Executive: Claudia Arango, Managing Partner
Member Name:  Exagon Impact Capital
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: New York
Offices: Bogotá
AUM: USD135 million

LAVCA: What was the original vision behind the founding of Exagon Impact Capital? 

Claudia: After more than 22 years working in traditional private equity at AIG and TRG, I decided to pivot to impact investing, recognizing the significant opportunity in this emerging space. In early 2020, I reconnected with Marc Frishman, who was working with Marc Ricart to launch a new USD300m fund, and he invited me to join the Advisory Board. Given my private equity background and their expertise in equity and debt for energy and infrastructure, we saw our skills as highly complementary — especially since many projects today use hybrid structures.  

I became a Managing Partner in 2021, and soon after, fellow Advisory Board member George Osorio also joined the team. Initially, our focus was on the broader infrastructure market. However, conversations with global institutional investors revealed a clear desire for renewable energy exposure. Combined with my partners’ deep sector expertise, this led us to narrow our strategy around clean energy.  

We also noticed a gap: most capital commitments flow into large funds, leaving the middle market underserved — particularly in sectors with stable cash flows and predictable revenues, like contracted renewable energy. That’s where we saw the opportunity: mid-sized renewable energy and related infrastructure projects with strong impact potential and clear exit paths. Today, about 80% of our fund is focused on renewable energy, with the rest targeting connectivity and circular economy solutions such as telecom infrastructure and EV charging networks. 

Exagon is currently raising its debut fund and has already secured USD120m to invest in climate infrastructure across Latin America and the Caribbean. What has your capital-raising experience been like so far?  

Raising a fund is always challenging, regardless of your track record. Raising a first-time fund is even harder — even with a team where each member has more than 20 years of private equity experience. For us, it helped that many of our first-close investors were long-standing relationships who didn’t see us as “first-time managers,” given our decades of institutional success and market participation.  

Our breakthrough came when FMO, one of these long-term partners, expressed interest in one of our early pipeline projects.  Other investors, such as EIB, CAF, DFC and EMCAF, were also important early supporters.   

Many investors are looking for exposure to Latin America beyond Brazil, where competition is often intense. While we remain open to Brazil, our focus is on the Andean Region, Central America and the Caribbean. This pan-regional strategy helps diversify risk and gives us flexibility to adjust our focus if political or regulatory conditions change in any one market. 

Currency risk and regulatory uncertainty are recurring concerns in emerging markets. However, most of our projects operate under long-term, US dollar-linked contracts. These contracts help hedge against currency fluctuations and provide more predictable returns.  

Exagon recently acquired SunRoof, a Chilean renewable energy provider now expanding into Mexico. What made SunRoof stand out as an attractive investment opportunity?  

We see SunRoof as a dynamic company steadily growing its portfolio of contracted commercial and industrial distributed solar energy projects. In addition, the company has invested in proprietary robotic technology for cleaning solar panels, something that many clients value highly. In Chile, where demand for clean energy is strong, these robotic systems offer a key advantage: they are highly efficient and use minimal water, making them especially competitive in water-scarce regions. 

We are now supporting SunRoof’s international expansion, which, interestingly, has been driven by client demand. The company’s strategy is focused on relationships and “follow the customer”. With success, companies like Virbac asked SunRoof to bring its services to other countries. Now SunRoof is building new capacity for Virbac and other clients like Nestle and Goodyear while actively engaging new clients in Mexico.  

What should investors keep in mind when assessing climate-focused infrastructure projects? How does Exagon approach risk mitigation in this space? 

As a starting point, we don’t invest in Category A projects (those with high environmental or social risks). We have an in-house ESG specialist who conducts due diligence to ensure potential investments meet our standards. That includes community engagement, biodiversity and environmental assessments. 

What’s important to us, in addition to targeting attractive returns, is working with partners who are willing to build or strengthen their ESG frameworks. Many of the companies we invest in don’t have formal ESG systems in place, so we help them develop structures that meet international requirements from the ground up. 

For us, ESG is not just an impact framework but also a core risk mitigation strategy. For example, during the expansion of a recent solar PV project in Panama, our ESG assessment flagged a potential flooding risk. At first, the project developers were reluctant to relocate due to cost. But when a flood hit the original site, they were grateful for the decision. That’s the kind of proactive risk management that ESG makes possible, and we work to embed it across all our portfolio companies. 

We also have a strong commitment to gender equity. As a 2X-aligned investor, we work to increase women’s participation in infrastructure by mentoring women and building inclusive teams. From personal experience, I know that in private equity — and even more so in infrastructure — it’s common to be the only woman in the room. I am proud that Exagon is committed to making a difference by supporting talented and qualified women, both within our own management team and across our portfolio companies. 

Looking ahead, which sectors offer the most promising opportunities for climate-related investment in Latin America? 

We see a strong pipeline for renewable energy projects across the region, but as a small team, we focus our resources on high-priority markets like Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and the Dominican Republic.  The region faces a clear shortage of climate infrastructure capital. While some funds are active, the overall funding gap is significant, and most investors focus on larger transactions, often only in Brazil and Mexico. 

We typically invest USD25–60m per project, targeting control positions in the middle market, often alongside co-investors. Our deals are structured with up to 75% debt, and once operational, these assets are attractive acquisition targets for larger platforms. 

We do not take early-stage development risks. We invest in mid-stage or construction-ready projects, working with partners who already have the necessary permits and agreements in place. Our strength lies in execution, using our expertise in Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts, Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and Operation & Maintenance (O&M) contracts to manage risk effectively. 

Our current focus is on commercial and industrial (C&I) projects rather than residential. Residential clean energy has proven more difficult due to challenges in operations and maintenance, as well as interaction and collections with the off takers.  So far, we haven’t seen enough scalable or investable opportunities in the residential segment and remain quite busy with utility scale projects and C&I distributed platforms.