The Week in impact investing: Relational architecture

TGIF, Agents of Impact! 

• Roundup: Foundations for prosperity
• Podcasts: Ian Fuller, Ben Schiffrin, Katy Yung and Tokunboh Ishmael
• Agent of Impact: Saskia Bruysten, Carbon Equity

🗣 Foundations for prosperity. The economy runs on trust as much as it runs on capital. In his sweeping essay sketching the eventual reconstruction of Iran, Second Muse’s Todd Khozein, who fled Iran with his family, argues that even Marshall Plan-level investment alone can’t rebuild a nation without the trust, inclusion and civic participation that make prosperity durable. “Reconstruction works only when capital is deployed through localized, trust-building mechanisms,” Khozein says. The opportunity for such market-shaping is huge in Latin America as well, where Agents of Impact like Pro Mujer’s Carmen Correa gathered at this week’s GLI Forum Latam to redesign economic participation around ownership, workplace power and capital access for women. In Asia, families and institutions are developing their own flavor of impact investing, based on patient capital, intergenerational stewardship and disciplined innovation, as SFi’s Katy Yung told me on an Agent of Impact podcast that previewed next week’s SFi Impact Summit in Hong Kong. 

By the same token, the loss of trust, the dismantling of institutions and the slide toward autocracy represent a breakdown of “relational architecture” and a systemic risk. Enduring Planet’s Dimitry Gershenson and Blended Value Group’s Jed Emerson call on allocators of impact capital to practice “courageous capital.” Those who work in impact have a choice: Watch as decades of work are unwound, or step up to meet the moment.” Private equity’s push to “democratize” access to private markets raises the question of whether the financial system is being redesigned to distribute opportunity, or risk, as guests Ian Fuller of Westfuller and Ben Schiffrin of Better Markets discuss in the new season of the Impact(ed) podcast. As You Sow’s Andy Behar, in his latest Fiduciary Future column, argues that the SEC’s weakening of disclosure, shareholder rights and proxy processes undermines the open information and trust that free markets depend on. 

Amid the AI buildout, Elemental Impact and the hyperscalers are building collaborative ecosystems to accelerate climate solutions, reports Amy Cortese. Investors pressing for water-risk transparency are working to ensure those systems remain accountable to the communities and natural resources they depend on, writes Ceres’ Kirsten James. Agents of Impact aren’t simply financing projects or building companies. At their best, they are establishing the channels, networks and trust that create the relational architecture of a just, free, inclusive and sustainable economy. – Dennis Price

This Week on the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network

🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editorial director Amy Cortese. Up this week: Two takes on Big Tech’s AI data center buildout; what’s at stake as private equity attracts retirement savings; and, whether the attraction of gender-lens investing can spur a race to the top among funds and enterprises.

• 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: The ‘now generation’ shaping the future of impact investing. In advance of Sustainable Finance Initiative’s Impact Week in Hong Kong, SFI’s Katy Yung joins Dennis Price to talk about why global fund managers are beating a path to Asian family offices.

• Listen.

🧑🏽‍🎓 Impact(ed): Blackstone and your retirement. Only 10% of retail investors say they want expanded access to private markets. So why are private asset managers pushing for it? On the season premiere of “Impact(ed),” Westfuller Advisors’ Ian Fuller and Better Markets’ Ben Schiffrin join hosts Rodney Foxworth and Eric Horvath to unpack what’s at stake as Blackstone, Apollo, KKR and other “alternatives” managers push their way into 401(k) accounts.

• Tune in and read more.

👩‍🏫 Women Changing Finance: Gender lens outperformance in Africa. Why do less than 2% of investments go to female founders globally? And what are we missing because of it? Alitheia Capital’s Tokunboh Ishmael joins host Krisztina Tora to explore why diversity leads to better business decisions. As co-founder of Alitheia, which manages over $250 million in assets, Tokunboh has spent nearly two decades investing in businesses that expand access to finance, clean energy and economic opportunity.

• Check it out.

The Week’s Agent of Impact

Saskia Bruysten, Carbon Equity: Shifting power to democratize climate investing. Poverty alleviation in Bangladesh has a lot in common, it turns out, with climate investing in Europe. Saskia Bruysten cut her teeth in social entrepreneurship in Bangladesh, working alongside Muhammad Yunus, the father of microfinance. She’s now a co-founder of Carbon Equity and is leading the Netherlands-based climate investment firm’s international expansion. The enduring thread is a commitment to shift power dynamics in finance to fuel social change. Grameen Bank, which made its name offering micro-loans to poor, rural women, sent agents to more than 90,000 villages to let women know it had money to lend. Bruysten’s ‘aha’ moment came on her first visit to the villages of Bangladesh. “When the bank makes the effort to go to the person borrowing the money, that changes the power dynamic between the bank and the borrower significantly,” she says. “With Carbon Equity, we’re trying to find that sweet spot, where there’s the least imbalance between LPs and GPs, where it’s more at eye level.”

That sweet spot is individuals with $100,000 to $1 million to invest. Carbon Equity has raised nearly $500 million from more than 1,700 investors to invest in climate technologies and climate funds. Its portfolio includes more than a dozen funds and 280 companies. When it was started in 2021, Carbon Equity’s trio of female founders sought to support promising climate solutions while democratizing such investment opportunities. Its largest investors are family offices writing seven and eight-figure checks, but its key focus is individuals investing a minimum of $20,000. “This is sidelined capital that’s either vegetating in bank accounts or investing in the stock market. It’s not making any difference in the world,” says Bruysten, who joined Carbon Equity in 2024 as a fourth founder to launch its international business. “They bring sufficient capital to us that they’re relevant to us as an investment platform. We bring the access and the network and the expertise to them.”

Carbon Equity is exploring ways to engage an even lower bracket of investors. It’s also expanding the opportunities available to its existing base. Earlier this month, the firm rolled out a debt fund to support renewable energy infrastructure projects. The climate crisis, says Bruysten, is a prime example of how money can be deployed as a tool to solve problems – and create wealth – when a broader base of investors are allowed to participate. A big win: Carbon Equity’s portfolio company Fervo Energy, a geothermal energy company in Texas, raised more than $1.8 billion on its first day of trading after its IPO this month. “It would be much easier to raise from institutional LPs,” says Bruysten. “If we really want to change something in the world, then we need a much broader investor base.”

• Keep reading, “Saskia Bruysten, Carbon Equity: Shifting power to democratize climate investing,” by Jessica Pothering.

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. And catch up on all of this week’s dealflow reporting.

California’s governor appointed Martin Muoto, a developer of more than two dozen ground-up affordable housing projects, to the board of the California Housing Finance Agency… Swedfund welcomed Christer Simrén, a growth investor with board experience across technology and finance, as a director.

CapShift appointed Carleigh Douglas, previously with the Center for High Impact Philanthropy, as managing director of client solutions… Maisie Silverman, former marketing director at 3i Members, joined The ImPact as a senior communications manager… Earthshot Ventures tapped Bethel Gashaw, former development consultant at Generate, to help its investor community identify and evaluate founders building at the intersection of major technology shifts and impact.

That’s a wrap. Have a wonderful weekend. 

– May 29, 2026