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. Today’s focus: family offices.
📞 Get PluggedIn, today. ImpactAlpha’s Sherrell Dorsey sits down with Melissa Pegus, managing partner of the Future Economy Fund, to talk about investing in solutions built for and by young people. Born out of a partnership with Girls for Gender Equity, the Future Economy Fund advances housing security, economic opportunity, climate resilience and ownership for the next generation – centering youth voices as both a moral imperative and a smart strategy. Get PluggedIn, today at 10am ET / 1pm ET / 6pm London. There’s still time to RSVP.
In this week’s newsletter:
- Liesel Pritzker Simmons on mobilizing wealthy families for impact
- Optimizing Europe’s grid and EV charging infrastructure
- LP Scan of more than a dozen impact investing family offices
- Six tips for unlocking family office capital
Featured: Family Offices
Blue Haven’s Liesel Pritzker Simmons on family office impact investing in perilous times (Q&A). Climate action, racial equity and even systems-change are all fine. But when Liesel Pritzker Simmons starts talking about a global wealth tax, she finds that some of her billionaire peers are apt to say, “Liesel, settle down.” In a wide-ranging conversation, Pritzker Simmons told ImpactAlpha, “I would love a little bit more noise from the impact investing family office space around this one.” With her share of her family’s Hyatt hotels fortune, Pritzker Simmons and her husband, Ian Simmons, have over a dozen years built Blue Haven Initiative into one of the most active family offices in impact investing, with investments with more than 30 private equity, private credits and real assets managers, as well as numerous direct investments. Forbes estimates her net worth at $1.5 billion. “I don’t want anybody to talk to me about systems-change if they’re not willing to talk about taxes,” she says.
Taxes aside, Pritzker Simmons has found increasing interest among other wealthy families in working together for positive impact, despite – or because of – the current political environment. To take a burden off of the fund managers in Blue Haven’s portfolios, and to lower their risks, Pritzker Simmons has seeded Policy Enhanced Impact Investing to bring her family’s political chops to bear on the environment for achieving beneficial outcomes (for more see, “These investors are raising their lobbying game to enhance their social impact”). Blue Haven has also joined the Catalytic Capital Consortium, reflecting the family office’s own evolution from seeking strictly risk-adjusted market rates of returns to also deploy in the deeper end of the impact pool. And to help other family offices make such impact-first investments, Blue Haven, via the ImPact, helped incubate Trimtab Impact, which has invested in five impact managers, including Acre Impact Capital, Blue Forest, Common Trust and Mission Driven Finance. “That’s one thing I’ve found: The more market-rate impact investing that family offices do, the hungrier they are for higher impact stuff,” Pritzker Simmons says.
- Mobilizing European families. Blue Haven has peers among family offices around the world (see Impact Voices, below). In Germany, Aurum Impact was launched in 2023 by brothers Jan-Hendrik and Jörg-Uwe Goldbeck, who run a successful construction company, as well as a solar company spinoff. Aurum invests the brothers’ money in startups working to create systemic change via sustainable materials, climate and energy, natural ecosystems, and education, housing and other solutions that support social stability. It also invests up to $10 million a pop in funds, which have included Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Planet A, SYSTEMIQ, Revent and Slate, as well as Counteract, a UK-based VC firm that invests in carbon removal. The bigger mission: Encourage “more family offices to become more active in impact investing, in thinking about how they can create value with the wealth that they have,” Miki Yokoyama, who co-founded and manages the fund, tells ImpactAlpha. Next generation family members, she says, are “very interested in doing things differently and creating positive impact in society.” Aurum aims to help European families get started, structure their strategies, and bring along other family members. “It’s nice that we do it as one family with the wealth that the Goldbeck family has, but we have so many more wealthy families,” she says. More on Aurum.
- Poly capital. Pritzker Simmons says Blue Haven’s ability to invest across the returns spectrum creates multiple opportunities for impact. “Everyone’s using the term ‘poly capital approach,’” she says. In mental health, for example, “There are some private companies that are doing really cool and interesting things with different therapies and delivery. But a huge part of that market has to do with the health care system and how payments are made and what counts and what doesn’t. And it brings up insurance. It brings up policy. There’s research that needs to be done. So we think between the civic engagement work, the catalytic work, the grants and the market-rate investments, we can actually have a really interesting thread through the mental health space with the kind of capital that we have.”
- Keep reading, “Blue Haven’s Liesel Pritzker Simmons on family office impact investing in perilous times (Q&A),” by David Bank on ImpactAlpha.
Dealflow: European Clean Tech
Klima leads Dexter Energy’s $27 million round to optimize Europe’s grid for renewable energy. Wind and solar make up more than one-third of Europe’s energy supply. Integrating those intermittent energy sources onto the grid has created volatility, including negative energy prices when the sun is shining and wind is blowing but demand is low. Amsterdam-based Dexter Energy raised €23 million ($27 million) in Series C funding for its AI-enabled forecasting software that helps renewable energy companies optimize their energy trading and balance the grid. Klima, the energy transition fund of the global financial services provider Alantra, led the round. French impact investor Mirova and existing investors ETF Partners, Newion and PDENH also joined. Dexter’s “ability to optimize renewable and battery trading in and across multiple complex markets will be critical as Europe scales its clean energy infrastructure,” said Klima’s Iñigo Echaniz. The funding will help Dexter expand its team and roll out its battery trading solutions across other European markets.
- AI-enabled. Klima, a late-stage venture fund, takes minority stakes in smart power grids, energy storage and low carbon solutions. The fund surpassed its €150 million ($176.7 million) target to close at €210 million ($244.8 million) in 2022, with backing from Spanish energy infrastructure provider Enagás, the European Investment Fund, Canada Pension Plan Investment and Axis ICO, a sustainability and infrastructure fund that is part of Spanish state-owned bank Instituto de Crédito Oficial. Klima also counts family offices, energy-focused corporations and institutional investors as LPs. The fund led a €19.6 million ($20.3 million) round earlier this year for Swedish startup Echandia, which produces maritime battery systems.
Cariqa snags €4 million to streamline EV charging payments and price transparency in Europe. The Trump administration may be trying to kill electric vehicles, but sales remain brisk in Europe. EVs made up 97% of car sales in Norway in June. A pain point on the continent has been a fragmented market for charging infrastructure and variability in charging rates. EV drivers and charge point operators are growing exasperated with intermediaries that have driven up charging costs and reduced revenue for operators. Cariqa’s mobile app connects EV drivers directly with charge point operators for a less fragmented payments infrastructure. “By removing unnecessary intermediaries and creating a single source of truth for pricing, we reduce costs, improve transparency and simplify interactions without surfacing underlying complexity,” said Cariqa’s Stefano Bonetta.
- EV infrastructure. The nearly $5 million seed round was co-led by Lithuania’s Contrarian Ventures and New York-based Anthemis. “Building scalable and resilient payment infrastructure to support EV charging has been totally overlooked,” said Anthemis’ Marin Cauvas. The payments layer is only the starting point, Anthemis wrote in a post. The firm envisions Cariqa layering on financial products that benefit both drivers and charge point operators. “Ultimately, we see a future where Cariqa can enable grid services at scale.” Anthemis invested via its Female Innovators Lab Fund, a $50 million women-focused fund backed by Barclays, Visa, BMO and Aviva Ventures. Other investors in the round include Techstars and Golden Egg Check, a Dutch early stage venture capital investor.
- Gift this post.
Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:
- LP news: A bill signed into law by Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek requires the state’s $100 billion Public Employees Retirement Fund to manage climate risks and become carbon neutral within 25 years. Nearly 60% of its portfolio is invested in private markets, including in private equity and real assets. (Responsible Investor)
- New on The Liist. The Builders Fund is investing in growth-stage impact companies… Renewal Funds is backing growth-stage climate and circular solutions… And CSD Social Venture Fund is investing in accessible technology for the Deaf. View ImpactAlpha’s full Liist of GPs launching impact strategies in the market.
- Carlyle will sell Safety SA, a South Africa testing, inspection, certification and training company focused on food and workplace safety in Africa, China and the Middle East, to Centre Testing International. Carlyle acquired the company through its Sub-Saharan Africa Fund in 2018. (APEN)
- Global Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure investor in energy, transportation, digital infrastructure and waste management that was acquired by BlackRock last year, raised $25.2 billion for its fifth flagship fund. (Infrastructure Investor)
- HIVED raised $43 million in a series B funding from investors including NordicNinja, Elemental Impact and Marunouchi Innovation Partners for its all-electric package delivery service in the UK. (HIVED)
- Tikehau Capital raised more than €1 billion for a continuation fund for Egis, a designer, developer and operator of climate-smart infrastructure and buildings that it acquired in 2022. Funds owned by Apollo, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Neuberger Berman invested alongside Tikehau’s second decarbonisation fund (for context, see “Restive LPs look to secondaries and creative exits to recoup capital”).
- Boston-based Chloris Geospatial clinched $8.5 million in Series A funding from AXA IM Alts, Future Energy Ventures and At One Ventures for its AI and satellite tech that monitors forest carbon and ecosystem change. (Chloris Geospatial)
Impact Voices: Raising Capital
How impact funds and founders can unlock family office capital. Family offices collectively manage an estimated $6 trillion in assets globally, and many are expanding their exposure to private markets. More than 40% of respondents to BlackRock’s 2025 Global Family Office Survey cite sustainable and values-based investing as a core part of their portfolio strategy. “Family offices are emerging as one of the most critical sources of impact capital,” write financial advisors Naava Mashiah of ME Links and Tenke Zoltani of Better Finance. “But most fund managers and entrepreneurs have no idea how to engage them.” Together, Mashiah and Zoltani created The GlassBox, an online workshop that teaches funds and founders how to unlock family office capital. In a guest post on ImpactAlpha, the advisors share tips on how impact funds and founders can navigate the close-knit world of family offices to bring impact capital off the sidelines.
- Six tips. Start with alignment. ”This isn’t about capital—it’s about values,” write the authors. “A pitch that fails to reflect their worldview or priorities will get deleted.” Speak their language. “Terms like catalytic capital, blended finance first-loss capital, and impact-first returns aren’t just jargon – they show that you understand how family offices operate at the early stages of impact investing.” Demonstrate leverage. “Family offices want to know that their capital can do more than make a return,” say Mashiah and Zoltani. “Demonstrate how their early investment can unlock other sources of capital, whether from donors, multilateral development banks, or commercial funds.”
- Impact family offices. Alongside US-based family offices like Blue Haven Initiative, Ceniarth and Spring Point Partners, European families are digging in on impact as well. Amsterdam-based Blink CV offers early-stage capital and growth support to mission-driven founders with a gender and climate lens. PFC in Italy is focused on patient capital and community-centered innovation across Europe. The Impact Office in Geneva is a family office platform supporting early-stage and catalytic investments across themes like health, education, and climate. In the Asia-Pacific region, Tripple, in Australia, invests in ventures aligned with a regenerative economy and actively supports activism and advocacy alongside capital deployment. RS Group is the Hong Kong-based family office of Annie Chen that aims to invest her wealth sustainably. View ImpactAlpha’s LP Scan of impact family offices.
- Keep reading, “How impact funds and founders can unlock family office capital,” by Naava Mashiah and Tenke Zoltani. And get 10% off The GlassBox with code IMPACTALPHA.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Onur Goker, former managing director of Anthelion Capital, joins Ara Partners as managing director. Sonali Aggarwal, previously with HIG Capital, joins the decarbonization-focused investment firm as a private equity principal… Nadia Nikolova, previously with Allianz Global Investors, will replace Rochus Mommartz as CEO of responsAbility Investments in September… Nina Hamilton was promoted to global co-leader of Korn Ferry’s Impact Investing Center of Expertise.
Sydney Schnitzer, previously with CapShift, returns to Cambridge Associates as an associate investment director… Clean Yield Asset Management is searching for an impact investing senior analyst in Boston… Capricorn Investment Group is on the hunt for a two-year investment analyst in New York… Kataly Foundation is hiring a program office for its Restorative Economics Fund in San Francisco.
Open Road is on the hunt for an investment officer in Washington, DC… Anthos Fund and Asset Management is looking for a private equity managing director in the Netherlands… BlueOrchard Finance seeks an origination senior investment officer in Lima… Inspired Evolution Group is looking for an ESG associate in Africa… Toniic has an opening for an Asia-Pacific director.
👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.
Thank you for your impact!
– July 8, 2025
