ImpactAlpha Open

$2.7 billion in ‘green bank’ funds deployed + Rihanna expands finance toolkit in Africa

Dennis Price · July 22, 2025

Hi there, Agent of Impact! Welcome to ImpactAlpha Open, a free weekly sampling of the top news and views from ImpactAlpha.

🚀 Read it first on ImpactAlpha. Stories that ImpactAlpha’s award-winning team of journalists originate often shape the mainstream headlines that follow. Last week, David Bank and Amy Cortese’s big Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund scoop was picked up E&E News, a widely read Politico publication. ImpactAlpha subscribers don’t just get the signal first – they help set the agenda. Subscribe today. 

In this week’s Open:

  • Private equity funds scoop up $2.7 billion in ‘green bank’ funds
  • Rihanna’s Gather Ventures offers ownership opportunities for women in Africa 
  • Podcasts: This Week in Impact, Community Capital Live and Criterion Institute 
  • Pop Impact: Sticking up for scientists in “Toxic” and “Twisters”

Let’s dig in. – Dennis Price

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

  • Scoop: Coalition for Green Capital places $2.7 billion in ‘green bank’ funds with Apollo, Brookfield and Energy Capital Partners. Remember the $20 billion in Biden-era “green bank” financing that’s been frozen at Citibank? Mark that down to $17 billion. It turns out the Coalition for Green Capital successfully disbursed nearly $2.7 billion in four “strategic, dedicated financial partnership vehicles” before the Trump administration could halt the transfers, scoops ImpactAlpha’sDavid Bank and Amy Cortese. Learn more.
    • E&E News picked up ImpactAlpha’s story.
  • Solar stocks defy Washington’s gravity. The current market landscape requires us to hold two, if not more, opposing truths in mind at once. Number one: President Donald Trump’s signature budget bill is a major financial setback to the rollout of renewables and electric vehicles in the US. Number two: And yet, TAN, the exchange traded fund of US-listed solar companies, is at its highest value of any time since Trump was elected. Carbon Collective Zach Stein and James Regulinski offer their hypotheses on what’s driving the counterintuitive trend.Get their take.
  • Rihanna expands her toolkit for investing in women-led ventures in Africa. Gather Ventures, the Nairobi-based investment fund of singer-entrepreneur-cultural icon Rihanna, is deploying a new set of tools to invest in women-led and women-focused enterprises. “As this portfolio grows, we want to have templates of what it looks like to do things differently, run by African women who are based here,” Gather’s Jo Opot, a veteran of Acumen, tells ImpactAlpha in one of her first interviews since the pop billionaire’s foundation established the $20 million fund. Keep reading.

Agents of Impact

🏃 On the move

  • Jovitus Rutakinikwa, previously with SME Impact Fund Tanzania, joined Balloon Ventures where he will lead Balloon Ventures Tanzania.
  • Impact Capital Managers promoted Rafe Monteiro to head of finance and operations.
  • The Good Economy welcomed Samantha Semanek Renninger, previously with the US International Development Finance Corp., as a senior impact analyst.

The Week’s Podcasts

🎧 This Week in Impact: Green funds deployed. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor Amy Cortese and senior reporter Lucy Ngige. Up this week: How nearly $3 billion in Biden era climate financing, thought to be frozen in legal limbo, made it out to private equity giants. Why biochar is having a moment. And, how global superstar Rihanna is investing in women-led ventures in Africa via her investment fund Gather Ventures.

🏘️ Community Capital Live: Empowering local economies with FarmWorks. FarmWorks Investment Co-op’s Linda Best joins hosts Joel Skene and Michael Shuman to share how Nova Scotians are reclaiming their local food system by investing in community-rooted enterprises. FarmWorks has raised over $6 million from more than 500 investors and lent $10 million to 173 food and farm businesses. Best, a microbiologist by training, shows how local capital can regenerate regional agriculture, revive food processing infrastructure, and reduce reliance on ultra-processed imports. Watch now.

📯 The Criterion Institute Podcast: Investable hope. Host Joy Anderson is joined by Criterion’s Susie Pan to explore the concept of “investable hope.” They discuss the importance of hope in times of crisis, the shift from individual to collective hope, and how investments can be a pathway to creating a more equitable society. Listen in.

Pop Impact

🧪 Sticking up for scientists

Science is under attack. Between US budget cuts to critical agencies, the weaponization of research grant funding, and the elimination of important regulations, the Trump administration seems intent on cutting the legs out from under the scientific community. In his latest Pop Impact review, Dmitriy Ioselevich looks at this year’s “Toxic Town” series and last year’s film, “Twisters,” which illustrate the role of scientists in society. Ioselevich assigns ratings on a 15-point scale, with five each for accuracy, impact and entertainment.

Get in the Game

💼 Step up

  • Open Road is seeking an investment officer for a remote role in Washington, DC, New York, or remote.
  • Blue Earth Capital AG is hiring an asset class specialist for private equity secondaries in Abu Dhabi or London.
  • Sustainable Capital Advisors is looking for a research analyst fellow for a part-time internship either in Washington, DC or remote.

Dozens of job opportunities are available to subscribers each week on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

🤝 Meet up

Subscribe to ImpactAlpha to access significant savings on events.

Bring your team onto ImpactAlpha. Save with substantial group discounts. Start here.

Lead the conversation. Sponsor a beat, newsletters or calls with ImpactAlpha. Get in touch.