ImpactAlpha Open

Incentivizing impact with SAFIs + Japanese investors in Africa

Dennis Price · September 2, 2025

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In this week’s Open:

  • Meet SAFI, the newest tool in impact-linked finance
  • Japanese investors lean into African opportunities 
  • How Root Capital is underwriting climate adaptation in farmer loans
  • Agent of Impact: Bernard Olayo of Hewatele 

Let’s dig in. – Dennis Price

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

  • Japanese investors dial up impact deal-making in Africa. Japan is emerging as an ambitious player in Africa’s economic future. At last month’s Tokyo International Conference on African Development, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, Japan’s development finance institution, pledged to invest $5.5 billion for Africa’s renewable energy, healthcare and private sectors, along with another $1.5 billion in catalytic impact investments. Read on.
  • Forget SAFEs. Impact investors are incentivizing growth and impact with SAFIs. An experimental idea by the impact finance experts at Roots of Impact is ready for prime time. The German advisory firm is out with a twist on the simple agreement for future equity, or SAFE. The “simple agreement for future impact,” or SAFI, enables entrepreneurs to raise early funding tied to their impact objectives without immediately setting impact targets. Learn more.
  • Innovative models for workforce development: Sharing the risks and rewards. American workers were already in a precarious situation before artificial intelligence threatened to upend old notions of work. What’s needed are “bold, innovative solutions to get more people into stable, well-paying jobs,” write Social Finance Institute’s Meg Massey and David Socolow in a preview of “Workforce Realigned,” their new collection of case studies on outcomes-based models. See the models.

Agents of Impact

💨 Bernard Olayo, Hewatele: Building a local solution to East Africa’s medical oxygen shortage. 

When Bernard Olayo finished his medical schooling, he volunteered to practice in a region of Kenya most doctors-in-training would avoid: the southeastern Suba district, a remote, hard-to-reach area near the border with Tanzania. Olayo stayed for three years, managing Suba’s district health system.  One issue stuck with him: The unavailability of medical staples – specifically oxygen – was costing lives. “Many times patients would die because there was no oxygen,” he tells ImpactAlpha. Olayo started Hewatele to address the shortage of medical oxygen in Kenya. The startup closed $10.5 million in financing from AfricInvest to build a new medical oxygen manufacturing plant near Nairobi that will deliver a reliable, locally made supply to nearby hospitals and clinics.

🏃 On the move

  • Jess Brooks told ImpactAlpha she will be departing from her role as investor relations director of Social Finance. 
  • CalSTRS appointed Kristy Jenkinson as senior investment director of private markets and sustainable investment and of stewardship strategies.
  • Parrish Pepestem, previously with Boston Consulting Group, joined Raven Indigenous Capital Partners as an investment analyst.

The Week’s Podcasts

🎧 This Week in Impact

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editors and reporters from our team. Up this week: Jessica Pothering discusses aligning incentives using the new “simple agreement for future impact.” Eric Stein joins from Medellín, Colombia, to share impact investing trends he’s spotted during recent travels in Latin America. And, Jessica shares how a medical oxygen company in East Africa managed to secure financing after a loan from the US’s development finance institution failed to come through.

💰 Money + Meaning: Root Capital maps its shift into climate resilience lending for smallholder farmers. “Climate change is making farming riskier and more expensive,” says Elizabeth Teague of Root Capital in a podcast interview with David Bank. “We’re seeing that climate shifts are forcing farmers to invest more just to maintain their past yields.” Teague shares how Root Capital is leaning into its nearly three decades of lending experience to adapt financial tools to farmers’ adaptation needs. The podcast was produced in collaboration with SOCAP and the Sorenson Impact Institute’s Money + Meaning podcast.

Pop Impact

🎥 Standing up to polluters, and power, on view at the Woods Hole Film Festival

In his latest Pop Impact columns, Dmitriy Ioselevich shares two more reviews from the Woods Hole Film Festival. One documentary focuses on toxic waste and another on the trade-offs between economic development and social and environmental harm. Dmitriy scoreseach documentary on a scale of one to 10, with five possible points each for entertainment and impact.

  • Unearth (2024): The promise of activism. The documentary examines the fight against Alaska’s Pebble Mine, where Indigenous activists and salmon fishermen joined forces to protect Bristol Bay’s ecosystem and livelihoods from industrial mining. Dmitriy’s score: Entertainment: 3.5, Impact: 4.5. Check out the review.
  • Out of Plain Sight (2024): Directors Rosanna Xia and Daniel Straub explore the legacy of DDT waste dumped off the coast of Southern California. The film shows how the toxic pesticide, once celebrated as a miracle chemical, continues to wreak havoc half a century since it was banned. Dmitriy’s score: Entertainment: 3.5, Impact: 4.5. Read the review.

Get in the Game

💼 Step up

  • The Global Impact Investing Network seeks a research manager and a research associate for a flexible remote role in New York.
  • Accion Impact Management is looking for a senior ESG and risk associate in Washington, DC.
  • MSCI Inc. is hiring a sustainability and climate specialist in New York.

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

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