News
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Reflections on 2025, Looking Ahead to 2026 with ...

As NESsT enters a new year, NESsT CEO Chad Sachs reflects on the organization’s growth, the resilience of the social enterprises we support, and the collective impact made possible by NESsT’s extensive community of supporters.

Reflections on 2025, Looking Ahead to 2026 with NESsT's CEO Chad Sachs
Violet, Poland
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CoopTech Hub: Strengthening Communities through ...

By prioritizing privacy, autonomy, and collective governance, CoopTech Hub – an innovative tech cooperative that recently joined the NESsT Violet Fund – is supporting Polish organizations and communities to work together securely, transparently, and independently.

CoopTech Hub: Strengthening Communities through Accessible, Inclusive Technology
Amazonia, Brazil, Bioeconomy, Latin America
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From Territories to Global Decisions: ...

Indigenous Peoples remain largely underrepresented in global decision-making spaces — revealing a contradiction between their leading role in protecting nature and their absence from the forums where environmental and economic policies are defined. This exclusion is no coincidence: it reflects historical, linguistic, financial, and political barriers that limit the access of those who live in and protect the territories to the tables where the future of biodiversity and the economy is decided.

From Territories to Global Decisions: Communities at the Forefront of the Socio-Bioeconomy
Amazonia, Brazil, Colombia, Event, Latin America, Peru
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Heading to COP30: Strengthening the Voices and ...

Beginning next week, NESsT will participate in COP30 Brazil, in Belém, Pará — a historic conference that will place the Amazon at the center of global climate discussions and mark the largest Indigenous presence ever recorded in UN negotiations. We will be there alongside entrepreneurs from our Amazon portfolio, bringing experiences born in the territories and showing that the most effective climate solutions come from those who live in and protect the forest.

Heading to COP30: Strengthening the Voices and Solutions of Amazonian Territories
Violet Fund, Portfolio, Poland
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How 4 Starlings Is Scaling Its Business While ...

Small businesses often thrive on a friendly, family-like atmosphere. As they grow, maintaining that sense of closeness and shared purpose can become challenging. For 4 Starlings (4 Szpaki in Polish)—the first company in the NESsT Violet Fund portfolio—the solution lies in inclusion. By fostering a workplace where everyone’s voice is heard, 4 Starlings has managed to keep its authentic, connected culture even as the company expands.

How 4 Starlings Is Scaling Its Business While Staying True to Its Values

Women

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The Lirio Fund reinvests in organic cooperative COAS to ensure steady income for close to 600 smallholder producers in Junín, Peru

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The Lirio Fund reinvests in organic cooperative COAS to ensure steady income for close to 600 smallholder producers in Junín, Peru

Cooperativa Agraria Sonomoro del Vraem (COAS) joined the NESsT Lirio Fund in 2023 and has since received a revolving capital line of credit and a term loan to scale its cacao production, ensure steady income for its cacao producers, and strengthen its commitment to conserving local biodiversity. Based on the cooperative’s strong track record of sustainable operations in a volatile market, in 2025, NESsT renewed the cooperative’s revolving credit loan, ensuring it can continue to pay local producers for raw cacao while meeting the rising global demand for high-quality cacao. 

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Greenbox and Cuencas secure repeat investments from the NESsT Lirio Fund to continue strengthening rural livelihoods in Peru through sustainable agriculture

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Greenbox and Cuencas secure repeat investments from the NESsT Lirio Fund to continue strengthening rural livelihoods in Peru through sustainable agriculture

In 2025, the NESsT Lirio Fund extended repeat loans to Greenbox and Cuencas del Huallaga, reflecting our continued commitment to these enterprises’ business models and impact. Operating in regions where farming families have few income livelihood options and often turn to illicit crops and environment-damaging monocultures to generate quick income, these enterprises offer sustainable livelihood alternatives through sustainable, organic agriculture and meaningful technical assistance. 

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Rebuilding livelihoods through opportunity and belonging: Olena’s story with Women’s Entrepreneurship Foundation

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Rebuilding livelihoods through opportunity and belonging: Olena’s story with Women’s Entrepreneurship Foundation

Rebuilding a life in a new country often means navigating an unfamiliar job market, learning a new language, and living on limited resources while searching for a way to make income. After leaving Ukraine and arriving in Poland, Olena faced these challenges while trying to secure stability for her family. Through Women’s Entrepreneurship Foundation (WEF), she connected with several programs designed to support displaced women navigate these new systems and access clear pathways to quality jobs and entrepreneurship.

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The Future is Ancestral and Collective: Reflections and Voices from Impact Minds 2025 by Latimpacto

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The Future is Ancestral and Collective: Reflections and Voices from Impact Minds 2025 by Latimpacto

In this article, Renata Truzzi, NESsT Chief Impact and Operations Officer, shares her reflections from Impact Minds 2025 by Latimpacto, weaving together her own insights with voices and stories from the event, showing how collective action, ancestral knowledge, and community-led approaches have the potential to shape the future of impact investing.

The NESsT Lirio Fund Renews Support for Three Enterprises Strengthening Sustainable Livelihoods in the Peruvian Amazon

The NESsT Lirio Fund Renews Support for Three Enterprises Strengthening Sustainable Livelihoods in the Peruvian Amazon

In the first half of 2025, Lirio Fund enterprises Kulkao, Lagunas de los Condores, and Pebani received repeat loans from NESsT, reflecting our continued confidence in the enterprises’ business models and impact. Read to learn more about their continued impact and growth as part of our fund portfolio.

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Technology Meets Traditional Knowledge in the Amazon’s Socio-Bioeconomy

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Technology Meets Traditional Knowledge in the Amazon’s Socio-Bioeconomy

Many community-based enterprises in emerging sustainable socio-bioeconomy value chains lack the means and infrastructure to adopt digital monitoring and communication tools to track forest conservation and improve their production processes. With support from Cisco Foundation, in 2021, NESsT launched a search for early-stage technology enterprises that provide sustainable livelihoods to underserved communities and regenerate the environment. Read more about the initiative learnings here.

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The NESsT Violet Fund: Strengthening Support for LGBTQIA+ Equality through Entrepreneurship

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The NESsT Violet Fund: Strengthening Support for LGBTQIA+ Equality through Entrepreneurship

As we kick off celebrations for Pride Month 2025, we’re revisiting the recent efforts of the NESsT Violet Fund that have helped drive our work to bring vital financial and technical support to enterprises that are advancing equality for the LGTBQIA+ community in Central & Eastern Europe.

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Women’s Month Feature: NESsT portfolio entrepreneurs who are leading social change through business in South America and Central and Eastern Europe

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Women’s Month Feature: NESsT portfolio entrepreneurs who are leading social change through business in South America and Central and Eastern Europe

In celebration of Women’s History Month, we are spotlighting the stories of three women entrepreneurs at the helm of enterprises in the NESsT portfolio in Central & Eastern Europe and South America.