Press Releases
Student-Led NYU Impact Investment Fund (NIIF) Makes Its Third Investment to Increase Alternative Energy Solutions among Underserved Communities
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Fund makes $25,000 investment in KIGT whose mission is to bring electric vehicle charging stations to underserved communities.
The student-led NYU Impact Investment Fund (NIIF) has successfully completed its third investment with a $25,000 investment in KIGT whose mission is to bring electric vehicle charging stations to underserved communities.
KIGT recognized early on that the current levels of carbon emissions are unsustainable for human well-being. With the United States’ transportation sector being the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, the founders knew there needed to be a solution designed for the market. Their solution includes the manufacturing, installation, and maintenance of Level 2 and DC Fast-Charging EV charging stations and software. Its business model has an intentional focus on affordability, training a BIPOC workforce, and accessibility.
This NIIF milestone was the culmination of a year-long experiential learning course in which students of NYU Wagner and NYU Stern were placed in five deal teams to source, screen, conduct financial and impact due diligence, develop investment memorandums and make competitive presentations to the Fund’s Investment Committee. NIIF’s particular focus this year was on racial justice. KIGT was recognized both for its BIPOC co-founders, Paul Francis and Jatomis Stevenson, and for its intended impact of the company.
NIIF’s Investment Committee is composed of three Stern and Wagner alumni practitioners: Graham MacMillan of the Visa Foundation, Monique Aiken of The Investment Integration Project, and Casey Clark of Rockefeller Capital Management. The legal due diligence for these investment prospects was conducted by students in NYU Law School’s legal clinic, making this a unique experiential learning curricular collaboration among three NYU schools. This investment follows NIIF’s first two investments in Sapient Industries, whose mission is to eliminate waste from our electrical grid using machine learning and SmartGurlz whose mission is to engage elementary school aged students in STEM, particularly girls. To date, NIIF has made $80,000 in investments.
NIIF continues next academic year with a diverse group of 40 graduate and undergraduate student participants, competitively selected from more than 70 applicants.
About the NYU Impact Investment Fund
Developed as a joint venture between the faculty advisors and students of New York University's Stern, Wagner, and Law schools, NIIF leverages the diverse expertise of business, public service, and law faculty to support student investors targeting social enterprises in the sectors of financial inclusion, environment, healthcare, aging, education, and food systems. The experiential course includes processes to train the students on impact investing, provides practitioner guest lecturers, and creates an interdisciplinary learning laboratory. NYU schools' development staff are also pursuing additional donations and grants for NIIF to enable this experiential platform to continue well into the future.
Learn more on the NIIF website.
About New York University Stern School of Business
New York University Stern School of Business, located in the heart of Greenwich Village and deeply connected with the City for which it is named, is one of the nation’s premier management education schools and research centers. NYU Stern offers a broad portfolio of transformational programs at the graduate, undergraduate and executive levels, all of them enriched by the dynamism and deep resources of one of the world’s business capitals. NYU Stern is a welcoming community that inspires its members to embrace and lead change in a rapidly transforming world. Visit www.stern.nyu.edu.
About NYU Wagner
Since 1938, NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service has been educating and preparing the world's future public service leaders to translate ideas into actions that have an effective and lasting impact on the public good. Our faculty’s research changes the way people frame, understand, and act on important public issues. We provide our students with critical skills, access to all that New York City has to offer, and a deep understanding of the context surrounding public service challenges—which they use to improve cities and communities across the globe. Ranked seventh nationally among all schools of public affairs, we offer a Master of Public Administration in Public & Nonprofit Management & Policy, Master of Public Administration in Health Policy & Management, Master of Urban Planning, Master of Health Administration, Master of Science in Public Policy, Executive Master of Public Administration, and PhD in Public Administration. Learn more at NYU Wagner.
KIGT recognized early on that the current levels of carbon emissions are unsustainable for human well-being. With the United States’ transportation sector being the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, the founders knew there needed to be a solution designed for the market. Their solution includes the manufacturing, installation, and maintenance of Level 2 and DC Fast-Charging EV charging stations and software. Its business model has an intentional focus on affordability, training a BIPOC workforce, and accessibility.
This NIIF milestone was the culmination of a year-long experiential learning course in which students of NYU Wagner and NYU Stern were placed in five deal teams to source, screen, conduct financial and impact due diligence, develop investment memorandums and make competitive presentations to the Fund’s Investment Committee. NIIF’s particular focus this year was on racial justice. KIGT was recognized both for its BIPOC co-founders, Paul Francis and Jatomis Stevenson, and for its intended impact of the company.
NIIF’s Investment Committee is composed of three Stern and Wagner alumni practitioners: Graham MacMillan of the Visa Foundation, Monique Aiken of The Investment Integration Project, and Casey Clark of Rockefeller Capital Management. The legal due diligence for these investment prospects was conducted by students in NYU Law School’s legal clinic, making this a unique experiential learning curricular collaboration among three NYU schools. This investment follows NIIF’s first two investments in Sapient Industries, whose mission is to eliminate waste from our electrical grid using machine learning and SmartGurlz whose mission is to engage elementary school aged students in STEM, particularly girls. To date, NIIF has made $80,000 in investments.
NIIF continues next academic year with a diverse group of 40 graduate and undergraduate student participants, competitively selected from more than 70 applicants.
About the NYU Impact Investment Fund
Developed as a joint venture between the faculty advisors and students of New York University's Stern, Wagner, and Law schools, NIIF leverages the diverse expertise of business, public service, and law faculty to support student investors targeting social enterprises in the sectors of financial inclusion, environment, healthcare, aging, education, and food systems. The experiential course includes processes to train the students on impact investing, provides practitioner guest lecturers, and creates an interdisciplinary learning laboratory. NYU schools' development staff are also pursuing additional donations and grants for NIIF to enable this experiential platform to continue well into the future.
Learn more on the NIIF website.
About New York University Stern School of Business
New York University Stern School of Business, located in the heart of Greenwich Village and deeply connected with the City for which it is named, is one of the nation’s premier management education schools and research centers. NYU Stern offers a broad portfolio of transformational programs at the graduate, undergraduate and executive levels, all of them enriched by the dynamism and deep resources of one of the world’s business capitals. NYU Stern is a welcoming community that inspires its members to embrace and lead change in a rapidly transforming world. Visit www.stern.nyu.edu.
About NYU Wagner
Since 1938, NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service has been educating and preparing the world's future public service leaders to translate ideas into actions that have an effective and lasting impact on the public good. Our faculty’s research changes the way people frame, understand, and act on important public issues. We provide our students with critical skills, access to all that New York City has to offer, and a deep understanding of the context surrounding public service challenges—which they use to improve cities and communities across the globe. Ranked seventh nationally among all schools of public affairs, we offer a Master of Public Administration in Public & Nonprofit Management & Policy, Master of Public Administration in Health Policy & Management, Master of Urban Planning, Master of Health Administration, Master of Science in Public Policy, Executive Master of Public Administration, and PhD in Public Administration. Learn more at NYU Wagner.