Brazil’s impact and climate fund managers are connecting investors to resourceful entrepreneurs underserved by capital markets. “You have really good entrepreneurs here, smart people looking to solve the problems,” says Tatiana Sasson, who leads impact for Lightrock in Latin America.
The $5.5 billion private equity impact investment firm, backed by Liechtenstein’s royal family, has deployed $700 million in Latin America, including through more than a dozen ventures delivering solutions for “people, productivity and planet.”
The track records of the ventures demonstrate “it’s possible to deliver strong returns with impact,” Sasson told ImpactAlpha in a video interview on the sidelines of Foro Latinoamericano de Inversión de Impacto, or FLII.
Once known for a few bespoke impact funds, Brazil now hosts dozens of impact and climate managers who are raising larger funds, diversifying across asset classes, and adding best practices in governance and transparency.
Fueling the energy transition in Brazil
São Paulo-based eB Capital manages $1 billion across more than five funds and is in the market with its second energy transition and decarbonization fund. Guilherme Quintal joined eB Capital last year from The Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. His mandate: Showcase transition opportunities in Brazil to international investors, and specifically to Middle Eastern investors with a growing appetite for green assets.
For the last century, Brazil was an agricultural powerhouse. “We believe there is a new economy coming now, around green energy and energy transition,” Quintal told ImpactAlpha in a video interview. In 2023, eB Capital invested roughly $50 million in Bioo, which turns animal protein waste into biomethane, a substitute for natural gas.
“The world is changing. The energy transition market is here to stay,” says Quintal. “Brazil is a country where you can create scale.”
Finding impact alpha in Latin America
Half of the population in Latin America still lacks access to a bank account. More than half of children in the region are unable to read and understand a simple text. A third of people continue to face barriers to accessing healthcare.
“In terms of opportunities, it’s huge,” Sasson told ImpactAlpha in a video interview.
Lightrock has backed accessible bus charter company Buser, alternative credit scoring fintech platform Creditas and agribusiness lender Agrolend.
Delivering impact across asset classes
To meet a growing demand from impact investors, São Paulo-based impact fund manager Vox Capital is diversifying beyond venture capital into other asset classes such as fixed income. “Every investment has an impact,” Vox’s Daniel Izzo told ImpactAlpha in a video interview. “At this current moment in our history, we should be caring about the impact of every penny that we deploy.”
Vox manages roughly seven impact-focused VC funds, along with a fixed-income fund investing in bonds of Brazilian public companies contributing to Sustainable Development Goals, and a separate credit fund for nature-based solutions, totaling over $250 million in assets under management.
Now, with the partnership of The Nature Conservancy, as impact advisors, and the Moore Foundation, Vox is raising a fund to deploy catalytic capital for blended finance structures that will fund land usage around the Amazon region.
Izzo, with Vox partner Gilberto Ribeiro de Oliveira Filho, this month fired back at São Paulo-based asset manager Spectra Investimentos, which took shots at impact investing in its 2025 investment letter. It has become “increasingly clear that no one and no institution can exempt themselves from the world you are helping to create,” the Vox team wrote in their reply.
Latam talent and asset light ventures
Eqwow Ventures – for “equal” – has a straightforward thesis for building a more equitable world while delivering strong financial returns: “Latam talent, asset light, and quickly expands regionally and internationally,” in areas such as healthcare, financial inclusion and energy efficiency, the venture firm’s Monica Blatyta told ImpactAlpha in a video interview.
To ensure firms deliver on financial and impact goals, Eqwow looks for firms with best practices in governance and transparency, and helps them deliver better results with ESG experts and proprietary software.
The VC firm has backed a health device company that started in Argentina, and is already in Colombia and Chile. Eqwow helped open up the Brazilian market to the company, including overcoming regulatory hurdles.
Being strong on ESG, as well as impact, makes firms more attractive to potential customers or acquirers, says Blatyta. “If these companies are well prepared and they have the best policies, they tend to be preferred, too. So it ends up being a commercial advantage.”
