Planet First Partners raises €450m, links carry to impact

Planet First Partners, an investment platform that focuses on partnering with ‘disruptive entrepreneurs to scale tech-enabled businesses’, has closed its debut fund on €450 million, surpassing its initial target of €350 million.

The capital will be used to invest in growth stage companies developing technology to aid the transition to a sustainable economy. Current portfolio companies include hydrogen electrolysis company Sunfire and immersion cooling company Submer.

The fund is classified as Article 9 under the EU SFDR. “For each investment that we make, we agree with our investee companies on a value creation plan and a sustainability plan,” executive chairman Frédéric de Mévius told New Private Markets. “The sustainability plan will highlight milestones that we are asking the company to achieve, and the compliance with the sustainability plan will be audited and reported to our investors. Every year it will be audited, every six months it will be reported.”

Like a number of other emerging impact-focused funds, carried interest payments are partly contingent on impact performance. “A significant part of the carried interest of the team is based on the achievement of sustainability milestones,” said de Mévius. He declined to comment on the details of the arrangement.

Despite raising €100 million more than its initial target, Planet First will the not broaden the fund’s portfolio. “We’re still aiming for 10 to 12 investments, so it’s relatively concentrated portfolio. We will initially be making investments of between €10 million and €35 million, and have room to top up the winners and go up to €50 million per line”, said de Mévius.

New Private Markets first reported on the fund in January last year, when it was on course to reach its original closure target by Q2 2022. It has now reached final close after a commitment from Ingka Group, which operates 392 IKEA stores across 32 markets. Adrien Invest, the investment arm of the family owners of the AB Inbev brewing company, is known to be another investor, according to an earlier announcement.

De Mévius confirmed that the investors “are mainly large family offices in Europe, Asia and South America”. He added: “We did not create a US pocket for the fund. We may do that in future top ups.”