General Atlantic holds USD 2.6bn final close for debut climate fund

Launched in July 2021, the vehicle will act as a “companion fund” that will invest alongside the GP’s core growth equity programme, according to a press release.

The contribution from the core programme will amount to a further USD 900m, a source close to the situation told Unquote. This will account for around 25% of each investment from the fund, meaning that the climate strategy has USD 3.5bn to deploy in total.

General Atlantic declined to comment.

BeyondNetZero is an Article 9 fund under the EU’s SFDR.

The growth equity firm held a final close for GA 2021, its latest flagship fund, in November 2021 on USD 7.8bn, surpassing its USD 5bn target. The vehicle makes growth equity investments in the consumer, financial services, healthcare, life sciences and technology sectors, backing high-growth technology-enabled businesses.

Investors
The fund has attracted commitments from strategic investors, sovereign wealth funds, family offices, multinational corporations and global institutional investors. There is a “considerable overlap” between the LP base of the BeyondNetZero strategy and General Atlantic’s flagship strategy, the same source said.

Investments
The BeyondNetZero fund plans to make climate growth equity investments, with the aim of supporting technologies that will reduce carbon emissions. It will focus on themes including decarbonisation, energy efficiency, resource conservation and emissions management.

In line with the firm’s flagship strategy, investments made by the BeyondNetZero strategy will comprise equity tickets of USD 100m-250m and will seek to back high-quality entrepreneurs, the same source close told Unquote. The vehicle has a global mandate.

To qualify for a BeyondNetZero investment, each company must support progress towards and beyond net zero targets, whilst also setting Science Based Targets themselves in line with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI), the same source told Unquote.

The strategy has so far invested more than USD 800m across five companies, according to the press release. This includes sustainability ratings provider EcoVadis, as well as commercial recycling and waste removal marketplace RoadRunner Recycling, and vertical farming business 80 Acres Farms.

People
General Atlantic – Bill Ford (chairman, CEO);; Graves Tompkins (global head of capital partnering); Lord John Browne of Madingley (chairman of BeyondNetZero).

[Editor's note: Subsequent to publication, the article has been amended to clarify that BeyondNetZero is General Atlantic's first climate fund.]

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