Greetings, Agents of Impact!
Welcome to this week’s ImpactAlpha LP/GP, where we take you inside the real business of impact investing and the dynamic relationships between owners, managers and intermediaries of impact capital.
In this week’s newsletter:
- Tsao and other family offices make Singapore an emerging impact hub
- GP Snapshot: Cerulean Ventures
- A green, affordable housing fund for India
- LP Outlook: Impact allocator perspectives
Featured: Family Offices
From Singapore, Tsao Family Office expands the LP pool for impact strategies in Africa. The first close of an innovative private-credit strategy for small and mid-sized businesses in Africa’s least-developed markets included many of the usual suspects: European quasi-public development finance institutions and multilaterals like International Finance Corp. Joining them now is the private family office of fourth-generation siblings of a maritime trading and logistics company based in Singapore. Tsao Family Office, established more than a decade ago by the family behind maritime company Tsao Pao Chee Group, is the latest investor to join the LP roster for London-based TLG Capital’s second Africa Growth Impact Fund. The fund uses a unique structure to provide dollar-denominated loans to African businesses that can’t get them from their local banks. TLG reached a $75 million first-close in April. “In Asia, our family office stands out in terms of our interest and appetite for impact,” Tsao’s Leslie Lim tells ImpactAlpha.
- Asia to Africa. Tsao’s commitment toward the fund’s $200 million target, shared exclusively with ImpactAlpha, is part of the family office’s broader effort to encourage more of Asia’s family offices to seize underexplored opportunities for financial returns and impact. “This fund is quite different from the rest of our private credit portfolio. It’s a structure we’ve never seen before, and being in Africa is completely new for us,” says Lim, who leads Tsao’s fixed-income portfolio. “It’s a bit of a risk, but it’s the type of risk the family is prepared to take given the impact focus. If it works, we’d like to find other opportunities like this in Africa.” Adds Diana Watson, who leads impact and sustainable investing at Tsao, “We see such good impact and commercial return potential for the region.”
- Impact hub. Singapore is emerging as a hub for investments in climate action and sustainable finance more broadly. Temasek, the $288 billion state-owned global investment company, has one of the world’s broadest institutional impact portfolios. The Global Impact Investing Network last month hosted its Asia Impact Forum, with representatives of more than $300 billion in assets under management. Impact investing family offices in the region include Silverstrand Capital (nature-based solutions), The Rumah Group (social housing and ocean) health, and Ecca Family Foundation (catalytic impact investments in Southeast Asia). Tsao Pao Chee Group, known as TPC, recently stood up the No. 17 Foundation and is hosting Impact Week in Singapore in September.
- Proof in the portfolio. About 51% of Tsao’s portfolio is impact and sustainability-focused, including about 15% that falls into the “deep impact” category. Its impact portfolio includes BlueOrchard Microfinance Fund and Wellington Global Impact Bond Fund on the private credit side, and agriculture tech fund manager Omnivore and health care investor Somerset Indus on the private equity side. The family office has one other Africa fund in its portfolio: the Future of Work fund from Chancen International, which is part of Tsao’s small catalytic carve-out pool rather than its main portfolio. With TLG, Lim says Tsao wants to prove to other family offices in Asia that “there’s an opportunity for both impact and returns.” He hopes Tsao Family Office’s impact and sustainable investing strategies will encourage other family offices to look for “a sweet spot for making really interesting returns and impact as well.”
- Keep reading, “From Singapore, Tsao Family Office expands the LP pool for impact strategies in Africa,” by Jessica Pothering.
The Liist: GP Snapshot
With second fund, Cerulean still seeks non-consensus in physical AI and nature tech. Everybody’s investing in AI. But not everybody’s investing in AI to reduce plastics in the pharmaceutical supply chain or to certify deforestation-free cocoa and coffee grown by smallholder farmers. “When people look at us, they go, ‘This is crazy. This is going to work?’ And that’s how we know that we’re on the right track,” said Matthew Stotts of Cerulean Ventures, which closed its $10 million first fund last year. For its second fund, it is targeting $50 million for pre-seed and early stage investments in “physical AI” and nature tech. The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based firm remains proudly “non-consensus.” It was launched in 2022 with support from anchor investor One Small Planet, the nonprofit and venture fund of William Peterffy, and several family offices. Stotts said One Small Planet has re-upped for the second fund.
- Nature tech. Cerulean made 35 investments from its first fund and is warehousing deals for the second. One early portfolio company, LGND, last month raised $9 million in follow-on seed funding to build out its “AI for Earth observation” platform to make sense of terabytes of geospatial data. Meridia is engaging smallholder farmers to reduce deforestation by certifying their products under European and other regulations. Elio makes software to integrate sustainability in the pharmaceutical supply chain. “The differentiation for us is very much in physical AI,” says Cerulean’s Jahed Momand. “People are finding these opportunities for software and scale from AI in places that honestly are just boring or unsexy.”
- Keep reading.
Dealflow: Affordable Housing
India’s HDFC Capital secures $150 million anchor investment from IFC for green, affordable housing fund. The International Finance Corp. provided $150 million in anchor funding for HDFC Capital Advisors, the real estate private equity arm of India’s Housing Development Finance Corp. The anchor investment is intended to mobilize $850 million from institutional investors and family offices for the H-DREAM Fund, short for HDFC Capital Development of Real Estate Affordable and Mid-Income Fund. It has so far gathered $350 million in commitments. The fund will “integrate financing, facilitate energy, water and material efficiency, along with innovative technology-based solutions in housing development,” explained HDFC Capital’s Vipul Roongta.
- Green housing supply. IFC was an early equity investor when HDFC was set up in 1978 as India’s first housing finance company. It sold its stake in 1994. HDFC’s private bank has 8,700 branches, mainly in rural and semi-urban areas. The new fund will target large and small cities across India. “By leveraging market-based solutions and channeling institutional capital to underserved markets, this initiative will broaden access to housing finance, create opportunities for smaller developers, and strengthen and diversify the housing value chain,” said IFC’s Carsten Mueller.
Canada’s BinSentry lands $50 million to streamline animal feed supply chains. BinSentry’s livestock feed storage bins are equipped with AI-powered software and solar-powered sensors to help farmers and feed mills cut feed waste and improve worker productivity and safety. BinSentry monitors over 40,000 feed bins for dozens of suppliers and food processors in North America and Brazil, including Cargill and Maple Leaf Foods. New York-based Lead Edge Capital led its $50 million Series C round. The funding follows a $15 million round last year, led by Spring Mountain Capital, with some additional debt financing.
- Streamlining operations. Geopolitical tensions are disrupting agricultural trade flows, raising prices and shrinking margins for the $400 billion animal feed market. “We’ve been closely monitoring parts of the agriculture supply chain that have historically been underserved by software, in anticipation of large agricultural companies needing better tools for cost savings, forecasting and operational efficiency,” said Lead Edge’s Aaron Darr. BinSentry earlier this year made Cargill the exclusive distributor of BinSentry’s animal feed inventory system in Brazil.
Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:
- The OHIO Fund, an investment firm that seeks to accelerate Ohio’s economic prosperity, secured $106 million for its Ohio Institutional Impact Investment Fund. (OHIO Fund)
- Temasek-backed ABC Impact took a 16% stake in AC Health, a Philippines-based operator of hospitals, clinics and pharmacies. The deal is Asia-focused ABC Impact’s impact fund’s first entry into the Philippines healthcare market. (AC Health)
- San Francisco-based Activate Capital has raised nearly half of its $500 target for its third fund, which invests in sustainable and resilient energy and infrastructure. (Axios)
Signals: LP Outlook
Allocators sound off on liquidity, policy concerns, and what kills a deal for them. What prevents investors from committing to a fund? Lack of experience and track record, according to a survey of allocators by Impact Capital Managers. “We’re looking for clarity, focus and alignment between a team’s experience and their strategy. If that’s not there, we can’t get comfortable,” explained Cynthia Muller of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. A weak impact thesis or poor impact management and measurement practices was the second most cited reason, followed closely by lack of confidence in the GP management team or concerns around governance and integrity. “A misaligned or performative impact strategy is a red flag. We’re looking for managers who treat impact as integral – not a marketing line,” said Andrew Lee of UBS Global Wealth Management. The findings are from ICM’s Impact Allocator Perspectives 2025, which surveyed 42 asset allocators, including fund of funds, family offices and foundations, about their concerns, strategies and deployment priorities for 2025.
- Investment priorities. Investors are prioritizing climate for new investment allocations in 2025, along with real assets and financial inclusion. Healthcare, workforce development and affordable housing are also key focus areas. “Allocators are prioritizing climate in 2025, but the recalibration away from over-allocated venture strategies is clear,” said Mark Berryman of Capricorn Investment Group, who leads ICM’s LP Advisory Council and co-authored the report. “This signals a growing appetite for climate exposure through real assets, private credit and other structures that better align with today’s market dynamics.”
- More.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
CrossBoundary Advisory appoints three new partners: Kirtika Challa as head of power and infrastructure advisory; Fanta Conde as co-head of West Africa investment advisory; and Jonathan Duarte as head of Latin America and Caribbean advisory… GroundBreak Coalition appoints Adair Mosley, formerly with African American Leadership Forum Twin Cities, as CEO… Farm Africa welcomes KawiSafi Ventures’ Amar Inamdar as board chair… Aviva Investors appoints David Thomas, previously with Schroders, as global head of insurance.
Superorganism seeks a VC investor… Mastercard is hiring a director of financial inclusion solutions in London… Private Infrastructure Development Group is recruiting an impact advisor in Nairobi… Chobani is looking for an executive assistant to the chief impact officer in New York… The Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia seeks an executive director… Allianz Global Investors is hiring a sustainability due diligence and performance manager in London.
👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.
Thank you for your impact!
– Aug. 12, 2025
