Lightrock, a global private equity platform that backs purpose-driven entrepreneurs tackling the world’s biggest challenges, has closed its inaugural Lightrock Climate Impact Fund (LCIF) with commitments of €860 million, after raising its initial hard cap. LCIF was oversubscribed with demand exceeding the target of €600 million.
The close of LCIF follows an intense period of fundraising at Lightrock. In May this year, the company closed a Latin America-focused growth fund with commitments of $300 million. Prior to this, in June last year, Lightrock Growth Fund I was closed with commitments of $900 million.
Who contributed to LCIF?
This achievement can be attributed to strong support from Lightrock’s anchor investor LGT and its Private Banking clients, Lightrock co-investments and a diverse range of new high-quality investors, including First Swedish National Pension Fund (AP1); New Zealand charitable foundation, Bay Trust; Netherlands-based climate technology-focused investment platform, Carbon Equity; an investment platform company wholly-owned by Temasek, dedicated to accelerating decarbonisation globally, GenZero; European asset manager, Golding Capital Partners; US-based charitable foundation, Grantham Foundation; Thai energy and infrastructure group, GULF; German family-owned investment holding, Haniel; Australian pension fund, NGS Super; Austrian insurance group, UNIQA; and Dutch impact investor, Wire Group.
Pål Erik Sjåtil, the CEO and Global Managing Partner of Lightrock, commented: “I want to extend my grateful thanks to our investors for their confidence in and support of our mission. 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.”
Plans up to €40M growth-stage investments
With LCIF, Lightrock intends to invest an initial ticket size of €10 to €40 million in European and North American growth-stage companies that are innovating towards a net-zero economy and building an operating system for climate action. The Fund may also include a modest allocation to early-stage companies, provided they have clear potential to emerge as leaders within the climate themes it invests across and is showing emerging commercial traction.
Four of these themes correspond with the technology mix required to achieve net zero by 2050 — Energy Transition, Decarbonizing Industries, Sustainable Food & Agriculture, and Sustainable Transportation. The additional focus area is the underlying Enabling Technologies & Solutions that support decarbonisation across sectors and industries.
Lightrock has already made seven investments in leading companies operating across its investment themes and in accordance with LCIF’s investment strategy. These assets are warehoused for the Fund and serve as a clear demonstration of its aims and ambitions.
Lightrock’s portfolio!
Lightrock is organised as a partnership led by the Global Managing Partner and CEO Pål Erik Sjåtil, with its Board of Directors chaired by Prince Max von Liechtenstein, who initiated LGT’s impact investing activities in 2009.
Since its debut, Lightrock has invested in over 80 companies in more than 14 countries globally. These companies pursue scalable and tech-driven business models around the key impact themes of people, planet, and productivity/tech for good. The recent investments of Lightrock are Satispay, Distribusion, Dock and CredAvenue among others.
