food

In brief: Paine Schwartz exceeds $1.5bn target for Fund VI

At $1.6bn – and a further $650m co-investment vehicle – Paine Schwartz Fund VI is among the biggest sustainable food and agriculture private equity funds.

-

Paine Schwartz Partners has surpassed the $1.5 billion target for its sixth sustainable food and agriculture fund, raising $1.6 billion, New Private Markets has learned from a source with knowledge of the situation. Paine Schwartz declined to comment.

The firm has also raised $650 million for a co-investment sidecar to Fund VI, NPM‘s database shows.

LPs in Fund VI include Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, each of which committed $150 million; the District of Columbia Retirement Board, which committed $100 million, and the Rhode Island State Treasury, which committed $15 million.

This makes Fund VI one of the biggest funds in the sustainable food and agriculture space. Although Paine Schwartz does not call itself an impact firm, its strategy resembles that of many impact funds: it invests in companies providing solutions to climate change in the food and agriculture sectors, as well as targeting market-rate private equity returns, a spokesperson for the firm told NPM last month. The firm is also recruiting a head of sustainability, NPM reported last week.