This is Part Three of a three-part blog series by AVPN and the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3), exploring how strategic capital can bridge the gap between intent and impact in a changing financing landscape.
As catalytic capital moves from concept to coordinated practice, the role of networks becomes less about articulating first principles and more about organising pathways for deployment. Recent industry milestones, including the C3 Summit and the release of Addressing Capital Gaps: A Guide to Strategic Deployment of Catalytic Capital, reflect a growing convergence on what needs to change next. The task now is to translate this shared understanding into action that is grounded in market realities, particularly across Asia.
One major shift is the move to use catalytic capital to unlock mainstream financial markets, rather than just funding individual private deals. In India, AVPN’s clean growth program exemplifies this by laying the groundwork for large-scale investment at the subnational level for a cleaner and renewable energy-ready grid, clean technology manufacturing, MSME decarbonisation, and infrastructure for EV transition, among other areas. Rather than creating parallel funding streams, it strengthens underlying market mechanics, investing in technical assistance, risk management, and standardised contracts to reduce lender risk. This demonstrates how catalytic capital can translate ambitious decarbonisation goals into investable pathways for clean growth.
A second area of focus goes beyond individual transactions to address broader structural barriers. Initiatives such as the Asia Partnership for Investment in Resilient Economies (ASPIRE) reflect a deliberate effort to move blended finance from one-off deals to scalable platforms. This is done by bringing together actors who are committed to addressing the policy gaps and coordination issues that stop capital from flowing to SDG needs at scale. Through research, high-level convenings, and ecosystem-building infrastructure ASPIRE aims to mobilise and direct catalytic funding towards high-impact blended finance projects, and is working towards a solution that provides catalytic funders with a coordinated platform and infrastructure support to reduce fragmentation and maximise leverage from scarce catalytic capital.
There is also a growing recognition that catalytic capital must be designed to address persistent inequities. Collaboration with the Minderoo Foundation on gender-inclusive catalytic capital reflects efforts to embed equity goals directly into financial structures, rather than treating them as secondary outcomes. By aligning risk tolerance with explicit gender goals, such approaches test how catalytic capital can advance inclusion while maintaining financial discipline.
At the same time, catalytic capital is essential in sectors with long timelines and high uncertainty. Collaborative research with the Wellcome Trust examines how this capital can support late-stage research and development in health, particularly in the space between public funding and commercial viability. These efforts recognise that resilience in innovation ecosystems depends on patient capital that can absorb risk over extended horizons.
In Asian markets, catalytic capital must also respond to agrarian economies. Work with partners such as Villgro focuses on designing finance solutions for smallholder farmers, linking solar-powered irrigation, storage, and regenerative practices. These approaches acknowledge that resilience in agriculture isn’t just about technology; it depends on financing structures that account for harvest seasons, collective selling, and the role of local intermediaries.
A clear pattern emerges from these diverse initiatives. Catalytic capital is most effective when it is embedded within resilient ecosystems, rather than deployed as a standalone intervention. As public funding shrinks and development challenges become more connected, the sustainability of the capital depends on the strength of the systems around it. Capital markets, platforms, partnerships, and learning networks are not peripheral to this agenda. They are the means through which catalytic capital can be seeded, scaled, sustained, and aligned with the collective resilience it seeks to support.
Missed the earlier insights? Catch up on Part One: Redefining resilience for patient and catalytic capital and Part Two: What does effective capital looks like in practice.
This series is produced with the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3), an initiative led by the MacArthur Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Omidyar Network. Together with AVPN, C3 is building a Community of Practice to equip investors with tools for patient, flexible capital. To move from intuition to evidence-based deal structuring, download C3’s guide: Addressing Capital Gaps: A Guide to Strategic Deployment of Catalytic Capital.
