Just Climate, an investment business focused on addressing the net-zero challenge, recently said it successfully closed on its inaugural fund, Climate Assets Fund I, which surpassed its initial target of $1 billion, raising $1.5 billion in institutional capital.
This investment will be directed towards high-impact solutions that can reduce or eliminate emissions while generating financial returns.
Climate Assets Fund I attracted a diverse group of institutional investors from various regions, including North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. Participants in the fund include California State Teachers' Retirement System, PSP Investments, AP4, Colonial First State Investments, Builders Asset Management, and AP2, among others.
Additionally, top organizations such as Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, IMAS Foundation, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Harvard Management Company, the Imprint Group of Goldman Sachs, and Hall Capital Partners also contributed to the fund's founding investor group.
Climate Assets Fund aims to invest in growth-stage, asset-heavy companies across energy, mobility, industry, and buildings. By targeting these high-emitting, hard-to-abate industries, the fund intends to drive substantial emissions reductions in the next decade.
The organization recognizes the role these industries play in the global economy and believes that transformative climate solutions, with the right investment support, can rapidly scale, achieve improved margins, lower capital costs, and gain widespread market adoption.
To date, Just Climate has made three notable investments from fund: ABB E-mobility, a Swiss-based international electric vehicle charging platform company; H2 Green Steel, a Sweden-based industrial start-up focused on decarbonizing the steel industry; and Meva Energy, a Sweden-based provider of innovative gasification technology for renewable energy generation in the manufacturing sector.
Just Climate employs an integrated approach to impact management, as demonstrated by the fund's long-term incentive structure. The fund's performance fee is directly linked to the delivery of ambitious greenhouse gas abatement goals. The more the fund achieves in terms of climate impact, the higher the potential performance fee, aligning financial returns with emission reduction objectives.
Since its establishment by Generation Investment Management in October 2021, Just Climate has assembled a team of investment professionals with expertise in growth equity, project finance, engineering, and impact measurement. This diverse skill set enables the identification and support of business models that offer transformative solutions for hard-to-abate industries.