Just Climate has closed $1.5bn (£1.2bn) for its first fund to invest in growth-stage climate tech companies in areas including energy, mobility, industry and buildings.
Just Climate’s fund is anchored by the Climate Innovation Fund from Microsoft. Additional contributions include IMAS Foundation, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Goldman Sachs’ Imprint Group, pension providers, sovereign wealth funds and family offices.
The fund, which exceeded the initial target of $1bn (£802.6m), will invest in “asset-heavy” companies globally.
It is specifically searching for companies that “have the potential to deliver transformational climate impact across some of the highest-emitting, hard-to-abate industries”.
Shaun Kingsbury CBE, chief investment officer at Just Climate, said: “More than 50% of the world’s emissions come from the hard-to-abate industries.
“Without radical and urgent changes to the way that the financial sector approaches the decarbonisation challenge in these industries, which are the building blocks of our economy, there will be no net zero by 2050.”
Sweden-based H2 Green Steel and Meva Energy, along with Swiss EV charging company ABB E-mobility, have already received backing from Just Climate.
London-based Just Climate is a branch of Generation Investment Management, set up by previous US Vice President Al Gore and head of asset management at Goldman Sachs David Blood.
“We start with climate impact, identify solutions that will make the biggest difference, and then direct and scale institutional capital to those solutions that we believe can generate attractive risk-adjusted returns,” said Clara Barby CBE, senior partner of Just Climate.
Generation Investment Management in May last year launched a £1.3bn fund to support private sustainability firms.
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