In brief: AXA IM Alts raises €500m for natural capital

The firm described its new fund as 'the next step in the evolution of AXA IM Alts’ current natural capital offering'.

AXA IM Alts – a long-time private markets impact fund manager – has just collected €500 million from AXA Group companies for a natural capital strategy. It forms part of an overall plan announced by AXA Group in October last year to channel €1.5 billion to support sustainable forest management.

The firm described the development as “the next step in the evolution of AXA IM Alts’ current natural capital offering”.

“The strategy will leverage AXA IM Alts’ existing portfolio of strategic equity stakes in key players in the natural capital ecosystem, including project developers with local market access, as well as executing a direct pipeline of carbon projects,” the firm said. “It will also seek to build capacity to provide unique carbon solutions to serve the growing demand for carbon offsets.”

This is not the first fund the asset management business has raised for biodiversity. In 2019 the firm launched the AXA Impact Climate and Biodiversity Strategy, which has now invested around €100 million of its €350 million committed capital into equities, carbon-backed bonds and a project debt facility.

Alexandre Martin Min, chief investment officer for structured finance and impact private equity at AXA IM Alts, said there is “an urgent need to grow scalable investment solutions to protect and manage sustainably natural capital, which are relatively nascent in today’s market”.