Impact Investing

Unparalleled in the Impact Investing Space

RPCK advises many of the leading impact investors on ground-breaking, multiple-bottom line transactions around the world. We have advised pioneering family offices and fund managers on a wide variety of novel, innovative and catalytic capital structures. We also regularly counsel visionary, social entrepreneurs on creative ways to achieve impact through commercial success.

We were recognized for our contribution to the impact space by the Grunin Center for Law and Entrepreneurship as a finalist for the 2019 Grunin Prize.

Since our founding in 2010 our legal guidance to our clients has deployed over $1 Billion in impact capital in the US and a wide range of developed and emerging markets. Our expertise in venture capital, private equity, corporate securities and M&A, commercial lending, fund formation and early-stage company representation, combined with our unique understanding of impact drivers and mission alignment, enables us to structure innovative multiple-bottom line transactions that achieve long-term, measurable results.

Our comprehensive approach to impact transactions enables us to help our clients identify and define critical nexus points where environmental and social performance align with, and often improve, financial performance. We design deal structures and negotiate terms that leverage those nexus points to maximize impact across bottom lines.

Our success is a function of our sophistication and our being a team of authentic impact lawyers, deeply immersed in the impact investing field, who intimately understand mission alignment and the why and how of each transaction. Our expertise spans traditional impact, blended finance and venture philanthropy.

Our relationships within the community allow us to facilitate strategic relationships, and the breadth of our experience gives us a unique market perspective on terms, participants and transactions. As a result, we bring a deep understanding of the commercial and mission needs of an organization and investors.

We have significant experience building impact-focused concepts into commercial transactions, beginning with the due diligence process and continuing through exit. Every deal we do is tailored to meet our clients’ specific investment thesis and impact objectives. We are skilled at structuring deals across emerging and developed markets targeting a variety of financial returns, from superior “impact alpha”, to below market adjusted, to capital preservation.

Representative Transactions

Sustainable Seafood:

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RPCK has advised Encourage Capital and Zoma Capital on the formation and launch of Pescador Holdings, the first-ever sustainable seafood investment holding company. Outcomes & Impact: Pescador was an opportunity for Zoma and Encourage to pioneer a new holding company structure to utilize private equity capital aggregation for systemic challenges that sometimes require a “biological time horizon” rather than a strictly financial one, while still providing investor liquidity opportunities in line with market practice. Read recent press articles on Pescador and its innovative structure.

Solar Energy – M-KOPA Solar:

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We represented Blue Haven Initiative and another major family office on multiple rounds of investment in M-KOPA Solar, Africa’s leading pay-as-you go solar energy provider. Outcomes & Impact: In a country where 77% of the population has no access to electricity, M-KOPA has installed over 200,000 mobile solar power generation units, providing a cheap, reliable and clean alternative to kerosine-based power sources. Read recent press articles on M-KOPA.

Renewable Energy – Biomass Fuel Plant:

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We represented an impact investor group who had invested in the development of a 6.8MW biomass energy plant, in anticipation of cash grant under Section 1603 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. When we were engaged, the project was in disarray, and the tax grant had been placed into jeopardy. Outcomes & Impact: We replaced existing deal counsel (two AmLaw 100 law firms), restructured the transaction, helped engage a new management team, brought on specialized tax advisors, and saw the project through the successful receipt of the tax grant. The plant has the equivalent capacity as a 20 hectare solar farm, and because of its strategic location, it allows for fuels to be easily transported to the plant for energy recovery. The operation of this plant also offsets the negative impacts of open burning and land filling, reducing atmospheric pollution and waste of landfill space.

Solar Energy – Crowd Finance:

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We represented an impact investment advisor and the interests of certain of their clients interested in making a significant investment into an early stage online solar project financing platform. Our deal team worked with the investor group and the company to bring their deal documents up to market standards for investment transactions, as well as into compliance with then-existing laws governing crowd financing. Outcomes & Impact: Our clients were able to structure a significant direct investment into the platform, helping to launch it and quickly become one of the leading sources of crowd based financing for renewable energy retrofitting projects.

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Bonds:

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We represented a group of foundation and family office clients seeking to make an investment into a fund focused on helping building owners take advantage of existing public-private partnership programs for funding energy and water efficiency, and renewable energy solutions. Outcomes & Impact: Our deal team, working closely with counsel for another major foundation, helped to restructure the financing transaction to bring greater focus on measurable impact, as well as market standard repayment terms and investor protections.

Financial Services for Historically Excluded Populations:

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We represented a group of foundation investors providing financing to a leading pay-as-you go solar energy provider in Africa. Together with the Commercial Bank of Africa, we worked to structure a multi million dollar financing credit facility. Outcomes & Impact: Following this financing round, we have represented investors on a subsequent equity round, and the company has become a market leader, having installed over 150,000 residential solar systems in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and is now connecting over 500 new homes each day.

Sustainable Agriculture, Education and Early Stage Clean Technology Ventures:

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For clients looking for professionally managed fund solutions focused on triple bottom line outcomes (social, financial and environmental), we have coordinated with impact investment advisors to review, vet and in many cases, improve fund documents and investment terms for our clients. Outcomes & Impact: To date, we have advised on the placement of over $500million in impact driven fund investments.

Family Foundations:

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We have helped to build a number of 501(c)(3) organizations for families and individuals focused on a broad array of philanthropic endeavors. In addition to formation, we have provided guidance on compliance and grant-making activity, as well as part time general counsel representation of these foundations. Outcomes & Impact: From Major League athletes such as Robinson Canó’s RC24 Foundation to private families to high net worth individuals looking to engage in philanthropic activities, we have helped to develop dozens of foundations and events across the world.

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