Alix Lebec // Founder & CEO of LEBEC Innovative Finance & Philanthropy

Investing in Impact | Impact Investing

In Episode 72 of the Investing in Impact podcast, I speak with Alix Lebec, Founder & CEO of LEBEC, on helping visionary founders, funders, and investors maximize value creation and scale solutions that address the world’s most pressing challenges.

LEBEC is a pioneering women-owned and led firm that specializes in innovative finance and philanthropy. With a strong presence in both the U.S. and Europe, LEBEC is dedicated to helping visionary founders, funders, and investors maximize value creation and scale solutions that address the world’s most pressing challenges.

About Alix

For over 20 years, Alix Lebec has been advising and growing organizations across the philanthropy and sustainable finance ecosystem.

As a member of the founding and executive leadership team at WaterEquity, alongside co-founders Gary White and Matt Damon, Alix spent the past decade building this high-performing global asset manager that invests in water, women, and sanitation in emerging markets.

She has also worked at the World Bank in Paris and Southeast Asia, the Clinton Global Initiative, and Water.org, where she mobilized $260 million in capital and built winning teams.

In 2020, Alix launched LEBEC to support philanthropists, investors, and entrepreneurs worldwide and to shape a paradigm shift in our global financial ecosystem. She is also a Limited Partner and impact advisor at Polymath Ventures, a member of 100 Women in Finance, and a co-founder of the World Climate Tech Summit in Miami.

Alix serves on the Board of iDE Global and is a regular media contributor on philanthropy, innovative finance, and investing in women in emerging markets.

Catalytic Philanthropy: Accelerating Impact

In this interview, Alix emphasizes the concept of catalytic philanthropy—a method that accelerates impact by leveraging philanthropic funds in innovative ways.

She identifies key strategies for philanthropists and investors to dramatically increase their impact beyond writing a check:

• Guarantee First Loss: Utilize philanthropic funds as a cushion for investors, encouraging them to engage in high-impact projects.
• Engage in Impact Investing: Direct capital towards ventures that not only promise financial returns but also generate social and environmental benefits.
• Foster Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships: Collaborate across sectors to pool resources, expertise, and networks, maximizing the scale and sustainability of interventions.
• Measure and Manage Impact: Employ robust impact measurement and management practices to ensure transparency and guide continuous improvement.

Reimagining Global Capital Markets for Good

At Lebec, the belief is that it’s critical to think bigger and reimagine how global capital markets can be a force for good—with the goal of unleashing systems change.

The opportunities to donate, invest, and do business in a sustainable manner are vast, ranging from achieving gender, racial, and income equality; addressing climate change; solving the global water crisis; elevating dance and the arts; to ensuring quality education and healthcare for all.