Meng Impact Investment Fund Makes First Investment

Yale SOM’s student-run Meng Impact Investment Fund has made its first investment, taking a $50,000 stake in the financial technology company Ezra. Student managers hope that the investment in the California-based firm will be the first of many in socially conscious startups.

Ezra CEO and co-founder Dashell Laryea attended Yale College. His venture aids companies in providing employees with Emergency Savings Accounts (ESAs) that help hourly workers build wealth and financial resilience.

“This has a really nice synergy,” said Ben Ringel ’25, who serves on the Meng Fund’s Financial Inclusion Team and helped identify the investment. “It's very fortuitous that our first investment went to a fellow Yalie.”

Grace Aranow ’25, the fund’s chief operating officer and a joint-degree student at Yale SOM and the Yale School of the Environment (YSE), said that her team is excited about the milestone. “It was a huge accomplishment in our first official year to make this investment,” Aranow said. “A lot of work went into this.”

Launched in 2023, the Meng Impact Investment Fund is SOM’s first student-run investment fund. It offers hands-on learning opportunities for students interested in achieving societal impact through market-based financial tools.

Created with support from Leon Meng ’97, the fund invests in innovative, early-stage, for-profit ventures that are striving to create a more sustainable and equitable world.

Student managers spent last year developing the fund’s operating principles and laying the groundwork for an official launch. Open to graduate students across Yale, the fund includes a management team, presently composed of six SOM students, and four “deal” teams that seek out potential investment targets in the healthcare, climate, education, workforce development, and financial inclusion sectors.

More than 40 students served on the deal teams last year. “Participation was very diversified across the graduate schools,” Ringel said.

Aranow added that fund managers were pleasantly surprised by the level of student interest. “In our first year, we had double the number of applications to be on deal teams than we expected, and it seems like we’ll have a similar turnout this fall,” she said.

Faculty from SOM’s International Center for Finance advise the students, and the fund’s Investment Committee, comprised of alumni Nancy Pfund ’82, Leon Meng ’97, and Namrita Kapur ’97, who is also a Yale School of the Environment graduate, approve investments. The fund is also supported by an advisory committee comprised of 12 mid-career investment professionals, who mentor the deal teams throughout the sourcing and diligence process.

The fund has three core goals. “It aims to deliver competitive financial returns like any investment fund, to achieve positive and measurable impact like any good impact fund, and to create a community of impact-oriented leaders,” Aranow said.

Giving as many Yale students as possible the experience of managing a real-world impact investment fund is also a priority.

This year, managers plan to formalize and polish the structure they’ve created in order to make the fund’s ongoing succession plan—as graduating student managers leave and new ones take over—smooth and seamless.

Monica Charletta ’25, the fund’s co-head of platform and a joint-degree student at SOM and YSE, said there will also be a renewed focus on inclusivity this year.

“The question is how we make this a really inviting and accessible environment where topics of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are always at the forefront,” said Charletta, whose role has been adjusted to address inclusivity issues more broadly.

“The focus will be within our community and also on what kinds of investments we’re making, what networks we’re tapping into, and who we’re elevating through this process,” Charletta said. “I'm excited to work with the team. Culture is a really important part of this group. We want Yale SOM to be the first school you think of if you're interested in impact investing.”