Fundraising

Despite all the buzz around the benefits of regenerative farming practices, there have been few private market vehicles dedicated to supporting the transition. That could be about to change.

Northern Gritstone, chaired by former Goldman Sachs AM chairman Jim O’Neill, aspires to create jobs and wealth in England’s underfunded North with SDG-aligned seed investments.

Anecdotal reports of ‘pockets where people are pulling back from new allocations’ have impact professionals on alert for a fundraising squeeze.

Generation Investment Management, a sustainability-focused firm co-founded by former US vice-president Al Gore, will pursue investment in sectors such as supply chains, the future of work and food and agriculture.

LGT offshoot Lightrock has closed a $300m impact fund focused on Latin America with investors from the region.

The trio have teamed up to accelerate and scale regenerative farming practices with a €1bn impact fund that will invest in the enabling process.

The firm has so far committed around $2bn of the $7.3bn fund to deals and has been pleased 'by the scale and persistency of opportunity'.

The fund has made three investments so far: a gym chain, a residential property development and a financial technology business. It 'aspires to change the way institutional capital flows to communities of colour,' says alternatives chief Edwin Conway.

The firm's $100bn climate investment plans are 'a drop in the bucket', says co-president Scott Kleinman.

Brookfield’s Global Transition Fund has raised $750m from the New York State Common Retirement Fund – eclipsing commitments of $300m from the New Jersey Division of Investment and Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System.