Just Climate holds final close for debut USD 1.5bn fund

The fund will back impact climate companies that can reduce or remove emissions, while generating risk-adjusted financial returns, according to a statement.

The fund will be part of Just Climate's industrial climate solutions focus and will pursue investments in growth-stage, asset-heavy companies globally, it said.

The strategy will focus is on capital-intensive growth businesses and projects that have proven decarbonisation technologies, with the fund often investing at early commercial stage, chief investment officer Shaun Kingsbury told Unquote.

Under the fund's integrated performance fee, financial returns will drive the amount of performance fee accruable, it said. How much of this performance fee is ultimately available is 100% linked to the delivery of greenhouse gas abatement goals.

Just Climate was established by Generation Investment Management in October 2021. Since then, it has built a team of investment professionals with experience in growth equity, project finance, engineering and impact measurement. These include former chief executive of the Impact Management Project Clara Barby, former CEO of the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) Shaun Kingsbury, as well as former Kerogen Capital partner Tushar Kumar, former Helios partner Souleymane Ba and Justin Adams, who was the executive director of the public partnership alliance Tropical Forest.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges provided legal advice on the fundraise. Aztec Financial Services is acting as fund administrator.

Investors
The fund's limited partners (LPs) include California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), PSP Investments, AP4, Colonial First State Investments, Builders Asset Management and AP2, said the statement. It has also received commitments from other pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurers, financial institutions, endowments, foundations and family offices from North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region, it said.

The founding investor group included Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, which anchored the fund, as well as IMAS Foundation, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Harvard Management Company, the Imprint Group of Goldman Sachs, and Hall Capital Partners and its clients, it said.

Investments
The fund will make investments of USD 50m-USD 150m, with bigger cheques spread across tranches, Kingsbury told Unquote.
For company equity, it expects to make primarily minority investments in portfolio companies, most likely making 10 to 15 deals in total, he said.

It will specifically target companies which have the potential to deliver transformational climate impact across some of the highest-emitting industries, including energy, mobility, industry and buildings, in order to generate outsized emissions abatement in the next decade.

Just Climate has made three investments from the fund to date: ABB E-mobility, a Switzerland-based global leader in electric vehicle charging solutions; H2 Green Steel, a Sweden-based industrial start-up attempting to decarbonise the steel industry; and Meva Energy, a Sweden-based provider of gasification technology to generate renewable energy for manufacturing sectors.

People
Just Climate − Clara Barby (senior partner), Shaun Kingsbury (chief investment officer).

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