Key takeaways from our fund managers

At Impact Engine's Annual General Meeting in June, our CIO Priya Parrish sat down with three of our fund managers for a candid conversation about where they're finding opportunity in today's investing landscape. The panel featured Allison Baum Gates, General Partner at SemperVirens Venture Capital, Anup Jacob, Managing Partner at Activate Capital, and Tony Miller, Managing Partner at Excolere Equity Partners.

The conversation covered several themes, including the future of AI, the changing regulatory environment and their thoughts on the “impact” investing label. 

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Earlier this month IE Principal Ander Iruertagoyena spoke at the ACORE Accelerate Academy Midwest on a panel called "How Industry Leaders Evaluate Early-Stage Energy Companies".

ACORE Accelerate Academy Midwest is a specialized regional leadership and networking event hosted by the American Council on Renewable Energy to support emerging clean energy entrepreneurs. Ander shared insights around Impact Engine and our approach to sourcing clean energy investments.

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As a reminder, our friends at SOCAP Global will be holding their SOCAP26 gathering here in our hometown Chicago from October 12 to 14 at Willis Tower.

We're excited to welcome impact investors from all around the world to our city and we hope to see you at our workshop on Oct 14 titled, What is an Impact LP & Why Does It Matter?

The event signup is open – RSVP now to reserve your spot.

 
Lumos Capital Group, a fund investment of ours, recently released their 2025-2026 Impact Report.

They write, "Since our founding, we have focused on partnering with companies working to expand educational opportunity, strengthen workforce pathways, and help individuals navigate a rapidly changing economy. Underpinning our approach is a belief that education and workforce development are among the most powerful drivers of human potential, economic mobility, and long-term societal resilience."

We are inspired by their online report, available on their website.

Twentyeight, the women's health platform, announced a new partnership with Clue, the top period and cycle tracker app, to bring contraceptive access to its US users. "Clue was built on a simple but powerful idea: that understanding your body is the first step to taking control of your health. Millions of people come to us every day to do exactly that," says Clue CEO Rhiannon White. "This partnership with Twentyeight Health is the next step on that journey, giving women and people with cycles a clear path from tracking their cycle to accessing the prescription care that's right for them."

Workit, the science-based addiction treatment team, announced new cell phone-based options for those struggling with dependency on Kratom and its derivative product 7-OH, a class of highly addictive opioid-mimicking drugs widely available at gas stations and convenience stores. The legal landscape around substances made from this southeast Asian plant-based stimulant has shifted rapidly, with the US Drug Enforcement Administration announcing an emergency ban, effective on August 5, 2026. Public health experts estimate 1-3 million Americans use the drug.

AGM Fund Manager Panel Highlights

At Impact Engine's Annual General Meeting in June, our CIO Priya Parrish sat down with three of our fund managers for a candid conversation about where they're finding opportunity in today's investing landscape. The panel featured Allison Baum Gates, General Partner at SemperVirens Venture Capital, Anup Jacob, Managing Partner at Activate Capital, and Tony Miller, Managing Partner at Excolere Equity Partners. The conversation covered several themes, including the future of AI, the changing regulatory environment and their thoughts on the “impact” investing label.

AI as Infrastructure and Services

All three panelists pointed to AI as a defining force in their current portfolios, but each is approaching it differently.

Anup described Activate Capital's focus on the physical infrastructure powering AI, particularly energy. "The constraint isn't land, it's not engineers, it's not chips, it's not capital — it's energy," he said, pointing to the massive data center buildout underway and the demand for clean power to fuel it. Activate is investing in companies that enable energy efficient data centers, the kind of infrastructure that major cloud and AI players are demanding as they pursue net-zero commitments. This includes Activate’s investments in Crusoe and XNRGY.

Allison, meanwhile, is focused on what she calls "AI-native services," companies built from the ground up with AI at the core, rather than tacking it onto legacy workflows. "About 80% of healthcare spend in America is on services, not on software," she noted. SemperVirens is backing companies like Multiply Mortgage, an AI-native mortgage originator that distributes through employers and delivers interest rates a full percentage point lower than traditional channels. The fund is also investing in AI-powered healthcare training that can compress a two-year credentialing process into weeks, unlocking talent for workforce shortages.

Tony brought the conversation to the trades; specifically, electricians, HVAC technicians, and construction managers. With an estimated 2.1 million skilled-trade jobs going unfilled in the next four years, Excolere sees an investment opportunity in consolidating fragmented local training providers, professionalizing customer acquisition processes, and embedding technology-enabled learning. "These are often perceived as non-sexy jobs," he said, "but it's a pathway for many non-college-going high school graduates with a sustainable wage and career."

Navigating Regulatory Uncertainty

Priya pressed the panelists on the elephant in the room: how policy volatility is reshaping their investment decisions.

Tony, a former Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, described a "chilling effect" across K-12 education spending over the last several years, where the combination of pandemic-era funding cliffs and shifting federal priorities has translated into slower growth generally and made the risk-return calculation less compelling as a result, at least for now. He noted that adult career education, by contrast, remains resilient, as has several niche segments within K-12 (e.g., special education outsourced services).

Anup shared a more personal story: the rise and fall of PosiGen, a solar company that made renewable energy accessible to low- and moderate-income households by developing a novel "green FICO score" based on energy bill payment history. When policy changes froze the solar financing markets, the company lost access to capital and ultimately went bankrupt, taking 750 jobs and 50,000 customer accounts with it. "It was heartbreaking," Anup said. The experience has shifted Activate's thesis toward sectors with less exposure to federal policy risk.

Priya offered an important counterpoint: "The federal government is involved in everything we're all doing." The key, she argued, is backing specialists who watch the regulatory landscape closely and can navigate it better than generalist investors.

The Impact Label in a Changing Climate

An audience question prompted a frank exchange about whether "impact" has become a liability in fundraising. None of the three funds formally brands itself as an impact fund, and the panelists described an increasingly complex landscape of regional politics, European reporting requirements, and shifting LP expectations around language.

Tony's response cut to the heart of it: in many of Excolere's investments, impact and financial performance are directly correlated. "Higher quality yields better financial performance. It's not a trade-off," he said, describing how an alternative education business generates more revenue precisely because it re-enrolls dropouts and improves graduation rates.

Allison acknowledged the tension more directly, noting that her fund has been advised to remove diversity-related language from its reporting. But she pointed to results: $1B+ companies like Spring Health and Midi Health, founded by women, as the most compelling case for the approach.

Anup revealed that his firm's sustainability reporting has evolved from an "impact report" to a "sustainability report" to one that frames ESG as a risk factor, a progression that reflects the broader industry's shifting vocabulary more than any change in underlying conviction.

The Through Line

Priya closed the panel with a direct message to the room: diversify. "There's no return without risk, and there's no impact without risk either," she said. It was a fitting capstone to a conversation that made clear: impact investing isn't retreating. It's adapting, becoming more specific in its language, more rigorous in its measurement, and more resilient in the face of uncertainty.

Why We Invested in Paladin

By Tasha Seitz, Partner

The volume of global electronic waste (e-waste) has surged by 60% over the last decade, yet the United States recycles only ~15% of its discarded tech. E-waste contains a toxic cocktail of lead, mercury, and arsenic that poses significant risks when it reaches landfills. Beyond the toxicity, the environmental cost of replacing these materials through virgin mining is significant. For example, recycling gold generates 16 times fewer CO2 emissions than mining it. Enterprises need infrastructure that can manage electronic waste at scale, securely, and sustainably. With this demand, the U.S. e-waste market is projected to grow from $27 billion to $39 billion by 2030.

Solution

Paladin EnviroTech is a platform that pairs IT Asset Disposition (ITAD), which provides secure data destruction and equipment refurbishment for enterprise clients, with large-scale commodity e-waste recycling in a “one-stop-shop” model. The company operates a growing network that already services most of the US and has recently expanded its reach into Europe via the acquisition of specialist recyclers in the Netherlands and Ireland. This international scale allows Paladin to serve global hyperscalers and OEM customers who require compliant, in-region solutions for their retired hardware.

Why We Invested

Our investment in Paladin is a bet on consolidation and growth in the e-waste industry, led by a management team with deep industry experience in e-waste recycling and ITAD. Their deep roots in the industry are complemented by an exclusive partnership with Daeheung M&T, South Korea's leading middle-market e-waste recycling company and strategic investor, which will provide Paladin with technical expertise and global supply chain connections built through 30+ years in the industry. We believe Paladin will offer superior tracking and sustainability reporting that many legacy incumbents struggle to provide.

Impact

Paladin’s impact is intrinsic to its business model, focusing on the circular economy and the mitigation of toxic waste. The company prevents hazardous materials from leaching into soil and groundwater and also creates a reliable stream of secondary raw materials, reducing the energy-intensive demand for virgin resources. By standardizing its facilities under rigorous R2v3 certifications, Paladin ensures that environmental health, safety, and data security are maintained at the highest industry standards across its entire platform.