London-based Lightrock, a private equity platform that invests in entrepreneurs tackling the world’s biggest challenges, announced on Thursday that it has closed its inaugural Lightrock Climate Impact Fund (LCIF) with €860M in funding, exceeding its initial hard cap.
LCIF was oversubscribed with demand exceeding the €600M target.
Lightrock says that the fund’s closure comes after a period of “significant” fundraising at the company, during which, more than $2B was raised in little over a year. It closed a Latin America-focused growth fund with commitments of $300M in May 2022 and the Lightrock Growth Fund I with commitments of $900M in June 2021.
Investors supporting the Fund
The investment came from Lightrock’s cornerstone investor LGT and its private banking clients. These investors include, First Swedish National Pension Fund (AP1); New Zealand charitable foundation, Bay Trust; Dutch-based Carbon Equity; GenZero, a company wholly-owned by Temasek; European asset manager, Golding Capital Partners; US-based Grantham Foundation; Thai energy and infrastructure group, GULF; German family-owned investment holding, Haniel; Australian pension fund, NGS Super; Austrian insurance group, UNIQA; and Dutch impact investor, Wire Group.
What to expect from the Fund?
Lightrock says the new fund will invest in European and North American growth-stage businesses that are innovating toward a net-zero economy and creating an operating system for climate change. Average initial ticket size will be between €10M–€40M.
The fund may also make small investments in early-stage businesses if such businesses have a strong chance of becoming market leaders and are showing emerging commercial traction in the topics related to climate change.
Energy Transition, Decarbonising Industries, Sustainable Food & Agriculture, and Sustainable Transportation are four of these themes that align with the technology mix needed to achieve net-zero by 2050. An additional cross-cutting focus area is centred on the underlying Enabling Technologies & Solutions that support decarbonisation across sectors and industries.
Lightrock has already made seven investments in businesses that fall under its investing themes.
In accordance with the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, LCIF is categorised as an Article 9 Fund. Each LCIF portfolio company will submit regular impact reports and get access to Lightrock’s methodology for impact management and evaluation. This approach has been subject to independent third-party verification.
“Investing in solutions to global challenges”
Lightrock backs purpose-driven entrepreneurs tackling the world’s biggest challenges. It invests in companies that pursue scalable and technology-driven business models around the key impact themes of ‘people’, ‘planet’, and ‘productivity’.
The firm’s portfolio includes more than 80 “high-growth” companies in 14 countries across Europe, the US, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Lightrock has a team of over 90 professionals that are based in 5 offices across the above-mentioned regions, including Lightrock’s headquarters in London.
Founded by Prince Max von Liechtenstein, Chairman of Lightrock and Chairman of LGT Group, Lightrock is backed by LGT, the international private banking and asset management group, and other leading global institutions.
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