ImpactAlpha Open

Africa’s pension funds go local + the high price of American poverty

Dennis Price · June 3, 2025

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

⚡ Plug in today: How mobility tech is reshaping cities from the ground up. For today’s PluggedIn, mobility investor Raggeria Goddard of Crowned Venture Capital joins ImpactAlpha’s Sherrell Dorsey to map the mobility landscape, from EV charging and “digital twins,” to advanced sensors and smart corridors. Plug in today, Tuesday, June 3 at 10am PT / 1pm ET. There’s still time to RSVP.

✅ Investments news for a sustainable edge. An ImpactAlpha subscription helps professionals make smarter, better and faster decisions in impact investing. Take half off.

In this week’s Open:

  • Africa’s pension funds go local 
  • Giving impact a voice in investment decisions
  • Agent of Impact: Jean Rogers, material girl
  • New podcasts from ImpactAlpha, Impact(ed) and Activest

Let’s jump in. – Dennis Price

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

  • Ugandan pension fund is creating new savers with investments in small business and agriculture (video). Patrick Ayota, the head of the National Social Security Fund, a $6.5 billion provident fund in Uganda, is reshaping the pension fund’s investment policies and asset allocations in order to back local growth funds for small businesses. ImpactAlpha’s David Bank sat down with Ayota on the sidelines of the Collaborative for Frontier Finance gathering in Naivasha, Kenya earlier this year. Watch the video and read the story.
  • Bad policy + Big Business = Burdened poor: The high price of American poverty. From prison beds to payday loans, being poor in America isn’t just hard. It’s profitable – for someone else. “Belonging should never carry a surcharge,” contributing editor Napoleon Wallace writes in his latest Re:Construction column on ImpactAlpha. “Investing in the potential of those who just need a fair shot tends to pay off.” Keep reading.
  • Should impact have a veto in investment decisions? Impact investing has scaled to $1.5 trillion-ish in assets under management – but who’s really calling the shots? In a sharp critique, Ana Pimenta of the Amsterdam-based family office Blink CV argues that impact remains sidelined in most investment decisions. “Bringing more capital doesn’t necessarily mean more impact,” she writes. “It is more complex than that.” Hear her out.

Agents of Impact

📈 Jean Rogers, Pegasus Capital Advisors: Material girl

“When I founded SASB, the words sustainability and materiality were not uttered in the same breath,” says Jean Rogers, who is helping lead climate investments in emerging markets at Pegasus Capital Advisors. Today, it’s routine for public market analysts and institutional investors to factor in social and environmental issues when analyzing opportunities and pricing risk. “I will always come back to that – I’m a material girl at heart,” she says

🏃 On the move

  • Social Finance appointed Pamela Yang, formerly chief operating officer at Bulfinch, as chief financial officer.
  • ImpactA Global welcomed Isabella Craft, previously with INOKS Capital, as an ESG and impact manager. 
  • Nafisa Bhikhoo, previously with Dalberg, joined 2X Global as programme lead.

🎧 This Week in Impact: Risk misperceptions. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Pegasus Capital’s contrarian play for orphaned climate projects in emerging markets. How a Ugandan pension fund is creating its own new savers with investments in small business and agriculture. And, should impact have a veto in investment decision-making?

🧑🏽‍🎓 Impact(ed): Illumen’s approach to measuring and managing impact. Illumen Capital’s Joanna Kuang and Leila Mengesha join Lucas and Eric to talk about the lived experiences that brought them to investing, the risks of not measuring and managing impact, and how IMM roles once barely existed. Check it out.

🗺️ The Activest Podcast: Ending structural precarity. Precarity (noun) – a state of persistent insecurity with regard to employment or income. Micah, Ellen, Homero and John discuss the ways precarity is threaded through American life. In this era of abundance, disconnection and inequality, how can control and power change with regard to housing, education and work? What can local governments do to rebuild the commons? Listen now.

Get in the Game

💼 Step up

  • Hamilton Community Foundation is seeking a director of social finance investments in Ontario.
  • Maycomb Capital is hiring an investment associate in Brooklyn.
  • Rabo Foundation is looking for an impact finance consultant in Mexico.

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

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