TGIF, Agents of Impact! You deserve a break, and so do we. ImpactAlpha is taking our summer holiday next week. We’ll be back in your in-boxes, refreshed and ready to roll, on Monday, August 4. We hope you’re finding some summer fun, too.
🔌 Get PluggedIn: Accelerating climate tech startups in the new funding environment. The city of Birmingham, Ala., may seem an unlikely hub for climate innovation. Techstars Birmingham’s Rae’Mah Henderson says accelerators like the Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator are fueling the growth of new energy startups across an expanding map of local tech ecosystems. Join Sherrell Dorsey’s conversation with Henderson about community, capital, and how place-based partnerships are driving the clean energy transition. If you’re building or funding climate solutions, you won’t want to miss the next PluggedIn, Tuesday, Aug. 5, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. RSVP now.
In today’s Brief:
- Roundup: LPs and GPs and intermediaries – oh my!
- Chart: Global mobile phone access
- Spotlight: Rockefeller’s Zero Gap Fund
🗣 Talk of the town. ImpactAlpha launched our weekly “LP/GP” newsletter earlier this year, promising to “take you inside the real business of impact investing.” Since then, we’ve reported on GP stakes, co-investment rights, secondaries, creative exits and more. This week, ImpactAlpha’s Amy Cortese interviewed Steven Meier, manager of one of the largest asset owners in the US, the $288 billion New York City Retirement Systems, who boasted about getting both “big bird” and “early bird” discounts. One LP’s no-fee, no-carry allocation, of course, is some GP’s foregone compensation – or perhaps a check on asset managers’ excessive fees and outsized wealth, as Meier put it. Either way, Amy’s interview illuminated “the dynamic relationships between owners, managers and intermediaries of impact capital” that attracted us to the LP/GP beat in the first place.
Asset owners have the power, and the freedom, to insist on outperformance on impact, as well. In our conversation, McKnight Foundation’s Tonya Allen showed how LP can stand for “leadership potential” in addition to limited partner, arguing that political attacks on climate action and diversity, equity and inclusion call for even bolder investments. To fulfill their part of the social contract, Candide Group’s Morgan Simon argued in a guest post that impact investors can “use this time to get our private assets working more proactively towards the future we want to see.” Many are: our growing set of LP Scans have identified more than a dozen family offices doubling down on impact; more than 20 LPs backing nature-based climate funds; 10 African LPs investing in African impact funds; and more than LPs hot on Latam impact.
Such commitments are fueling a surge of innovative strategies despite, or because of, the current headwinds. Working Capital Fund’s Ed Marcum declared himself undaunted and optimistic about “the creation of a future world where responsible and ethical supply chains are the norm.” In Argentina’s Patagonia region, Meliquina’s Community Equity Opportunity Fund and the local Mapuche Millaqueo community are modeling Indigenous ownership in Latin America’s energy transition, as Erik Stein reported. In the north of Brazil, a local fintech company and a sustainable producer are turning abundant Amazon nuts into digital tokens to strengthen forest preservation and the livelihoods of local communities, wrote Daniela Lopes of AMAZ, the business accelerator that helped broker the partnership. With so much of childcare and eldercare unpaid and undervalued, Rebecca Fries of Value for Women and ProMujer’s Carmen Correa contend that “investing in enterprises that reduce, redistribute or formalize care can deliver outsized impact and returns.”
All those dynamic relationships can be complicated, as Jessica Pothering demonstrated in her scoop on M-KOPA’s $160 million fundraise. M-KOPA’s Series F financing comes as the impact darling faces a legal challenge over employee shareholder rights that has been the talk of the town in startup circles in Nairobi. Our new Advisors’ Corner, produced in partnership with CapShift, breaks down the complexity with a series of startup guides, a terrific FAQ and deep dives into investing in community development and “detoxification,” to help advisors get comfortable speaking impact. In our podcast conversation, Adam Rein told me “the goal of CapShift and many in the space is to mobilize more capital for impact.” The same goes for ImpactAlpha, across our beats and our growing suite of editorial and data products for Agents of Impact like you. – David Bank
The Week’s Chart
Mobile phone access = global financial inclusion. With the rise in digital financial services, mobile phones are the key to global financial inclusion. For women especially, mobile phone access is perhaps the single most important driver of access to financial services. In the past decade, the percentage of women in low- and middle-income countries holding some type of financial account has jumped from 50% to 73%, according to the World Bank’s 2025 Global Findex Database. Worldwide, 86% of adults have access to at least a basic mobile phone. Those who do not say it’s the cost of the device that is the biggest barrier. Most are in South Asia and Africa. “These adults tend to have low incomes and are more likely to be women than men,” according to the report.
- Phone finance. Two companies tackling mobile phone affordability and ownership were in the news this week. ImpactAlpha learned that UK and Kenya-based consumer finance company M-KOPA stands to raise a $160 million equity round led by Sumitomo Corporation to grow its pay-as-you-go finance services in Africa. The company, whose co-founder Nick Hughes helped launch Kenya’s ubiquitous M-Pesa mobile money system, pivoted from selling solar lighting systems to financing mobile phones. San Francisco-based PayJoy secured $250 million from T. Rowe Price for its PayJoy Asset Fund, which allows investors to co-invest in consumer cell phone finance loans. The company has provided credit to 15 million people in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa. Nearly half are women who often use their devices for household income and gig work.
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The Week’s Deal Spotlight
Rockefeller’s Zero Gap Fund continues to pay dividends. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. The Rockefeller Foundation fully committed its $30 million Zero Gap Fund two years ago, but recipients are still deploying funds, crowding in capital and generating impact, according to the foundation’s latest “state of the portfolio” report. The Zero Gap Fund has helped mobilize more than $1 billion in additional funding across a dozen investments supporting economic inclusion, access to finance and climate solutions. The catalytic fund, a joint partnership of the Rockefeller and MacArthur foundations, was launched in 2019 to channel program-related investments to promising financial innovations that address the Sustainable Development Goals. In an interview with ImpactAlpha, Rockefeller’s Maria Kozloski pointed to a “deepening of the impact of all positions in the portfolio.” Zero Gap, she said, looks for “strong fund managers that know their ecosystems and know how local companies operate and how they can grow in their environments.”
- Catalytic capital. When Horizon Capital, a growth equity investor in the Ukraine, was raising its fourth fund in 2022 amid Russia’s invasion, Zero Gap’s $3 million investment helped the firm reach a first close and eventually raise $362 million. Horizon has since deployed more than $100 million to five tech-based, export-oriented companies to help keep the country’s tech force employed and build economic resilience. Zero Gap’s 2023 investment in Blue Forest helped the conservation nonprofit scale its Forest Resilience Bond to finance projects to reduce wildfire risk, cut carbon emissions and protect watersheds. Other Zero Gap investments include an adaptation-focused fund from Lightsmith Group, Apis & Heritage’s worker ownership fund, and Trailhead Capital’s regenerative food and agriculture fund.
- Climate finance. With the Zero Gap Fund fully committed, Rockefeller’s innovative finance team is turning its attention to climate finance (see, “Rockefeller Foundation’s new climate strategy”). The team has been making program-related investments in clean energy, decarbonization and nature-based solutions. Its investments include Mombak, a Sao Paulo-based reforestation and carbon removal company, and New York-based Aligned Climate Capital. The foundation provided grant funding to Elemental Impact, the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator and New York Energy Efficiency Corp. “You get these sometimes unexpected, really strong performers through these intermediaries,” Kozloski said. “These companies and entrepreneurs don’t have a lot of other places to go for financing.”
- Read on and catch up on all of this week’s dealflow reporting.
The Week’s Deals, 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.
The US Department of the Treasury appointed Dietrich Douglas as acting director of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, replacing Pravina Raghavan, who resigned in June… Karl Nehamer, previously Chancellor of Austria, will replace Thomas Östros as vice president of the European Investment Bank in September… Jaime Sotomayor, previously from Worthit VC, joined Impacta VC as a venture partner.
National Cooperative Bank welcomed Jazlyn Benitez, previously with Institutional Shareholder Services, as a renewable energy portfolio analyst… Norbert Cichon, previously with Good Chaos, joined Spring Point Partners as an investment team director… UBS promoted Amantia Muhedini to head of sustainable and impact investing in the Americas… Eva Neubauer Alligood, formerly with LISC, joined Neighborhood Restore Housing Development Fund as chief program officer.
Iueh Soh, previously with Obran Cooperative, joined Kaiser Permanente as senior director of enterprise strategy and business development… Justine Janssen became interim executive director of Employee Ownership Canada… Inclusive Prosperity Capital added Victoria Giasullo as marketing and engagement associate… Swati Mehta, previously with o3 Capital, joined LeapFrog Investments as director on the healthcare investment team.
ROC USA added Michael Telesford, previously with Housing Partnership Network, as a senior underwriter… Camille Busette, previously with Brookings Institution, joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as executive vice president of programs… Yesenia Gallardo Avila, previously with Potencia Ventures, joined LEMNIS as managing director.
That’s a wrap. Have a wonderful weekend.
– July 25, 2025
