A Quiet Truth: Private Equity as a Force for Good

Private equity often conjures images of shark tank-style investments, leveraged buyouts, and billion-dollar exits. Yet the same strategic focus, value creation, and financial discipline that turns companies into market leaders is also addressing one of the world’s most persistent challenges: poverty.

At its core, private equity pools capital from various sources to invest in businesses with high growth potential and, therefore, greater potential for profit once sold. These businesses receive funding as well as strategic guidance, managerial expertise, and operational restructuring. In developing economies, this approach is particularly impactful, where PE firms transform not only businesses, through job creation, wage growth, education, and infrastructure, but entire communities.

In underserved regions, private equity firms may act as a catalyst for job and wage growth through scaling enterprises, linking supply chains, and multiplier effects. TPG Capital, through its investment in Dodla Dairy, an India based milk processor, was able to expand the farm network from 250,000 to 400,000, creating primary and secondary jobs in the processing plant, collection centers, and logistical services. Overall, the investment was highly impactful with farmer’s incomes rising 10 – 20% due to stable agreements and higher quality yields¹. Simply explained by the World Bank, “Decades of experience have taught us that economic growth is the primary driver of increased personal income and poverty reduction².”

PE firms also provide extensive educational opportunities in the form of training and upskilling. As a result of such initiatives, workers gain access to well-paying jobs, and improve their chances of advancement and greater earning potential. Within their portfolio company QTS, Blackstone launched a Data Center Academy, which is part of their Career Pathways program, an initiative to train individuals, without college degrees, for technical roles within its data center. Once the trainee successfully completes the program, they are offered full-time employment. Across Blackstone’s portfolio, more than 10,500 individuals from under‑represented backgrounds have been hired through the Career Pathways initiative³. The World Economic Forum estimates that accelerated investment in upskilling and reskilling could add US $6.5 trillion to global GDP by 2030 and create about 5.3 million net new jobs⁴.

Private equity infrastructure investment, including roads, bridges, and energy, is having a significant impact on populations, by improving essential services, access to markets, and quality of life. KKR, through their ownership stake in the South American telecommunications firm Telefonica, created a fiber-optic network which provides faster internet to households and businesses outside of high-income urban centers. Due to these digital infrastructure improvements, over 4 million homes, in Columbia alone, are receiving faster, more affordable internet service. As an additional benefit, lower-income individuals can reliably access digital education, remote services, and online markets⁵. In Europe, Apollo’s investment in United Living Group is providing underserved individuals with access to essential infrastructure, including water and gas, as well as affordable housing and property services. With over 43,000 units constructed, Apollo is improving lives through the creation of healthy, affordable communities⁶. According to the World Bank, in emerging‑market and developing economies (EMDEs), a 1 percentage‑point increase in public investment can raise output by up to 1.2 percent over five years, and in the best‑case scenarios as much as 1.6 percent⁷.

If viewed through the lens of economic development, private equity organizations are not only achieving financial returns for investors but providing tangible benefits to some of the world’s most underserved populations. Through job growth and wage increases, education, and infrastructure, PE firms are successfully aligning profits with impact. Ultimately, private equity will not replace philanthropy or public policy, but they may certainly be viewed as a force for good in transforming lives and lifting the most vulnerable among us.

Author Bio: Calvin Pacleb is a consultant within the private equity industry, and Founder of The Catholic Action Network - a 501(c)(4) nonprofit.

References:

1.       The Rise Fund. “Dodla Dairy | Portfolio.” TPG Impact Platform. Accessed November 08, 2025. https://therisefund.com/portfolio/dodla-dairy

2.       World Bank, Ending Extreme Poverty by 2030: The Final Push, speech by Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group, April 7, 2015. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/speech/2015/04/07/speech-by-world-bank-group-president-jim-yong-kim-ending-extreme-poverty-final-push

3.       Business Insider. “Blackstone’s Career Pathways Initiative Helps Portfolio Companies Hire More Than 10,500 Workers from Underrepresented Groups.” Business Insider, Sept. 2024.https://www.businessinsider.com/blackstone-career-pathways-training-internships-data-center-talent-portfolio-companies-2024-9

4.       World Economic Forum, Upskilling for Shared Prosperity, January 2021. https://www.weforum.org/press/2021/01/investment-in-upskilling-could-boost-global-gdp-by-6-5-trillion-by-2030

5.       BusinessWire, “KKR and Telefónica to Create Colombia’s First Nationwide Open-Access Fiber-Optic Network,” July 16, 2021.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210716005494/en/KKR-and-Telefnica-to-Create-Colombias-First-Nationwide-Open-Access-Fiber-Optic-Network

6.       Apollo Global Management, Inc. “Apollo Impact to Acquire United Living, a Leading Provider of Essential Infrastructure, Social Housing Maintenance and Construction Services Across the UK.” Press Release, May 30, 2023. https://www.apollo.com/insights-news/pressreleases/2023/05/apollo-impact-to-acquire-united-living-a-leading-provider-of-essential-infrastructure-social-housing-maintenance-and-construction-services-across-the-uk-2677976

7.       World Bank. “Unlocking the Power of Public Investment to Foster Economic Growth.” Development Talk Blog, World Bank, May 2024. https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/developmenttalk/unlocking-the-power-of-public-investment-to-foster-economic-grow