ImpactAlpha’s deal news coverage for the week:
Agrifood investing. Gardin, based in the UK, raised $4.5 million from Navus Ventures and other backers for its AI-supported sensor that measures crop photosynthesis in real time to determine plant health… Impact investors Ocean 14 and S2G Investments jointly invested in Colombia’s Enthos Circular Feed Technologies, which produces animal feed by farming insects.
Clean technologies. Commonwealth Fusion Systems has reportedly raised $1 billion in an extension of its Series B round to support the buildout of its demonstration fusion power reactor… University of Wisconsin spinout Realta raised $36 million for its modular magnetic mirror fusion technology. The Series A round was led by Future Ventures, alongside Mayfield, Avila VC, GSBackers, Khosla Ventures and other investors.
Climate finance. Absa Bank secured $75 million in senior debt financing from Proparco to scale its climate finance portfolio in Africa… Actis raised $1.7 billion for brownfield infrastructure in emerging markets… Royal America offered a $26 million green bond with backing from responsAbility and IDB Invest.
Community finance. ChurchSpace raised $1.2 million to repurpose churches as economic hubs.
Impact funds. BluePeak Private Capital secured $80 million for its second African credit fund… French real estate fund manager AMPERE Gestion raised €325 million ($349 million) in a first close for its third intermediate housing fund, which will finance energy efficient, affordable rental housing for young workers and students in French cities.
Impact management. London-based wealth manager Tribe Impact Capital acquired Snowball Impact Management to enable Tribe to meet “accelerating demand” for private and public impact investments.
Investing in health. Nigeria’s Platos Health clinched $1.4 million in pre-seed funding, led by Google for Startups and Invest International, for its AI-powered wearable health monitor… North Carolina-based Uviquity snagged $6.6 million in a seed round backed by Emerald Development Managers and AgFunder to kill viruses, bacteria and other pathogens using its far-UVC light.
Low carbon transition. Canada’s Power Sustainable launched a $330 million private equity fund focused on decarbonizing energy, industrials, transportation and the built environment. Funding came from its parent, Power Corporation of Canada, alongside insurer Canada Life and others.
LP/GP. Macquarie Group is acquiring the smart metering business of Spain’s Iberdrola. The deal, subject to approval by the UK’s competition authority, is valued at £900 million ($1.2 billion)… Partners Group will acquire Digital Halo, a Singapore-based developer of data centers, digital infrastructure and renewable energy… Synergos Holdings’ evergreen fund for ‘fee-sensitive’ LPs.
Return on inclusion. Indonesian microfinance provider Amartha received a $55 million loan from Swedfund, Finnfund and the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries to lend to rural female entrepreneurs… The European Investment Bank and Kenya’s Family Bank are putting up €50 million ($56.2 million) each to expand lending to women-owned and -led enterprises and youth entrepreneurs in Kenya.
Solar energy. Aligned Climate Capital raised $240 million for its sixth distributed solar fund… Blackstone’s Aypa Power secured $535 million in debt for solar-storage project in California… RM Capital Partners acquired Integrated Solar Operations, a provider of solar energy systems to residential, commercial and government customers in Puerto Rico… The UK’s Konexa, Climate Fund Managers and Norfund invested $3.6 million to set up solar plants to power Nigerian Breweries in Nigeria’s Lagos and Enugu states.
