Verdane raises €1.1 billion for decarbonisation and digitalisation

Norwegian private equity firm Verdane has closed its Edda III fund on €1.1 billion, according to a statement.

Though Verdane does not market Edda III as an impact strategy, the firm invests “thematically” in digitalisation and decarbonisation across all its funds, according to the statement. Idun I, the firm’s first fund given the impact label, closed on €300 million in 2022.

“We operate as ‘one Verdane’ across our platform, investing thematically in European leaders that digitalise and decarbonise the economy and supporting all portfolio companies with our cycle-tested value-creation engine,” head of investor relations Frida Einarson told New Private Markets. “Which fund makes an investment depends largely on the ticket size and deal structure.” Edda III is looking to make investments of between €20 and €150 million.

“Edda and Freya are Article 8 funds, while Idun is an Article 9 fund, so the bar is higher in terms of expectations around impact and sustainability,” she added.

The firm’s investor base is becoming more international, per the statement: 25 percent of commitments to Edda III came from US LPs. Meanwhile, 40 percent of its commitments came from non-profit organisations. Rede Partners acted as placement agent.

The fund was considerably oversubscribed, Einarson said: “We’ve seen strong investor interest in the fund from both new and existing investors, as can be seen by the fund doubling in size over the prior Edda fund and by how far we exceeded the target size. We’ve now closed €2.2 billion in funds in the past 6 months following the announcement of our €1.1 billion Freya XI fund close at its hard-cap in September 2023.”

Einarson declined to comment on fund-specific returns, but said that “across all Verdane funds we’re seeing 3.8x realised MOIC”.