Who dares to invest in what really makes an impact?

I’m sitting at a conference with impact investors. The room is filled with people discussing breakthroughs, strategies for capitalising on “climate tech,” and the fact that 73 percent of all venture capital now goes to impact-driven companies. It should feel hopeful. But something feels off.

Because while we continue to invest in AI, anything with "tech" in its name, and the energy sector - racing to be the biggest and first – our ecosystems are collapsing in silence. It’s like we’re building ever-smarter houses on a foundation that is slowly crumbling.

At one end of the room sits someone with an idea that could help reverse parts of this grim trajectory. I’ve followed her work for a long time, seen how she thinks beyond the conventional, how she understands the interplay between humans and nature in a way that few others do. But her project is too radical for traditional investors. It doesn’t fit the investment mold. Too long-term for venture capital. And too business-oriented for grants and public funding.

She’s not alone - I meet visionaries like her all the time. People who see what needs to be done but can’t secure funding because their ideas don’t fit the template of what we consider scalable or profitable enough.

It’s become a pattern I can’t unsee. While money keeps flowing into AI, battery technology, and life sciences, critical areas for our survival remain unfunded. Biodiversity, regenerative food systems, ecosystem restoration – fields that research shows are essential for our future - continue to be systematically underfunded.

It’s as if we’re stuck in a strange paradox where we overinvest in technology and underinvest in life.

It's become a pattern that I can't unsee

The randomness of how things get funded is striking. There seem to be no broad conversations between researchers and investors, no systematic strategies to direct capital toward the biggest challenges we face. Instead, money follows the path of least resistance - it flows into areas where risks are familiar and returns are proven.

We keep repeating past success formulas instead of writing new ones. As American climate activist Charles Eisenstein puts it: “True courage lies in investing in what has yet to prove its potential, in nurturing what the world has not yet learned to value.”

If we were to overlay a map of current investments onto the planetary boundaries, the imbalance would be glaring. While development driven by fossil fuels, intensive agriculture, and large-scale infrastructure continues - almost inexplicably - to attract capital, fields like ecosystem restoration and regenerative food systems are left practically empty-handed.

And somewhere in the middle sits venture capital, where each investor seems to believe they’re contributing to a positive shift, yet the collective sum of their efforts falls far short of what’s needed.

It’s about designing new systems and investment models

We need a radical shift in how we allocate capital. The climate crisis isn’t just about replacing fossil fuels with renewables, optimising transportation, or developing tech solutions to measure what’s happening. We need to restore lost ecosystems, rebuild soil health, and revive biodiversity - and we need to find ways to make this happen.

The real innovation needed today isn’t about carving out new products within existing structures. It’s about designing new systems and investment models for everything that the current financial paradigm considers an outlier.

Because while we wait for the market to solve these problems, the clock is ticking. It’s as if we’re standing before the greatest investment opportunity in history, yet we keep placing our bets on yesterday’s winners instead of tomorrow’s necessities. The secure future we envision is unlikely to be funded in time if things continue as they are. But it’s not because we lack resources - it’s because we lack courage.

I look around the room again, wondering how many people here truly see it. How many understand that while we talk about progress, we are still investing in our own downfall. I know that some do - I’ve met them in other settings where these conversations happen.

But the gap between theory and action feels impossibly wide. Time is working against us, and it’s time to invest in what truly matters, even if it means rethinking our expectations of returns.

Will anyone have the courage to take the first step?