Stuart Barkoff, GEF Capital Partners

Washington DC-headquartered manager GEF Capital has closed its North American climate solutions fund at $325 million, beating its $250 million target, New Private Markets can reveal.

GEF US Climate Solutions Fund II came to market in 2021, according to the NPM database. It makes control investments in lower mid-market companies in the US and Canada within the clean energy, energy efficiency, waste and water sectors.

GEF Capital was founded in 2018 as a spinout from Global Environment Fund, one of the oldest impact firms in private equity. It employs almost 40 people across Asia, Latin America and North America. As well as the US fund, the firm has strategies focused on Brazil and India.

Approximately half of the fund’s capital has been deployed so far, and it has made six investments, including Lifecycle Renewables, which converts used cooking oil into renewable heating oil, and e-mobility company Murf E-Bikes. GEF expects to make eight or nine investments from the fund overall.

LPs in the fund include Blue Earth Capital, HQ Capital, ODDO BHF, INGKA Investments, Morgan Stanley Private Equity Solutions, GEM, Första AP-fonden, Quilvest Capital Partners, Granite Capital Management and Nordea.

Commenting on the fundraise, managing partner Stuart Barkoff told NPM: “I think what we’re doing is differentiated compared to most of the market. There’s a lot of capital that’s going into venture capital, growth equity, or the moonshot type opportunities to solve problems. But a lot of those are going to fail and that’s fine, that’s the model. What we really approached people with is what we believe is a compelling return opportunity with a lower risk associated with it. It’s driving emissions reductions and energy savings today, not waiting until that technology is developed.”

Prior to launching the current fund, GEF raised capital for the strategy on a deal by deal basis. “We raised three separate investments for three separate SPVs and we call that our fund one,” Barkoff said. He declined to comment on returns.

The firm has also added two operating partners to its US team. Eric Townsend was previously CEO of project developer Bluesource, a former portfolio company of GEF Capital that was exited to TPG-Rise Climate Fund in 2022. Radha Badani was formerly a partner at Chameleon Collective, where she provided GEF Capital with marketing advice for some of its investments.