ImpactAlpha Open

COP watch from Brazil + private-credit jitters for impact funds

Dennis Price ¡ November 11, 2025

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☎️ Answer The Call: Catalyzing local growth funds for growth firms in Africa. Join growth fund managers from Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya who are unlocking domestic and institutional capital to finance small businesses. WIC Capital’s Evelyne Dioh Simpa, Mirepa Investment Advisors’ Samuel Yeboah, Aruwa Capital Management’s Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes,and Kenya Climate Ventures’ Victor Ndiege join the Collaborative for Frontier Finance’s Drew von Glahn, in conversation with David Bank, to discuss what’s working, what’s not, and how catalytic capital can do more.

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In this week’s Open:

  • ImpactAlpha’s COP Watch
  • Private-credit debt bubble makes even impact investors nervous
  • Veterans find service through investing
  • Ranking funds on social justice

Let’s dig in. â€“ Dennis Price

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

  • With Tropical Forests Forever fund, Brazil tries a new approach to slowing deforestation. The annual climate summit known as the Conference of the Parties is here. As the host of COP30, Brazil’s focus is on nature, and tropical forests in particular. The South American country, home to the largest expanse of the Amazon, is championing a new fund aimed at protecting tropical forests as part of its COP30 agenda, reports ImpactAlpha’sErik Stein. Keep reading.
    • COP Watch. ImpactAlpha has launched COP Watch with Aliança Pelo Impacto, Brazil’s national advisory board for impact investing, to keep investors ahead of the curve during the world’s largest climate conference.
  • Private credit jitters even have impact investors on edge. Investment giants spent their quarterly earnings calls this fall defending their private credit investments amid concerns over the hidden risks of a ballooning asset class. Impact investors have also piled into private credit, an important source of non-dilutive capital for company growth, new facilities and expansion into new markets. A general withdrawal by institutional investors could hurt impact lenders, reports ImpactAlpha’s David Bank. Learn more.
  • Institutional investors warm to blended climate finance even as foreign aid and catalytic capital decline. The theory of blended finance was simple, even if the transactions were not. Public and philanthropic capital would help develop projects and de-risk transactions in order to crowd in private institutional investors to finance climate action at scale But just as institutional investors are arriving, public and catalytic capital is in retreat, according to Convergence’s latest “State of climate blended finance” report. ImpactAlpha’s Erik Stein reports. Go deeper.
    • Latin America blended finance survey. ImpactAlpha and Convergence have joined forces to better understand and map the blended finance ecosystem, starting in Latin America. Your input will help us identify key trends, actors, and opportunities shaping the region. Take the survey.

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Agents of Impact

🎖️ Hard lessons and soft power: Veterans continue service – through investing

Hard power is on full display in Ukraine, in Palestine, off the coast of Venezuela, in global trade talks. “We believe that soft power – the ability to shape outcomes through attraction, values and partnership – is a more strategic, enduring, and ethical tool for global influence,” argue Nicholas Java and Andrew Lee, two US military veterans who now work for the emerging markets venture capital firm Beyond Capital Ventures (see, “Eva Yazhari is rewriting the rules for investing in East Africa and India,” below). â€œHard power, whether military force, sanctions or trade barriers, has a place in world affairs,” they acknowledge. But such tactics often lead to resentment and dependency. In a Veterans’ Day essay, Java and Lee trace their journeys from careers in the military to scouting and diligencing investment opportunities in Africa and India.

🏃 On the move

  • Jesse Corradi, formerly with US International Development Finance Corp., joined CalSTRS as an associate portfolio manager on its sustainable investment and stewardship strategies team.
  • Expect Equity welcomed Julie Won, former managing partner at Hanson and Doremus Investment Management, as portfolio manager of its second fund.
  • Overture Ventures promoted Emma McDonagh to principal.

The Week’s Podcasts

🎧 This Week in Impact

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: In the lead up to the COP30 climate summit, the state of climate blended finance is a mixed bag; private credit jitters that are putting impact investors on edge; and, a preview of next week’s Agents of Impact call on mobilizing growth funds for growth firms in Africa.

🦸  Agents of Impact: At Beyond Capital Ventures, Eva Yazhari is rewriting the rules for investing in East Africa and India. As a former hedge fund investor, Eva Yazhari is comfortable making the contrarian bet. While other VC investors are swinging for grand slams with AI startups, Yazhari’s Beyond Capital Ventures is knocking down singles and doubles around the west Indian Ocean, one of the world’s fastest-growing regions. Listen in.

The Week’s Spotlight

✊ Ranking funds on social justice

What’s in your 401(k) or mutual fund? When mutual funds and ETFs are each made up of dozens or hundreds of companies, that can be difficult to answer. As You Sow launched Invest Your Values a decade ago to help investors see what’s hiding in their portfolios. The tool analyzes more than 6,000 funds each month and scores them on their exposure to seven sectors, including fossil fuels, deforestation, prisons and guns. Now the shareholder advocate group has introduced a new category for social justice funds. Companies that fail to address racial inequity, exploitative labor practices, or community displacement often face lawsuits, reputational crises, regulatory fines and consumer backlash, As You Sow’s Andrew Behar writes in his latest Fiduciary Future column. “These aren’t abstract risks. They hit the bottom line.” 

Get in the Game

💼 Step up

  • Clean Energy Ventures is seeking an investment analyst for a remote role.
  • Man Group is hiring a stewardship analyst in London.
  • Arnold Ventures LLC is looking for a senior associate of mission-aligned investments in New York.

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