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Invest Appalachia Fund closes with USD 35 million for community-first investing

13.05.2024

Invest Appalachia (IA), member of the Mountain Partnership, has closed its final round of commitments to the Invest Appalachia Fund (IA Fund) with a total of USD 35.5 million. The IA Fund added USD 16.6 million in commitments from six new investors in its second round, on top of the USD 18.95 million secured in the first close. New investors include national leaders such as Truist Bank, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Chordata Capital, as well as regional foundations Dogwood Health Trust, Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and Greater Clark Foundation. They join first close investors UnitedHealth Group, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Appalachian Regional Commission, Cassiopeia Foundation, Laughing Gull Foundation and Sugarbush Valley Impact Investments.

Overall, 80 percent of the IA Fund’s commitments come from investors outside of Appalachia, bringing new mission-aligned capital into a historically underinvested region.

IA was designed to provide flexible community-first impact investment that complements the existing community finance system and reaches persistently under-resourced populations and geographies across Central Appalachia. The IA Fund invests in projects and businesses that advance climate resilience, equity and community wealth-building, with specific focus on key sectors that are already driving inclusive and sustainable market development: clean energy, community health (including housing), placemaking (including downtown revitalization), and food and agriculture.

The IA Fund is managed by Invest Appalachia, a non-profit organization that is designed, governed, guided and staffed by community stakeholders rooted in place across the region. IA works in the Appalachian counties of Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. The IA Fund is part of a blended capital approach that reduces systemic barriers for underserved entrepreneurs and communities, drawing on grant-funded “Catalytic Capital” to increase equitable and inclusive deal flow, de-risk projects in order to leverage repayable investment, and pilot innovative, non-extractive investment tools. IA continues to raise grants, recoverable grants, and donations for this high-impact Catalytic Capital fund.

Along with the first close investors and Catalytic Capital funders, the new investors in the IA Fund’s final close are committed to a bold shared vision for a more equitable, resilient and prosperous Central Appalachia.

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Story written by Invest Appalachia