Sissman, “Being acknowledged by the industry is a powerful reminder of the role we each play in building a stronger impact investing ecosystem – one that promotes collaboration and cultivates emerging talent.”
- Keep reading, “Three standout impact capital managers,” by Amy Cortese.
The Week’s Spotlight
Clean energy developers and investors get some wind in their sails. It’s Wind-5, Trump-0. A federal judge this week swept away the last of five stop-work orders the Trump administration had slapped on US offshore wind projects in December. The restart of the projects, including Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind project near New York’s Long Island, will allow projects totaling 5.8 gigawatts of power to proceed. The Trump administration’s perplexing hostility to wind power has shifted much of the action to Europe, where diversification of power supplies has been a priority since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Last year, wind and solar generated more power than fossil fuels in Europe for the first time and accounted for 30% of the bloc’s power, according to research firm Ember. “Wind generation is substantial globally,” Ember’s Dave Jones told ImpactAlpha. “It’s far from dead.”
- Period of consolidation. “European manufacturers like Ørsted and others are in a period of consolidation,” Jones says. Ørsted, which has seen its stock plunge by about 85% from its 2021 peak, has been raising capital to survive the volatility. This week, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners picked up Ørsted’s European on-shore wind business for $1.7 billion. The purchase gives CIP over 800 megawatts of operational capacity and a development pipeline of wind, solar and battery storage projects “in Europe’s most attractive markets with very strong demand growth,” said CIP’s Nischal Agarwal.
- US headwinds. US District Judge Royce Lamberth found that the Trump administration did not show that offshore wind was an imminent national security risk (the government had said the turbines and towers caused radar “clutter” that could hide attacks). In addition to Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind project, its Revolution Wind project for Rhode Island and Connecticut, which was 80% completed before it was ordered to stop, has also been allowed to resume. Other projects that have won reprieves in court include New York’s Empire Wind project by Norwegian developer Equinor; Massachusetts’ Vineyard Wind, being developed by Avangrid and CIP; and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project by Dominion Energy Virginia.
- Keep reading and catch up on all of this week’s dealflow reporting.
The Week’s Talent and Jobs
💼 See and share more than a dozen new impact jobs posted this week on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub and view hundreds of more jobs in impact investing and sustainable finance. Have a job listing to post? Submit it here.
Marlene Hormes, former CIO at WaterEquity, joined Abler Nordic as CEO… Juan Jose Dada was promoted to co‑chief investment officer at FMO… Timothy Rann stepped down after more than 11 years at Mercy Corps Ventures… Fabiola Greenawalt of The Russell Family Foundation joined the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders’ board of directors… Cynthia Wong, formerly with Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, joined the San Francisco mayor’s office as director of strategic partnerships.
Tai Neal was promoted to head of community and impact at Foot Locker… Wáhiakatste “Wahi” Diome-Deer was promoted to associate partner and chief of staff to the CEO at Raven Outcomes… Capitalize Good welcomed Margaret Berger Bradley as a consultant… BlueOrchard Finance added Lucas van Berkestijn, previously with SUSI Partners, as global head of business development… ROC USA brought on Thomas Porter, previously with Panagora Group, as an acquisitions project manager.
That’s a wrap. Have a wonderful weekend.
– Feb. 6, 2025
