#Deaflow: Follow the Money

European Investment Bank affirms its $100 billion climate commitment. The funding is particularly critical now that US participation and $2 billion pledge to the 2015 Paris climate agreement is likely to be scrapped by President Trump (Obama transferred a second $500 million installment three days before leaving office). The EIB financing, raised via green bonds, will be disbursed over the next five years to help up to 160 other countries meet their climate targets under the Paris accord. The U.S. is among 196 countries that have committed to the Paris agreement, with the goal of keeping the global temperature increase below 2-degrees Celsius.

Will Ardian join private equity’s march toward impact? The $60 billion firm, which spun off from French insurer AXA in 2013, is considering raising a dedicated social impact fund. Ardian would follow other big-name private equity players like TPG and Bain Capital. Under Axa, the firm was an early mover in backing the UN Principles for Responsible Investing and ESG screening, which is now becoming a mainstream investment strategy. Ardian also manages AXA’s €155 million ($166.6 million) clean energy fund. Ardian's largest group of shareholders is its own employees.

The parent of the Sankalp forums gets $25 million infusion from Triodos and Shell Foundation. The Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group, which runs major impact investing events in India and Africa, raised $15 million from Triodos Investment Management and $10 million from the Shell Foundation to expand its investment, consulting and research operations. The Mumbai-based company has $400 million in assets under management and is looking to grow to $3.5 billion by 2024. It recently raised a $75 million fund for South and South-East Asia and a $150 million fund for Africa, both focused on early- and growth-stage social ventures.  

New Pinkubator will accelerate women-focused start-ups. Cindy Whitehead made waves and faced challenges in marketing the Pink Pill, a female sex-drive drug, as founder and CEO of Sprout Pharmaceuticals. Her new company, the Pink Ceiling, is launching the Pinkubator to mentor and seed women-focused start-ups in a male-dominated venture capital world. The Pinkubator has already registered seven companies at its workspace in North Carolina’s Research Triangle.

#Signals: Ahead of the Curve

More evidence of demand for off-grid solar products in Africa. Fenix International said it has doubled its customer base to 100,000 from 50,000 just 12 months ago. That’s about 17 percent of all solar users in Uganda, where 80 percent of the population lacks access to electricity. Pay-as-you-go solar products have exploded across Africa in recent years, as costs have fallen and mobile payments and other innovations in finance have opened credit for unbanked and underbanked customers.

Growth of private equity in Africa boosts mid-size companies. Roughly 200 private equity firms manage $30 billion in assets in Africa, up from next to none 20 years ago. Half of that capital was raised and invested in the past five years. Compared to PE in the US and Europe, however, where large deals and creative financial modeling and engineering dominates, the promise (paywall) for Africa’s sector is in mid-size companies with $10 to $100 million in revenues. Such growth companies are significant drivers of jobs and development.

A call to action for tech companies at a crossroads. “The world now demands we take responsibility for the power we’ve acquired, and that we engage with society at a broader scale,” says John Battelle. A founder of Wired magazine, The Industry Standard and now NewCo. Battelle is gathering more than 400 representatives of business, technology, and government in San Francisco at the NewCo Shift Forum Feb. 6-8 to examine new tech-driven power dynamics in government, markets, knowledge and society. “Capitalism at a Crossroads,” will confront the role of business and technology amid uncertainty around open markets, climate change, jobs and economic inclusion.

#2030: Long-Termism

The last automobile drivers were born in 2016.  “My own prediction is that kids born today will never get to drive a car,” says Henrik Christensen, director of the University of California San Diego’s Contextual Robotics Institute. Mass production and adoption of driverless cars are only 10 or 15 years away. Some predict an even faster shift. Tesla already embeds self-driving hardware in its current models. Alphabet (formerly Google) has spun off its driverless vehicle technology into Waymo, a separate company. Uber is piloting self-driving cars in several cities (with mixed results). Some teenagers in 2030 may still get to drive their parents’ clunkers: The average age of US cars in use is 11.5 years.

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