At a glance

Systemic Investing

"the application of systems thinking to addressing societal problems through the strategic deployment of diverse forms of capital, nested within a broader systems change program and intended to transform human and natural systems."

Our Purpose

The TransCap Initiative exists to improve the way sustainable finance is purposed, designed, and managed so that money can become a transformative force in building a low-carbon, climate-resilient, just, and inclusive society. We believe that the key to accomplishing this vision is to inspire and enable investors to leverage the insights and tools of systems thinking and complex systems science for addressing the most pressing societal challenges of the 21st century.

Our Mission

The TransCap Initiative is a think-and-do-tank at the nexus of real-economy systems change, sustainability, and finance. Our mission is to build the field of systemic investing. We do so by building a collaborative innovation space for developing, testing, and scaling systemic investing through research and prototyping and by nurturing a community of practice.

Projects

Impact-oriented families are uniquely positioned to pioneer systemic investing because they can deploy different forms of capital: market-rate and concessional investments, philanthropic grants, and political and social capital. The ImPact is partnering with the TCI to help families become more strategic, creative, and collaborative in their impact investing activities.
Sam Bonsey, Executive Director, The ImPact
The TransCap Initiative's white paper has been a key reference point for us to rethink our approach to financing innovation efforts, and, more broadly, to our programmatic work on fostering system change.
Giulio Quaggiotto, ex Head of Strategic Innovation, UNDP
Pension funds can embrace a broader vision of their fiduciary duty, one that also focuses on improving the future living conditions of their beneficiaries, while generating attractive returns and increasing portfolio resilience. One way to do this is by investing closer to home. We are partnering with the TCI to bring systemic investing to the most impact-minded institutional investors.
Ralph Kretschmer, Managing Partner, EBG Investment Solutions
Conventional approaches to sustainable finance fail to appreciate and respond effectively to the systemic nature of the world’s greatest challenges. For capital to make a difference, we require an entirely different investment logic. We need tools and frameworks to fund deliberately chosen portfolios of strategic experiments that test different pathways for the sustainability transition, develop investable options and the new economics of regenerative places, value chains, and industries.
Kirsten Dunlop, CEO, EIT Climate-KIC
Cities will invest hundreds of billions over the coming decade in pursuit of their sustainability transitions. At the moment, they rely on outdated institutional structures, decision-making frameworks, and investment practices. The Centre for Public Impact is partnering with the TCI to help cities become much more systemic in how they frame the challenge of climate change mitigation and go about addressing it through finance and investments.
Adrian Brown, Executive Director, Centre for Public Impact

Community

Community

  • Ida Uusikylä

    UNDP

    Ida Uusikylä
    Ida Uusikylä works as an Innovation Officer at UNDP Viet Nam, where she is focused on strategic innovation. Ida has experience in emerging technologies, institutional reforms, complexity science, and innovation policy. She has worked on projects related to governance innovation, sustainability, and circular economy and has lately been driving the work at UNDP’s country office in building capabilities in innovation, systems approaches, sensemaking, and portfolios. Ida holds a master’s degree in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Helsinki.
  • Florian Egli

    ETH Zurich

    Florian Egli
    Florian Egli is a senior researcher at ETH Zurich, where he completed his award-winning doctorate on investments in renewable energies in 2020. He also serves as a Senior Associate of foraus, the grassroots Swiss Foreign Policy Think Thank, which he helped initiate and develop. Florian has co-founded various initiatives such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Shapers in Bern, sustainablefintech.ch, and the ETH Energy Blog. He regularly comments on foreign and climate policy issues in the media and moderates workshops using design thinking and system thinking techniques. Previously, Florian has worked for think tanks, in the public sector, and for consultancies and start-ups. He studied economics in Bern, Geneva, and Toulouse.
  • Andy Kerr

    EIT Climate-KIC

    Andy Kerr
    Andy Kerr leads the UK and Ireland activities of EIT Climate-KIC – Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership. He focuses on supporting whole systems innovation—coordinating interventions on different levers of change, from early-stage business support to investment models and regulatory innovation—to help cities, states and regions deliver resilient, zero-carbon goals. This work has focused on building an investment mindset and developing blended public-private finance models to mobilise the financial capital required to transform places in the coming decade. As part of this, he coordinates the Innovation Working Group of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)-hosted Climate Financial Risk Forum. Previously, Andy was founding Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI) at the University of Edinburgh, and he worked in the private sector, helping develop emerging environmental and carbon markets and advising organisations on how to respond to the climate imperative.
  • Ivana Gazibara

    TransCap Initiative

    Ivana Gazibara
    Ivana Gazibara is a futures and systems change expert with more than 15 years of experience in sustainability strategy and innovation. Ivana has previously led Forum for the Future’s futures practice, overseeing thought leadership projects, strategic foresight work with partners, and internal and external horizon scanning networks. She has also incubated and led The Futures Centre, the only open, participatory futures platform focused on tracking and making sense of change with the purpose of advancing a sustainable future. Prior to that, she was part of SustainAbility’s emerging economies team, working to build the organisation’s practice in India and Brazil. Ivana has an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and a BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto.
  • Stephanie Frick

    TransCap Initiative

    Stephanie Frick
    Stephanie Frick is the Innovation Lead of the TransCap Initiative (TCI). She is a social innovator and system change expert challenging the existing paradigms of innovation. Stephanie brings more than 12 years of experience across sectors working at the intersection of sustainability strategy and innovation with the mission to not only treat symptoms, but the root causes of today’s great challenges. Until recently Stephanie has been the Executive Director of the Competence Center for Social Innovation at University of St. Gallen (CSI-HSG) leading strategy and business development and overseeing international cross-sector innovation and research projects. Prior to this, she co-developed the platform for Social Entrepreneurs in Switzerland (SENS) where she initiated and led the Social Impact Accelerator (SIA) and worked for multiple years as sustainability professional in the food system leading sustainability strategy development (Migros) and international innovation projects (Fairtrade). She holds an MSc in Management Technology and Economics and a BSc in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich.
  • Genevieve Mortimer

    Regen Melbourne

    Genevieve Mortimer
    Gen manages projects that identify strategic approaches to achieve systems change in the real world. Her career spans impact assessment, research, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability, applied across a variety of sectors including mining, forestry, finance, and energy. She is the Systemic Capital Lead at Regen Melbourne, supporting the development of systemic investing practices.
  • Murray Gray

    Metabolic

    Murray Gray
    Murray is the Co-Director of the Ventures division of Metabolic, joining in 2020. Having spent his 20s in finance and entrepreneurship, he has spent the last 5+ years navigating enterprise’s role in the transition to a new economy. His primary focus is the stimulation of early-stage entrepreneurial innovation as a vehicle to enact system change. As an expert in systemic methodologies, he has been actively contributing to the Transcap initiative.
  • Dominic Hofstetter

    TransCap Initiative

    Dominic Hofstetter
    Dominic Hofstetter is the Space Building Lead of the TransCap Initiative. He initiated and incubated the TransCap Initiative when he was the Director of Capital and Investments at EIT Climate-KIC, Europe’s largest climate innovation initiative, where he was responsible for building the organization’s nascent investment function. Before joining EIT Climate-KIC in 2015, Dominic had worked as an entrepreneur at the renewable energy start-up Electrochaea, as a private equity investor at Hudson Clean Energy Partners, and as a finance professional in the institutional asset management division of Credit Suisse. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an MSc from the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford.
  • Daniel Zimmer

    EIT Climate-KIC

    Daniel Zimmer
    Daniel Zimmer is the strategic lead of the sustainable land use theme at EIT Climate-KIC, which he joined in 2010 as its Director for Innovation. He developed and supervised the implementation of Climate-KIC’s portfolio of innovation projects aiming to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy and society. He has global experience on climate and water related issues ranging from engineering to geopolitics. For eight years, he served as the Executive Director of the World Water Council, an international umbrella organisation of the water sector. Daniel holds a PhD in Hydrology from Pierre and Marie Curie University.
  • Tom Osdoba

    EIT Climate-KIC

    Tom Osdoba
    Tom Osdoba serves as a senior advisor to cities as part of EIT Climate-KIC, Europe’s top innovation community on sustainability and climate change. Previously, Tom led a management consultancy focused on sustainability strategies, social enterprise, and new business development, working with several cities and local governments around the world. From 2013 – 2016, he led Enterprise Community Partner’s efforts to make all affordable housing sustainable. Before that, Tom acted as the first managing director of the Center for Sustainable Business at the University of Oregon, as the sustainable economic development manager for Portland, OR (2007-2009), and as Vancouver’s first sustainability director. His work in Portland led to the creation of the Portland Sustainability Institute, which is now EcoDistricts. Tom holds an MA in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
  • Thomas Adank

    TransCap Initiative

    Thomas Adank
    Thomas Adank is co-leading the TransCap prototype in Switzerland. In 2011, Thomas stepped out of his conventional finance career, first at UBS and later in a family office, to dedicate his time to impact investing. He worked in microfinance and agriculture finance in Colombia, in the field of renewable energy in Germany, and, based out of Switzerland, in impact investing consulting and angel investing with a focus on positive transformational industries and companies tackling climate change. He first experienced the exponential impact potential of systemic investing while applying the concept as Investment Principal at the Soros Economic Development Fund in London, focusing on refugees and migrants in the Middle East. Thomas holds an MBA from INSEAD.
  • Kate Wolfenden

    Independent

    Kate Wolfenden
    Kate Wolfenden is an independent advisor, writer, and non-executive director, specialising in the design, build, and analysis of systems interventions. She is Co-Founder of 103, a climate-action focused Dark Matter Labs collaboration. She is also Interim-Chair of Future Planet, Advisory Board member for Innovator Capital, and strategic advisor to Landscape Finance Labs. Clients and projects include the design of a new ca. $100 million early-stage systemic venture fund for the World Bank's Climate Investment Funds, co-founding Project X (a WWF-UK founded industrial sustainable innovation accelerator), co-development of innovative finance mechanisms with Innovator Capital, and support in the development of the Transformational Capital Initiative at EIT Climate-KIC.
  • Magdalena J. Schneider

    TransCap Initiative

    Magdalena J. Schneider
    Magdalena J. Schneider is co-leading the TransCap prototype in Switzerland. She strives to change systems by forging alliances for impact at the intersection of society, business, academia, and public institutions. As Director for Strategy & Multi-Stakeholder Alliances at European Commons, Magdalena explored key success factors for, and major risks emerging from, the implementation of the European Green Deal in three Austrian regions. Until 2019, she co-led the strategy, fundraising, and communications efforts of euforia, a Swiss NGO for youth mobilization with a community of volunteers in over 20 countries across 3 continents. Earlier, Magdalena had worked for almost a decade in the European Banking sector (BNP Paribas, Paris/Credit Suisse, Zürich). Magdalena holds a BSc from Italy’s Bocconi University and an MBA from Switzerland’s St. Gallen University (HSG).
  • Ralph Kretschmer

    EBG Investment Solutions Ltd.

    Ralph Kretschmer
    Ralph Kretschmer is the Founder and Managing Partner of EBG Investment Solutions Ltd. and Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board of VERIT Investment Management AG, an asset management and fund management company specialising in sustainable real estate in Zurich. Ralph boasts 30 years of experience in Sustainable Finance and Investment and, until 2008, was the initiator and co-head of the Credit Suisse Environmental Business Group (EBG). Previously, Ralph served as a Director in Investment Banking (Corporate Finance, M&A) at Credit Suisse in London and Zurich. Ralph holds a M.A. HSG, University of St. Gallen; Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
  • Nicolas Michaelsen

    TransCap Initiative

    Nicolas Michaelsen
    As a TransCap Fellow, Nico is exploring how technology and coordination mechanisms can be levered to orchestrate, govern, and incentivize ecosystems solving complex societal problems through collaboration. He is a serial entrepreneur and investor with a 15-year track record in founding companies and investment firms. Previously, he built Materra, a systemic impact investment firm working with institutional investors on creating integrated investment portfolios across asset classes. Before Materra, Nicolas had founded Airhelp, a software-enabled claims management company, which scaled to 750 employees across 28 markets and was backed by top-tier VC firms and angel investors including Y-Combinator and Khosla Ventures. He has been featured on CNN, WSJ, TechCrunch, the New York Times as a “game changer shaping the future”.
  • Louise Boehm

    Metabolic

    Louise Boehm
    Louise Boehm is a sustainable finance consultant at Metabolic and is part of the core team that is developing and applying the systemic investing framework alongside TransCap. Louise joined the finance consultancy team of Metabolic to help financial players adopt systemic approaches when designing their investment strategies. She chose to work in the field of sustainable finance as she understood the central role that financial systems play in the real economy, and considers financial (re)allocation as one of the most powerful tools to align business practices with planetary boundaries.
  • Jasper Nijdam

    Metabolic

    Jasper Nijdam
    Jasper Nijdam is a sustainable finance consultant at Metabolic, and is part of the core team that is developing and applying the systemic investing framework alongside TransCap. Jasper works at the intersection of sustainability, finance, and strategy. He joined Metabolic in 2021 to be at the forefront of the sustainable transition. He is committed to using his multi-disciplinary background and skills to help leverage the power of capital flows to create a prosperous and sustainable society for all.
  • Johannes Tschiderer

    TransCap Initiative

    Johannes Tschiderer
    Johannes Tschiderer is a systemic investing associate, focusing on the analytical work related to the TransCap prototype in Switzerland. In addition to his work at the TransCap Initiative, he leads the student-run sustainability consultancy Student Impact, which works with impact- oriented start-ups and SMEs, and he is engaged in the design and facilitation of novel course formats at the nexus of business and sustainability at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Johannes holds a BA in Business Administration and an MA in Banking and Finance, both from the University of St. Gallen, and he completed programs related to systems change at Climate-KIC and Collaboratio Helvetica.
  • Tom Zamzow

    TransCap Initiative

    Tom Zamzow
    Tom Zamzow leads communications and public relations at the TransCap Initiative, with an initial focus on the TransCap prototype in Switzerland. In addition to his work at the TCI, he also manages his own consulting firm, specializing in strategic communications and cross- sector partnerships to unlock new business opportunities for clients. Tom honed his communications and stakeholder engagement skills with a Fortune 100 multinational, where he worked in multiple roles related to marketing, commercial strategy, digital innovation, and corporate communications. He holds a BSc in Integrated Coastal and Marine Management from the Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences and an Executive Master’s in Advocacy in International Affairs and Policy Making from the Geneva Graduate Institute.
  • Josh Sorin

    Centre For Public Impact

    Josh Sorin
    Josh Sorin is Global Director for Climate Action at the Centre for Public Impact (CPI), where he built and leads an initiative that supports cities across the globe in driving the urgent transformation required to build zero carbon resilient cities. Prior to this role, Josh built and led CPI’s Government Innovation program in North America, where his team worked with hundreds of cities and counties across the world, and established partnerships with leading philanthropic and civic sector organizations. Before joining CPI, Josh led projects in KPMG's Public Sector practice where he advised clients on strategy, change management, program design, innovation, and data/analytics. His engagements focused primarily on the energy/climate, healthcare, and finance industries. Finally, outside of his "day jobs", Josh co-founded an education startup that is now owned by the University of Arizona, and a non-profit supporting the third-largest public health system in the U.S.
  • Chandrima Padmanabhan

    Centre For Public Impact

    Chandrima Padmanabhan
    Chandrima Padmanabhan is a Programme Manager at the Centre for Public Impact (CPI) and leads CPI’s Europe-based work on the Global Climate Action Initiative. She brings 10+ years of experience on climate resilience and urban adaptation research and policy with a specific focus on energy, water, housing. This involved managing and leading multi-stakeholder projects with city governments, civil society organizations, and academia across South Asia, East Africa, UK and Europe on improving their transparency, accountability and civic participation processes and frameworks around access to urban infrastructure and services. In 2018, Chandrima was nominated as a Local Pathways Fellow by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network for advancing local dialogue, collaboration, and problem-solving around the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Krispin Romang

    Swiss e-Mobility

    Krispin Romang
    Krispin Romang is the director of the Swiss electro mobility association Swiss eMobility. He has been working on the future of mobility, in particular electric propulsion, for over a decade. He coordinated the nationwide fast charging project, was responsible for the Swiss charging network platform and represents the interests of electro mobility in various committees and commissions. He also serves as secretary of the parliamentary group on electro mobility. In addition to his function as managing director, he was responsible for policy development at the Mobility Academy for many years. Before that, he was a business developer at TCS. During his career, Krispin Romang also gained experience in the IT, security technology and banking sectors. He lives with his family in Herrenschwanden near Bern.
  • Gabriel Del Castillo

    Centre For Public Impact

    Gabriel Del Castillo
    Gabriel Del Castillo is a Senior Associate at CPI Europe. He has a background in public policy, strategic foresight and systems thinking as well as a profound interest in public innovation and strategic design. Prior to joining CPI, Gabriel led Instituto del Futuro, a policy and foresight think-tank based in Latin America, and worked as a policy consultant in Peru. He was also a global ambassador for the Copenhagen Institute of Future Studies’ Global Scanning Network and has collaborated in projects with the Greater London Authority and the Danish Design Centre. He holds an MPA in Innovation, Public Policy and Public Value from the Institute from Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London and a BA in International Development from the University of Sussex.
  • Luc Tschumper

    Swiss eMobility

    Luc Tschumper
    Luc Tschumper is the deputy director of the Swiss electro mobility association Swiss eMobility, and is chiefly responsible for at-home and at-work charging solutions. Luc studied economics and computer sciences and has built both experience and passion for mobility and innovation in roles that involved account, project and innovation management.
  • Andre Ticoulat

    TransCap Initiative

    Andre Ticoulat
    Andre Ticoulat is a research analyst with TransCap and works across a number of diverse projects - from research to client-facing asset advisory and methodological development. He is driven to work for a more equitable, sustainable and humane world. Andre works from the assumption that humanity is facing unprecedented, complex challenges and believes a fundamental mindset and behavioural shift is required to nudge systems toward positive transformations. Academically, he has dedicated his research to behavioural economics, through studies that investigate the impact of economic policy on social dynamics. Andre has a BA in Economics and International Relations from the University of British Columbia and holds certificates in Circular Economy and Bio-Economy from Delft and Wageningen Universities. He has previous work experience as an investment advisor, public equities trader and in venture capital.
  • Milly Shotter

    TransCap Initiative

    Milly Shotter
    As a TransCap Fellow, Milly applies a visual, narrative, and creative lens to TCI’s work to find new ways of understanding, framing, and translating the concept of systemic investing. Her work aims to lay the foundations for communicating visionary solutions to complex problems in order to galvanise a global-scale movement. Previously, Milly was a Partner at Bethnal Green Ventures, Europe’s leading tech-for-good VC firm, where she built out the firm's investor-facing communications strategy, supported the launch of a number of funds, and led a full-company rebrand. During these four years, she developed a robust knowledge of impact investing. Milly is currently studying for a master’s degree in Strategic Design in Complexity, consulting for other narrative change organisations, and contributing to the London-based creative collective Climate and Cities, where she is exploring the future of sustainability in the urban environment. She began her career in creative production and fashion.
  • Todd Barker

    Meridian Institute

    Todd Barker
    Todd Barker has dedicated his career to environmental policy and sustainability. He currently serves as the CEO of the Meridian Institute, a 25-year-old non-profit consultancy that serves as a trusted third party supporting diverse stakeholders in addressing complex and controversial societal issues. Previously, he had worked as a Senior Associate at The Keystone Center, as a Research Fellow at the US EPA, and as a Physical Science Technician at the US Forest Service. Todd has a B.S. in History and an M.S. in Environmental Policy from the University of Michigan.
  • Kaj Lofgren

    Regen Melbourne

    Kaj Lofgren
    Kaj is the CEO of Regen Melbourne, a platform for ambitious collaboration, in service of Melbourne. Powered by an alliance of more than 160 organisations, Regen Melbourne is the host of a portfolio of bold projects that are moving Melbourne towards a regenerative future. Kaj is also the Entrepreneur in Residence at Small Giants Academy, where he collaborates on the Academy’s education and storytelling initiatives, including the Impact Safari program and the Mastery of Business and Empathy. A Civil Engineer by training, Kaj holds a Master's of Economic History from Lund University and has previously worked in social enterprise, impact investment, and community development with Engineers Without Borders.
  • Nicole Barling-Luke

    Regen Melbourne

    Nicole Barling-Luke
    Nicole is an experienced strategist, designer, and deliverer. She is the Portfolio Lead at Regen Melbourne, bringing a critical and joy-informed approach to activating organisations and citizens in Greater Melbourne. Nicole identifies as both a social innovation generalist and facilitation enthusiast. She has previously worked with global practitioners to improve the public sector's capability, creativity, and courage.
  • Alison Whitten

    Regen Melbourne

    Alison Whitten
    Alison is the Research Lead at Regen Melbourne. She coordinates the RM Lab, a collaborative research hub with activities across three streams: project-specific action research, systems-level explorations, and collective measurement. Alison has a background in urban resilience, international development, and strategy consulting, with global experience in local government and the private sector. She holds degrees in Systems Engineering and Urban Planning.
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Participate in the
TransCap Initiative

There is a window of opportunity. An opportunity to rethink value in the 21st century, reimagine the purpose of capital markets, and test new paradigms, structures, and practices of investment. Yet while the time to act is now, how exactly financial capital needs to be deployed to build a low-carbon, climate-resilient, just, and inclusive society remains largely unclear.

So we invite challenge owners, systems thinkers, innovation practitioners, investment professionals, ecosystem shapers, and creative voices to join us in figuring out how to deploy financial capital in service of a prosperous and sustainable future for all.

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Challenge Owners

Do you represent an ambitious city council, regional or national government, multilateral institution, foundation, or another organization with a mandate to transform a human or natural system?

Contact us to learn more about systemic investing and funding architecture in service of your climate action plan.

Investors

Are you an asset owner, an investment advisor, an asset manager, or a financial intermediary looking to explore the next frontier of sustainable finance?

Reach out to learn more about systemic investing and to discover investment opportunities.

Innovators

Are you working on a novel idea, concept, space, method, strategy, tool, structure, philosophy, or metric relevant for building the field of systemic investing?

Get in touch to find out how to engage in our prototyping work and how to contribute to our community of practice.

Funders

Are you interested in supporting the design and mainstreaming of a new investment logic that challenges existing financial paradigms, structures, and practices?

We’d love to hear from you.

Join the Network

Contact Us

TransCap Core Team
community@transformation.capital

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About

Who We Are

The TransCap Initiative is a think-and-do-tank operating at the nexus of real-economy systems change, sustainability, and finance. We operate as a multi-stakeholder alliance coordinated by a backbone team and comprised of wealth owners, innovation leaders, system thinkers, research institutes, and financial intermediaries. Our community is open to anyone committed to our cause and values.

Why We Exist

We exist to improve the way sustainable finance is purposed, designed, and managed so that money can become a transformative force in building a low-carbon, climate-resilient, just, and inclusive society. We believe that the key to accomplishing this vision is to inspire and enable investors to leverage the insights and tools of systems thinking and complex systems science for addressing the most pressing societal challenges of the 21st century.

What We Do

Our mission is to build the field of systemic investing. This means developing, testing, and scaling an investment logic at the intersection of systems thinking and finance. We do that by convening a multi-stakeholder alliance to develop a knowledge and innovation base, test novel concepts and approaches, and build a community of practice.

Our core ideas borrow from the disciplines of systems thinking and complex systems science, challenge-led innovation, human-centred design, new economic frameworks, and financial innovation. Our experiments are contextualised in those place-based systems that matter most for human prosperity—such as cities, landscapes, and coastal zones—as well as in value chains and other real-economy systems. We hope that our work produces knowledge and insights, methods and tools, and a self-organising community of inspired and enabled change makers.

The places and value chains we intend to transform act as centres of gravity for our work. In each of these systems, we will work with challenge owners, communities, innovators, investors, and other stakeholders to design, structure, and finance strategic investment portfolios nested within a broader systems intervention approach.