Displaying multiple loops based off of category

You can use wp_get_post_terms() and in_array() to check if “investments” is in the term array or not:

<?php $catquery = new WP_Query(array(
    'orderby' => 'date',
    'order' => 'DESC'
)); ?>

<?php while($catquery->have_posts()) : $catquery->the_post(); ?>
    <?php $backgroundImg = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id($post->ID), 'large' );?>

    <?php
        // Gather all the post terms for the post.
        $post_term_objects = wp_get_post_terms( $post->ID, 'category' );
        // Empty array to hold our terms
        $post_terms = [];
        // loop through the objects and put the slug (this could be name as well, but slug is easier to manage)
        foreach ( $post_term_objects as $post_term_object ) {
            // put the terms into the array.
            $post_terms[] = $post_term_object->slug;
        }
    ?>

    <div class="row episodes-feed-wrap">
        <!-- CHECK IF investments is NOT in the array -->
        <?php if ( ! in_array( 'investments', $post_terms, false ) ) : ?>
            <div class="col-4 episodes-feed-thumb">
                <a href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/361272/<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark">
                    <?php echo get_the_post_thumbnail( $post->ID, 'large' ); ?>
                </a>
            </div>
            <div class="col-8 featured-article">
                <div class="container" style="padding:0;">
                    <h4 class="episodes-feed-cat">
                        <?php $categories = get_the_category();
                        if ( ! empty( $categories ) ) {
                            echo '<a href="' . esc_url( get_category_link( $categories[0]->term_id ) ) . '">' . esc_html( $categories[0]->name ) . '</a>';
                        }?>
                    </h4>
                    <a href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/361272/<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark">
                        <h2 class="episodes-title">
                            <?php the_title(); ?>
                        </h2>
                    </a>
                    <div class="episodes-excerpt">
                        <a href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/361272/<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark">
                            <?php echo excerpt(25); ?>
                        </a>
                    </div>
                    <div class="episodes-feed-info-wrap">
                        <div class="episodes-feed-author">
                            <a href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/361272/<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark">
                                <?php the_author(); ?>  &#8226; <?php echo meks_time_ago(); /* post date in time ago format */ ?>
                            </a>
                        </div>
                    </div>

                </div><!-- end container -->
            </div>
        <?php else : ?>
            <!-- PUT YOUR MARK UP FOR INVESTMENTS HERE -->
        <?php endif; ?>
    </div>

<?php endwhile;
wp_reset_postdata();
?>

I commented everything so you should be able to follow what is happening.