From Impact to Investable: Moving Capital at Scale with Alix Lebec and Julie Wilkinson

We're joined by Alix Lebec, Founder and CEO, and Julie Wilkinson, Managing Partner and CIO, of LEBEC, a woman-owned global impact investment and advisory firm. They share the capital allocator perspective on what actually makes a project investable, why “capital fluency” is often the missing ingredient, and how developers can better align with the realities of institutional capital.

We dive into innovative finance strategies—from blended capital stacks to lessons drawn from microfinance in the water sector—and unpack how philanthropic capital can be used as a first-loss layer to unlock significantly larger pools of private investment.

From there, we bring it back to the built environment: decarbonization, resilience retrofits, distributed energy, and the often-overlooked efficiency upgrades like HVAC that quietly drive both risk reduction and operating savings.

We also explore their portfolio approach to impact investing, and how diversified private market strategies across energy, water, food, transport, and construction can reduce risk while funding the systems that keep the economy functioning.

If you’re interested in climate finance, impact investing, regenerative real estate, and how to actually move capital at scale, this episode offers a clear and grounded look at what’s coming next.

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The Regenerative Real Estate Podcast is an independent show exploring the people, projects, and capital reshaping how land gets used and communities get built. Two organizations grew directly out of this work, and they're worth knowing:

Hamlet Capital finances and advises on projects that integrate agriculture and conservation with mixed-use development. If you're building one or looking to invest, let's talk.

Latitude is a real estate brokerage representing sanctuary properties rooted in nature, beauty, and meaningful living.

Transcript

Rethinking Risk In A Warming World

SPEAKER_02 0:05

There is something really missing in our conversation around risk and return. Is it really less risky to invest in a condo in Miami today that's in a, you know, very vulnerable place in terms of hurricanes or rising sea levels than investing in a water farm that's going to make sure there are still water resources in parts of the world where almost every Fortune 500 company is operating and is depending on water resources in those places, right? Is it really more risky? We don't know. That's why we get so passionate about creating these diversified portfolios where we are really almost de-risking opportunities for investors because at some point there is going to be a repricing around climate, and we have created an investment opportunity that is tethered to reality and where solutions are going to make a difference.

Why Great Deals Still Miss Capital

SPEAKER_00 1:28

I'm Neil Collins, and on this episode, I'm joined by Alix Lebeck and Julie Wilkinson, two talented capital allocators bridging capital market sophistication with impact and real assets through their woman-owned global impact investment and advisory firm LookBeck Capital Partners. It took me a long time to truly understand that real estate and capital are two sides of the same coin. You can have vision, you can have a site, you can have a plan. But without capital, none of it moves. And when starting out, I became indoctrinated by what the mainstream industry says. If you have a good deal, the capital will follow. But after sitting on both sides of the table, as a sponsor putting projects together, and as someone who also sits in the investor's chair, I can tell you that's not always how it works. You see, I put together projects that were financially strong, impact-oriented, and genuinely compelling, and still struggle to raise the capital required to bring them to life. And that feeling, knowing the money is out there but not being able to get it, is one of the most frustrating experiences in this business. What I came to realize is that the gap usually isn't the project. It's fluency, understanding how capital allocators think, knowing how to structure an investment, knowing how to speak the right language to the right kind of investor, whether that's friends and family, community organizations, banks, or investment funds. This is exactly why I wanted to bring Alix and Julie on. LeBec is doing some really interesting things in the impact investment space. They're building funds that embrace blended financial models, bringing sophistication to capital markets, and investing in real assets that have resilience built into both their design and their operations. With background spanning, market-driven, and concessionary investing, they're creating structures that generate multidimensional returns beyond just the bottom line. This conversation is about demystifying the capital side of the industry, and I think it's one that you're going to want to listen to closely. So without further ado, let's get into it.

Alix Lebeck’s Path Into Water Finance

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Alex and Julia, it is such a pleasure to have you on as two people coming from the sunny part of the country, and I am in the rainy, cold, and dark part of the country. It's a pleasure to have both of your smiley, sunny faces on the podcast today.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

Thank you for having us, Neil. We're super excited to participate.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Alex, I want to jump in with you to understand your background. And I actually want to open it up with a question because I've I love to do my homework ahead of time and I know that you grew up internationally, but I want to know why you grew up internationally first.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Amazing. Well, you know, I was really lucky. My dad was actually a visionary entrepreneur. So when I was growing up in France, um, certainly didn't speak English like this. I didn't know a word of English. Um, my dad was um uh working for an engineering firm in the automobile industry and saw a huge opportunity to service a whole new market in Asia. So up and coming automobile companies such as Hyundai, who were coming up, um, who needed different parts uh of cars to optimize their cars. I remember coming home from school when I was eight years old, and my dad saying that we were moving to South Korea because of an immense business opportunity and that we would be going to an international British school before we would eventually go to an international American school. Um, and I remember feeling terrified, Neil, because I had no idea where Korea was. And again, I didn't speak a word of English. But I'll never forget my dad saying, I know that you are scared and probably not very happy with me today, but I promise you one day you will thank me for this decision. And I would definitely concur because moving to Korea just completely changed my life.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Incredible. And so paint us a picture of the path that you've been on over the last couple of decades.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Yeah. So um, so I love starting with growing up in Korea because growing up in both Korea and China meant that I got to travel all over the region with my family. And I got to see a lot of different cultures. Um, I got to see communities that, you know, were very wealthy, communities that were less wealthy, and my view of the world just really expanded. As at the same time, I was I was learning how to speak English fluently while speaking French and German at home. And I think it's very much that international upbringing that shaped my view of the world. But how I got into this profession is actually very serendipitous. So by the time I got to business school in France, I knew that I was passionate for dance and theater, and I knew that I was passionate about finance. And, you know, I would spend the day in my finance classes, and then I would go train in the evenings and do the occasional theater class. And I had no idea how these worlds would ever come together. And serendipitously, I got my first job at a documentary film firm that was looking for someone bilingual like me, um, where I met a documentary film producer who was actually doing a film on the war in Sudan. And it's really through that friendship that I started to learn so much more about the aid system and how policies at the government level had impacted uh the trajectory of development in places like Africa. And I started to connect all these dots between building um communities that could thrive and the links to finance. And so, right at that time, Neil, I got a job at the World Bank, where um I got to work on a lot of exciting projects that first were really focused on shaping policies among governments, but then I was able to move with the bank and have an opportunity in Southeast Asia based in Bangkok. So working in Thailand and Laos. And I really got to work on education and community development programs without really knowing what I was doing, it may immediately leaned towards how do we include stakeholders that have been left out of the decision-making process? The reason we're not seeing results with programs is because we don't have all the people we need at the table. So I started to work on a documentary film concept that was really all about getting all these stakeholders together. And basically that journey took me in a direction, Neil, of being very passionate about understanding how do we truly democratize access to capital and opportunity. And I really had that aha moment when I was in a car in Cambodia going to visit a community. I was in a suit, and I thought, you know, am I part of the solution here or am I part of the problem? I'm going in these communities. Do I really know what they need? So I started to learn about microfinance. Um, I went back to school in London to really look at the role of microfinance in sectors like water, in conflict zones, and right out of grad school got a job at the Clinton Foundation and more specifically the Clinton Global Initiative, where I snuck into a press conference where entrepreneur Gary White and actor Matt Damon were talking about the role that microfinance could play in solving the global water crisis. And when I say snuck in, I wasn't supposed to be there, but I was really excited to learn more about this initiative. Um, and when I heard about the mechanics of this particular approach, I thought this is what I'm looking for. And so, again, serendipitously, I, you know, met Gary White, who is the co-founder and CEO, and really joined the organization early on to prove that business case of how microfinance could solve something like the water crisis. And it was important because it was one of the first ways where I could see how philanthropy could play a more strategic and efficient role in de-risking a new idea or a model, where then other forms of capital, in this case commercial capital, could step in to actually provide microloans to primarily women who wanted these microloans to pay for the water solutions that they wanted. So it was a way of unlocking more capital towards that solution. Fast forward, we then created water equity together, where I had the opportunity now to build the business case around how we could invest in water and particularly use innovative finance to make that happen. So one of the funds we created, which I often talk about, which was fund two, is a fund that had philanthropy as a first loss guarantee, which helped de-risk the fund and unlock $50 million of debt and equity to invest in water solutions for communities in emerging and developing markets. And it was really that experience that inspired me to then launch Lebec. My thought was this is a remarkable blueprint that has so much potential. Why is this not mainstream? And so Lebecque really started with the premise of we need to mainstream innovative finance. And the way we're going to get there is first by providing that playbook to as many asset owners and entrepreneurs through an advisory business model. And now we've evolved for our full vision, which is really to mainstream innovative finance through not just the strategic advisory work, but through also investment products that are really helping move more capital towards these solutions. And in particular, are focusing on creating diversified portfolios of private market funds. And three, through narrative change work. How do we get more stakeholders to understand what this is and really hear about innovative finance on mainstream media? So that has been my journey, Neil.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Amazing. I love it. There's so many different areas

The LeBec Thesis And Building A Team

SPEAKER_00 12:17

that we need to get into. And before we do that, we're going to bring in Julia. Julia, what I want to launch off is one, I think it's amazing that I'm talking to two uh females that are steering this organization. It's such a pleasure to see everybody on the team. Um, Julia, you also grew up in internationally in Mexico City.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Yes, perfect. Thank you so much. My background is 18 years in financial markets. I started my career kind of inspired by my mother, who was a diplomat, on thinking about how do we finance protecting the Amazon and other environmental resources. That was her calling, but it was really through, you know, philanthropy and public markets only. There's so many other tools, there's so many other financing strategies which have even more capital. And so I was passionate about like how do we unlock that. When I met Alix, I was like inspired by her. Not only has she proven it and done it in ununexpected places, but has done so as a woman leader, you know, in a market that is unexplored. So I was so inspired by her and also by our team, which has touched all the asset classes. We've been entrepreneurs, we've been, you know, funders, we've been recipients of funding, we've been on the buy side and the sell side. It's all in this marketplace, which you understand is complex, right, Neil? You've been on the very traditional real estate side and seen that it's imperfect. There are things we miss that we are not taught. And a lot of that is around the cost of climate change, right? Like Alix loves to talk about, and I agree, 100% we're underpricing the climate risks, especially in the built environment.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Fantastic. Um well, let let's really start to open it up a little bit more then. And I I still want to keep the conversation on LeBec because I'm curious as you start to mold this concept in your head around uh very much impact-oriented and keeping the compass in a particular direction, but having fluency between different asset types and different ways to think about finance. Uh, what was that real kind of the spark for you, Alex, around like how do you attract uh team members and those early stakeholders into a vision? What were you really starting to pitch at that time?

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Yeah, I love that question. So when I started LeBec in 2020, you know, pandemic hit. And I think a lot of people were looking to play a role in organizations that we're not sugarcoating things, you know, where we're really going to start to invest our energy in places where we believe change can happen. And I think that matters, right? Because, you know, impact investing has made remarkable gains. I mean, it's a $1.5 trillion industry, but it's still not mainstream. Why is that? Right? Well, one of the reasons is because we're not measuring risk accurately. Um, and then two, even within, you know, the impact investing space, there's always these two narratives, right? Well, we need to do this to make sure we're impact first and taking the risks. We can't just be in the comfortable market rate, you know, side of the spectrum. And so when I was thinking of LeBec, my thought was, you know, how do I create a firm that attracts talent from the asset management world, the philanthropy world, and the social entrepreneurial world so that collectively we're building things that are addressing all of these things head on. You have to have an understanding of the solutions that are actually creating systemic change. I mean, I lived it in my journey, you know, looking at what solutions looked like when I was working at the World Bank, which does great work, but it's a lot, you know, it's more top-down, right? And comparing that with the approach of how are we really addressing a market demand, right? These were women who said, I want to have access to a microloan to pay for the solutions that I want. So much more market-driven. So, you know, creating this firm was really about blending that expertise with an understanding of how do we message this to the financial industry, right? How do we get more institutional investors on board? How do we plant these ideas in as many asset owners as possible who are going to have a mandate of moving capital in places that are actually going to make a difference? You know, and then three, how do we bring someone or talent that understands how to navigate all the layers of the philanthropic industry, you know, from the foundations who are more risk-averse to those who have an appetite for more risk. So where I was really lucky, Neil, is that there were great women and men, you know, we we are pro-men and women, but there just happened to be great women talent out there who was like, I don't want, I want to contribute in a place that is just gonna address these things head on. And that really was the preface for LeBec. Like, we're gonna go out and we're gonna build things that can scale. But we knew we couldn't do it without building relationships within these two spectrums, right? The asset owners and the entrepreneurs. I did not want the firm to just advise asset owners because I wanted our firm to be tethered to where innovation is constantly happening. And as you know, Neil, that's on the front lines, right? With entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs who are solving for things every day. That's really how we were able to pull talent, is I think with a vision that acknowledged what hasn't worked, where there were gaps and how we could address them. Um and I just got very lucky in finding these women. And, you know, Julia, our colleague Rafia Cresci, who's our managing director, who, you know, has brought her wealth of expertise and time in Africa and the Middle East, along with our other team members, you know, being an entrepreneur in this time, Neil, is hard, right? I've, you know, we are constantly hit with headwinds. And that means, you know, you have to have a lot of courage in knowing when to make the pivots and when to really make certain decisions. And what has really inspired our team is the collective courage that we've had in making the right pivots at a given moment in time. And so, you know, it was really important for us, starting in Q4 of last year, to not only continue helping our clients have tools, but it was really the moment to launch our boutique investment manager because investors are either underinvested in impact because they still don't believe that it's possible to invest in impact and you know make returns, or they are overly concentrated in one impact enterprise, one asset class, one sector. And so you have all these great private market funds out there, but it's really hard to see scale and investors, those two worlds are not connecting. So in came, you know, a vision that Julia had been working on for a long time, which was really about building these diversified private market fund portfolios. Um, and and simultaneously, three, really think about what are the ways that we are going to change the narrative on how people perceive innovative finance. And I just want to say this you know, this really matters because we are constantly sold this narrative that we don't have enough resources to channel more capital towards great solutions. It's too complicated. It doesn't fit in the little box, right? But it's not a resource problem, it's a narrative problem. And that's why that narrative change piece was so important.

Tools That Unlock Capital Fast

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Where do you see the innovation within finance right now? I know that um you're really talking about combining almost having philanthropy pave the way for catalytic solutions. Is that the horizon that you think uh there's just still a lot of blue ocean to go into?

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Yeah. So I was thinking about this yesterday, Neil. I think that we're in this moment where ideas are things that we're we're seeing are not necessarily brand new, but they're ripples of ideas of things that were planted many years ago. Um and hopefully there'll be more ripple ripples to come. So instead of thinking blue ocean, let's think about where certain things have happened and they've never scaled. And that's a tremendously missed opportunity. When we started water equity, it was so hard. There was the uphill battle, right, of people believing that water was not an investable asset class. Um, and, you know, we really needed to build the track record and show that this was possible. And so this fund that we built, where we gave an opportunity for philanthropists to participate with grant funding in a philanthropic first loss guarantee that de risked the investment strategy, if you will, and created the right conditions for then investors to participate with $50 million of debt and equity, was instrumental because not only did it give everybody a chance to participate, but it Helped prove the thesis in a way where then the funds that came after that did not need philanthropy to play the role of a first loss guarantee. And the funds resembled a little a little bit more of a traditional fund, right? But that second fund was really innovative in terms of bringing these different types of capital together where philanthropy played a strategic role. But it also enabled foundations to participate with all of their tools, right? So foundations could participate with their program-related investments, you know, because fund two was still generating what I'll call concessionary returns. And some foundations participated with zero interest loans, right? To this day, Neil, I don't understand why we don't have a billion-dollar fund that's using this kind of blueprint in the world today. I mean, if the world's foundations came together with all with $50 million of philanthropy to play the role of first loss, right? To pull in a billion dollars worth of debt and equity to invest in water solutions around the world, it would be a game changer. And so I think that this is still very much a white space in our entire financial industry that's really missing the opportunity to use philanthropy strategically and unlock more capital. And this matters because these issues are trillion-dollar issues, right? So we always say this the world falls $5 trillion short every year in financing solutions that are going to build that new economy. And we will never get there without innovative finance, and particularly these kinds of mechanisms. The other piece that's highly underutilized is, you know, donor-advised funds that are on a platform like Impact Assets, a platform that was set up to activate more impact investing capital. So a nonprofit today could have a donor-advised fund on the impact assets platform. That's a very different game plan than just having a DAF at a traditional financial institution, which is more incentivized to just charge fees on the assets, right? Impact assets is in the is in the business of moving more capital urgently. So a nonprofit that has a donor advice fund on the impact assets platform as one tool in its toolbox, you know, all of a sudden they have this flexible fund where some of those assets can be invested in impact investment funds that are values aligned, that are on the impact assets platform. And they can use some of the assets in that donor advice fund to make grants and impact investments in others who can become an extension of them. So they don't have to go build, they don't have to go build infrastructure everywhere, right? It's just it's a flexible fund that can put capital to work at a faster pace in a way that accelerates impact, recycles capital, and at any point in time, that nonprofit can access that DAF to put money back in its operating reserves if needed. So it's just two examples of tools that are that are out there where, you know, finance is getting more creative and innovative. But I'm gonna pass it on to Julia to share a few more.

Real Estate Decarbonization And Resilience

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Thank you. First of all, like those are great examples. And I think just bringing it back to real estate, you know, as your bread and butter, we see so many opportunities, not only opportunities, but mispricing of risk, like Alix mentioned, in the real assets market. Real assets are exposed to sea level rise, to flash flooding. There's no control over the, at least currently, the utility-based energy infrastructure. However, in this moment, which is very unique, there's both lower cost of uh levelized energy for solar for the first time in history, right? It's cheaper to invest in solar than any other form of energy. At the same time, it's distributed. It means you can build it on your home. Unlike in the past, where energy was controlled by one asset owner in a centralized place, we are all now able to produce energy. So that's unique. The asset infrastructure itself, as we know, it's still at risk, but there are ways that we can de-risk it. Like, how do we revisit building and retrofitting buildings so that they're regenerative? So the energy is both produced, sold, and perhaps net zero at the building level, that we're reducing the like loss of energy between building materials, uh, water pumps, HVAC, but also like cement itself. How do we reprocess the oldest and most undisrupted industries in the world include include the building materials that we see? So, how do we rethink that? And I think also, Neil, you've talked about like the building environment itself. Does it create a clean air for the community? Do you have spaces that people can live together? How do we get people engaged in that story? It's not easy, right? A lot of these unsexy building-related efficiencies come behind the doors of the uh consumer, right? We've talked, I've talked, we've talked about this a lot with building owners. Like the HVAC system can consume up to 10% of a building's energy, but nobody really sees it, right? So it's not the first thing a tenant witnesses, it's more like the public spaces, the solar panels, even, but the HVAC, an efficiency there can really reduce costs for everybody in the building. And yet it's not a first priority. So, how do we make these things? I don't want to call them sexy, but understandable, digestible, like attractive to the to the buyer so that they can come in and advocate for themselves. Like you want to buy in a new condo, you want to get a new office, these are things you should be able to say. Why are you not investing in the best in class H of AC? When this is a creating a risk for us as your tenant or us as your asset investor, right, in the long run.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Let me ask you, Julian, as as you stay on that, as the chief investment officer, if you're saying I want to look at this asset class of real estate, which is quite broad, uh, and you're saying I we're impact oriented. What thematics do you start to go to to actually build a fund strategy to deploy capital that you believe is going to make meaningful change?

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Well, for us, at least for our first investment strategy, we're looking at decarbonization and resilience as the first kind of layer. And energy consumption from real estate is 40% of the world's GHG emissions, accounts for 40%, right? Because like not only the extraction to build, but to operate the building is one of the leading costs of energy consumption. So we have to think about how do we build real estate better? How does it get powered better? So that's a very macro. Um almost like no country can avoid that. There's some countries where it's more exposed. So that's the other layer we look at is like which countries have the most exposure to each GHG emission driver? In the US, transportation drives emissions number one, real estate number two. In Brazil, it's land use and forestry. So, like, how do we also overweight countries where the risk is the highest while still like thoughtfully building a diversified portfolio that addresses all of this? Because every country's GHG emissions affect us all, right? This is not something we can segregate or silo in our minds, let alone in our policies.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

I so I want to build

Diversified Fund Portfolios Explained

SPEAKER_02 30:06

on that. So, you know, one of the things that we rarely see is these port a portfolio that has, you know, imagine 10 to 12 private market funds that are diversified according to asset class, geography, and sector. And Julia and I, you know, really love this theme of decarbonization and resilience because there's agility to be really focused, but also comprehensive. So if we are thinking about the intersectionality of real estate, transportation, energy, water, and food systems, which are all, you know, I mean, they all are connected to each other. If you have a portfolio of 10 to 12 private market funds, some of which are a little bit early stage, maybe more on the VC and tech side, some that are a little bit later stage, more PE, deeper infrastructure, you know, some that are a little bit on this side of the financial return spectrum, some that are on a little bit more of the commercial returns side of the spectrum, right? But as a whole, the portfolio gives you a chance to go to an investor who might have said, wow, Aliks, I really wanted to invest in that water equity fund. But, you know, I can't because it's these markets, you know, emerging markets feel risky to me and it's a seven-year lockup and it's water, you know, it's a tricky year. I can't do it. But you can go back to that investor and say, well, what if I put water equity in a portfolio that is tangibly addressing global systemic risk? It's not just a random mix of funds, right? It's really strategically diversified, but all private markets. And it's part of a portfolio that has this mix of funds where some are a little bit more commercial, some more early stage. So it's meeting the conditions that you need as an investor. And it's making sure that as an investor, you are not overly concentrated in one asset class, you know, one sector or one particular fund manager. And so, you know, you don't find a lot of that out there. And your traditional wealth advisor can't offer that because a lot of these funds haven't made it on these platforms either. So from the investor side, it's about helping you be more diversified and generate alpha in ways that are truly addressing systemic risks and paving the way for that new economy. And in terms of the ecosystem of private market funds that are out there, it is about creating a portfolio where you can help market more of these funds because they're not just a standalone opportunity. And so, again, this was, you know, I came to Julia and I said, you know, I love the journey at water equity. We could, as part of our pillar two, right? Our investment products, um, we could launch another fund, but help me understand like where are we really going to address a gap in the marketplace? And it was really her idea, you know, something she had been cooking up for a long time. And I think if we can steer a lot more capital towards those kind of portfolios, it will start to drive a lot more financing towards solutions.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

So, Alex, when you say a portfolio of private market funds, does that literally mean you've got investors come in from the top, they deploy, let's say, $10 million, and then you allocate that into the different sub-funds within it?

SPEAKER_02 33:33

So I'm so glad you asked that because the mechanics matter. Go ahead, Julia. I see you want to jump in.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

We want to offer it in two ways. First and foremost, we see a lot of like nuanced interest, right? Like impact means different things to different people. They also are willing to have different risk exposure. So we didn't want to make a one size fits all while still making it customized, aka we've done the diligence. We understand the managers. We're not gonna just throw any manager at you, but like you want to solve decarbonization resilience. Here's 10 managers, 12 managers that we think are addressing it across all the drivers, all the things we discussed, land use, industrial production, you know, power generation, real estate, and construction. So, like, how do we do that thoughtfully? But some people may want to not do every single asset class. So we want to make it a little bit more flexible. It'll be both accessible via SMA, but also a fund of funds, which is a bit more easy to access from a close your eyes and never look at it again, but you don't have the level of customization. So we'll have both.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

So to explain that, so what is an SMA? It's a separate managed account. So imagine, Neil, you came to us and said, great, I want to invest minimum $5 million in a portfolio like this. We would create a separate managed account on a platform with one of our partners. There's uh a lot of platforms that have been created just for this, where we would create that separate managed account that would enable you to invest in this portfolio that we have created on our partners' platform. So we're leveraging existing infrastructure that's built to do this. Um, and to Julia's point, we wanted to start this way versus a whole structure that's trying to bring everything together because of how we've been reading the market for our 20-year careers, but also these past five years at LeBec. So the first portfolio we're launching will be a $50 million portfolio. Then we'll go back out to the market and have two to three portfolios for a full-on fundraise number of about $500 million. And then once we reach that, we'll create one whole fund that will take us to $5 billion.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

And how does that work with this the portfolio approach to impact, specifically where you're talking about having philanthropy almost pave the way and start to unlock some of the catalytic opportunities that more market-driven models are really need to help open that up? And and I'm just gonna be if we need an example, you know, I spend so much time within real estate in the built environment, but where it meets agriculture. And ag is is one of those sectors that you can lose a lot of money up front, and we need that to pave the way of some kind of philanthropic vehicle that can then help get us into, okay, there's there's clearly things, you know, if we're building buildings, we don't have to have philanthropic capital to do that. Uh so I'm curious within your your portfolio of funds, where that that kind of philosophy or that setup comes into play.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Absolutely.

Portfolio Approach Using All Capital Tools

SPEAKER_02 36:51

So I love the term portfolio approach to impact because it can apply to everything we've just talked about in the following ways. So a portfolio approach to impact, first and foremost, means how do I use all the capital tools to have a roadmap where I am using the right tool at the right time to achieve a particular goal, whether it's creating a diversified portfolio of private market funds, where, you know, as I mentioned, some of them might be fueled by a philanthropic first loss guarantee. Some of them might be more commercial, but it's diversified in a way where we're seeing all of these different asset classes and financial tools play a role. So debt equity, philanthropy to achieve goals around decarbonization and resilience. So at a portfolio level, Neil, it's really about again using the right capital tool at the right time. And in terms of the portfolios that we're building, we could see that both at the fund level with funds that are using philanthropy to unlock more debt and equity, but also at the portfolio level, meaning we're allocating these funds in a way where some are more risky, some are less risky, some are more advanced, some are more, you know, early stage. Um, but a way that I would love to describe it in terms of what this looks like at the organization level. I want to give you an example of something we did with a Fortune 500 company called Wreck It that is a consumer goods company, where a company like Wrecket, you know, came to us and said, is there a way? So LeBec, we've been hearing you talk about the portfolio approach to impact. Is there a way in which we could use all of our financial assets as a company in a more strategic and integrated way? And really where philanthropy can play a key role in different places of the process of the roadmap, versus doing a little philanthropy over here, then we do investments over there, then we have marketing campaigns here, and no one's talking to each other. So if you're a company that's looking to go back to all your stakeholders and said, we made a meaningful difference in terms of addressing the water crisis, climate change, and health, because this impacts our business, our communities, it is tethered to our mission. Here's what we did: we activated a roadmap where our financial assets are playing a critical role in a strategic and integrated way to solve problems, and where philanthropy is participating at the right place at the right time. So, for instance, a company might use some of its philanthropy to support water entrepreneurs in its accelerator program who are trying to prove new solutions. And maybe some of them get to a point where some of those solutions become more commercial, and it makes sense for the company to invest in some of those solutions or a fund that's investing in those solutions from its balance sheet, right? So, how do we connect the corporate balance sheet, you know, everything that the business is thinking about from a financial perspective with where philanthropy can play a role? That is a portfolio approach to impact at the company level. So at the fund level, it's what I described in terms of water equity fund two, right? Philanthropy as a first loss guarantee unlocked $50 million of debt and equity. That debt and equity would have never come to fund these water solutions without that $5 million first loss guarantee. You could do that at the billion dollar level. You could do it at the $5 billion level to address key issues in places like agriculture. At the business level, it's what I was describing in terms of this company like Wreck It. And in terms of what we're doing, so at the portfolio level, in terms of multiple funds, it's looking at it from the perspective of some of those funds are going to use that capital stack and will diversify those portfolios. So it's according to asset class, risky, less risky. It's again just using the right capital tool at the right time, at the right place of the process.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

Let's think through an investor. It could be an investor who is a real estate mogul. They've made their money, they understand some of the risks, they understand the benefits. They're sophisticated enough to make some decisions and they see, as many of us, like you know, that, for example, affordable housing has a financing gap. It must be filled by a mixture of philanthropy and catalytic capital. How do we build models that reduce some of the downside risk, right? Which is climate change, the uh affordability crisis, nonprofits being able to own. Like, how do we address these things systematically? They require blended finance. Not everybody wants the same return or the same risk profile. And some of these moguls even understand and want to give in a different way. So it's like, how do we think about this in a way that blends philanthropy all the way to market rate, that does so in a way that's smart, that reduces risk across those capital groups, that drives the best outcomes that we all want, right? We all kind of get around resilience for the building. You know, we want safety, we want air quality, we want a community around where we live. So I think there are things that can bring us together regardless of our views of the butter market. It just is like how do we play in that capital stack together more friendly and also drive the outcomes through contracts, through rewards, right? Like we haven't necessarily rewarded these things in the past with ROI or even with like requirements, right? Like if you borrow this money from this bank, you must create these insurance-level resilience factors in a building, right? It should be basic for even the bank's mortgage. But because we're working on outdated systems, like Alex mentioned, and outdated pricing of risk, it's also, you know, it's not like we're reinventing the wheel. We're just saying you're pricing it incorrectly and you're distributing the risk incorrectly. And you're not necessarily taking it uh uh responsibility for the outcomes. So, like, how can we re-evaluate this, structure it better, get better outcomes for all of us? And I think you get this better than anyone, Neil. Like, how do we drive the value in those in those outcomes?

SPEAKER_02 43:31

You know, it is hard to unpack this and and make it digestible for all audiences, but I really love the example sometimes of movies.

Climate Repricing And The Big Short Parallel

SPEAKER_02 43:42

So I'm sure you saw the movie The Big Short.

SPEAKER_00 43:45

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Right? And so you think about the small group of investors who looked behind door number two and number three, and who saw, you know, there were all of these uh mortgage bonds and um You know, financial transactions that had been poorly put together, right? These mortgage bonds that were fraudulent and not even based on credit scores. And I mean typical due diligence. And the whole industry was gaining from just making that wheel just keep on going, you know, all the way to the rating agencies, right? Who, you know, if they didn't give a great rating, then the banks would go to a different rating agency. And it took a handful of people to look behind, you know, door number three to see that there was, you know, by the time those mortgage repayments would be coming through, there it would, it would come down like a house of cards. Well, that's how we feel in terms of climate risk not being accurately priced in almost all asset valuations for reasons we also understand, right? That we have to have the right models, it's unpredictable, like there's challenges. We get it. But point is, you know, there is a reason why now there are investors shorting the housing market in Florida and California. That's that's to the extent that sophisticated investors understand that, you know, real assets in these very climate vulnerable states have not appropriately priced risk. And of course, we saw this, you know, really come to life with the fires in California. And now the insurance industry, you know, it can't even insure homes in California, let alone um in Florida. So there is something really missing in our conversation around risk and return. Is it really less risky to invest in a condo in Miami today that's in a, you know, very vulnerable place in terms of hurricanes or rising sea levels or rising team, rising temperatures? Is that really so much less risky than investing in a water fund that's going to make sure there are still water resources in parts of the world where almost every Fortune 500 company is operating and is depending on water resources in those places, right? Is it really more risky? We don't know. So I think that, you know, that's that's why we get so passionate about creating these diversified portfolios where we are really almost de-risking opportunities for investors because at some point there is going to be a repricing around climate. And we have created an investment opportunity that is tethered to reality and where solutions are going to make a difference.

SPEAKER_00 46:33

Let me let me just make an impression here. And I'm curious what your thoughts are on this, because within this world of catalytic finance and impact-driven finance, whatever we want to call it, it doesn't matter if it's ESG or impact investing, it always seems like there is this line drawn between concessionary and non-concessionary. And what I am struck with of that you're talking about is like you're really embracing complexity and make trying to make sense of it and trying to disseminate that and create narrative around it of like this is what um what we're doing and and how the money flows into that. I just I don't see a lot of people able to handle that dialogue. It's almost like they've they've got to go, it's like black or white, uh, is it concessionary or is it non-concessionary? And that's where they're making decisions. Do you like, but it seems like you're playing in a three-dimensional world when people are stuck in 2D right now. Do you feel that way?

SPEAKER_02 47:37

We are not living in a time where binary thinking is gonna get us there. Everything is interconnected. There is no way your real estate investment portfolio isn't gonna be impacted by what is happening in the world. Um, there is no way that your private equity portfolio isn't isn't going to be impacted. You know, rising income inequality is a huge risk. It will continue to full fuel instability at every level, which is not good for any business. Um, and if your employees can't afford their rents, then you know, if we can't even provide mortgages anymore, then that's going to create all sorts of disruption in the financial industry. You know, all of these things are interconnected. But to your point, this is why we love the portfolio approach to impact, because it addresses this particular challenge. Instead of getting stuck on this is concessionary, this is market rate, I do a little philanthropy here and then I invest there. We are presenting a portfolio that is absolutely including opportunities that might not yet be commercial, but are so important to creating commercial opportunities in the future. And because that non-commercial opportunity is part of a package, it can be presented as a portfolio that is more attractive. And that's why even fund two at Water Equity, to always go back to this benchmark, was so exciting because it allowed us to meet the market exactly in terms of what you're describing, Neil. You could go to a foundation and say, I know you're not ready to invest. But if you make a $1 million grant in this philanthropic first loss guarantee, you're gonna unlock $50 million of capital and you're gonna help five million people get access to water. It is so much better than you just making a million dollar grant and impact 300,000 people. And next year I got to come back and ask you for another million because we need more money to get the job done, right? So you are doing the exact same thing. You're just plugging it into a vehicle that is creating these things that is allowing you to have more impact per your dollar contributed. And for those who are ready to invest but might not understand water, I've got a five million dollar philanthropic first loss guarantee. I don't need it, but because of the perception of risk, I am letting you know that in a worst case scenario, you're gonna get all your money back. And so it's just really understanding that innovative finance provides the puzzle. It brings the actually, it brings the puzzle pieces together to meet these audiences where they are, because everybody lives in their silos.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

You know, an investor can do multiple things at the same time. And I think to to reinforce what Alixa's saying, you can be a client of our philanthropic advisory/slash strategic advisory business, and we can help you design a donor-advised fund strategy, a philanthropic strategy that complements our mark our market rate-driven RIA investment view, where you're potentially de-risking segments, like Alix is saying, to then catalyze growth in another segment, whether it's all in the same vehicle, whether it's, you know, we do it in all, you know, vehicles that are parallel, whether it's in our future fund of funds, we we insist because of our innovative finance view that these are critical components to de-risking and making sure that you know these markets, which we know can be commercial, are ready to be commercial, right? Like it's not that they can't be, it's more like, are they ready? Like solar, like microfinance, like water and microfinance, we know that they can happen. It just has to be proven bankable. There has to be great fund managers behind it, great strategists, and of course the storytelling, because if you don't get it, if you have range anxiety, if you have an uh a resilient, you know, unwillingness to accept some of these shifts in market dynamics about insurance, you know, we need to also bring the people along on the storytelling, which is what you do, Neil. So, all that to say, we we see the whole arc.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

No, I I love the the narrative piece as as a third pillar of the business. And um I I just find this so fascinating. It it there's the creativity that comes from fluency, and and so it's been just a great. I mean, I feel like this is just the teaser to a masterclass that you two should put on. Um and and I certainly I I want to encourage people because it sounds like you've got really three different people that you provide value to from the foundations to the investors uh to the operators and and asset managers. Um and and that's the fun part is actually if you've got those three audiences and you start to weave them all together, what what can you really do there? So I I'm really excited that that we've crossed paths and I want to stay in touch.

How To Follow LeBec And Closing

SPEAKER_00 52:57

Um but I want to know what where do you want to, how do people stay in touch with you? Like if they want to if they like this little nugget that that we put out there for the past hour, where where can people go to find out more and stay tuned to the journey?

SPEAKER_02 53:13

That is such a great question. So, first of all, check us out. You know, Lebec.co is our website. We just uh we just launched our revised website that really speaks to this whole strategy. And if you're someone who is just curious as to how can I move more capital towards solutions that are creating a future that I believe in for me and my kids, um, you can reach out to Julia or me. So I'm aliks at Lebec.co. Julia is julia at Lebec.co. Please reach out. You know, we really enjoy um having these conversations and and we also know how to have them in stages. You know, I think we're really adamant about not overwhelming audiences. Um, and I think that, you know, a dream for us, Neil, would be that a year from now, when we're talking to you for like, so what is the progress that we have made? That we are we're seeing shows like Shark Tank show social entrepreneurs and enterprises that are putting these different sources of capital to work, that there are movies out there who are integrating nuggets of this into their plots and themes, and not just around disaster, but also around where there's possibility and solutions. Um, there are also exciting things happening around how you can finance films differently, where innovative finance can play a role. But stay tuned for that. That's a little later. But also, Neil, that we will have successfully, you know, raised our first $50 million private market fund portfolio and can tell you how that's moving along. But I just, we all gain by not living in our silos. Everybody in that ecosystem, um, the entrepreneurs, the operators, the investors, the philanthropists, every time a philanthropist makes a grant towards an organization that has an innovative finance or sustainable business model, they're de-risking their own investment in that organization because they're putting their capital towards something that's sustainable. And I think that that's a conversation we have to have more and more of.

SPEAKER_00 55:19

Fantastic. Alex, Julia, it has been such a pleasure. You're coming back. Uh, what is that gonna be? Winter 2026. We're gonna get the updates and hear how it's going. Uh so thank you. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for tuning in to the Regenerative Real Estate Podcast. The show production is a reflection of the work that we do through Latitude Regenerative Real Estate and Hamlet Capital. This episode was edited by Asher Griffith at Cicada Radio. If you're a landowner, investor, or developer exploring regenerative projects, or if you're sitting on land and wondering what's possible, you can learn more or reach out to the links in the show notes. And if this conversation was useful, consider subscribing or sharing it with someone working at the intersection of real estate, investment, and impact. Until next time, this is Neil Collins signing off.