Lightrock raises £744m for new climate fund
London-based private equity platform Lightrock said it had sailed past funding targets for a new climate fund today after bagging €860m (£744m) to pump into firms developing net-zero tech.
Lightrock, which had initially targeted €600m for the new fund, has got the backing of anchor investor LGT Group for the new fund alongside a host of international backers including the Swedish national pension fund; Kiwi charitable foundation, Bay Trust; and Netherlands-based climate tech investment outfit, Carbon Equity.
The new fund will look to back rounds with an initial ticket size of €10-40m in European and North American growth-stage firms, Lightrock said, focusing on four key areas including energy transition, decarbonising industries, sustainable food & agriculture, and sustainable transportation.
The fresh fund comes after a flurry of raises in recent months, with Lightrock bagging $300m for a Latin American growth fund in May, and closing the Lightrock Growth Fund I in June last year with $900m committed.
Lighrock chief Pål Erik Sjåtil said the scale of the backing was a vote of confidence in net-zero tech.
“I want to extend my grateful thanks to our investors for their confidence in and support of our mission,” he said in a statement.
“This is Lightrock’s third successful fund close in little over a year and it represents a resounding endorsement of our mission to scale impact investing.”
Venture capital and private equity firms have been looking to pump cash into climate tech startups in the past two years as investors look to capitalise on the push to net zero.
In the first quarter of this year alone there were 273 VC-backed climate tech rounds worth $9bn, down from 283 rounds and $11.2bn per quarter on average last year.