16.08.2022 | News

Golding holds first closing with global impact fund

“Golding Impact 2021” places the first € 65 million with institutional investors from Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. Commitments to two target funds have already been made – diversification across emerging and developed markets as well as green solutions, agritech and financial services. Final closing at € 300 million scheduled for 2023.

 

Golding Capital Partners, one of the leading independent asset managers in Europe for alternative investments, successfully achieved the first closing for its first impact fund at 65 million euros on June 30, 2022. The commitments come from several institutional investors, both existing and new, from Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. At this early stage, the private equity fund of funds has already invested in two target funds and diversified along several key dimensions in line with its investment strategy. The fund focuses on companies in Europe, North America and emerging markets with transformative business models in the fields of renewable energy and resource efficiency (35 percent), sustainable agricultural technology (35 percent) and also includes financial services (30 percent). Golding is forecasting a net IRR of 12 to 14 percent and is targeting the final closing at 300 million euros by the end of 2023 at the latest.

“Investors are expressing significant interest in tangible impact solutions that go beyond ESG-compliant securities investments with their various exclusion criteria and actively support transformative entrepreneurship. Besides impact expertise, sufficient diversification is crucial when selecting a fund manager”, says Dr. Andreas Nilsson, Head of Impact Investing at Golding. “We are proud to be able to give institutional investors an entry point to this market which otherwise remains difficult to access for them. Golding is thus playing an important role in the development of this exciting asset class. Moreover, we are delighted that Golding’s first institutional investor from Sweden, SEB-Stiftelsen, is among our first group of backers.”

“We have been looking very specifically at impact investing for a number of years. So it’s all the more gratifying to see that our first dedicated product is meeting with such response from both existing and new investors in different countries. This placement success confirms our conviction that the impact segment has significant growth potential around the world and we are right in prioritizing our expansion strategy to open up new markets”, adds founder and Managing Partner Jeremy Golding.

The strategy of the “Golding Impact 2021” is to build a broadly diversified portfolio across sectors, regions and development stages. Investments are planned in around 15 growth- stage private equity funds with a smaller allocation for selected co-investments. The portfolio companies for the “Golding Impact 2021” will operate largely in three sectors,

Green Solutions, Food and Ag-Tech Solutions and Financial Inclusion Solutions. Golding applies a rigorous due diligence process before making its investment decisions, and has developed a sophisticated impact management system that explicitly defines the measurable impact objectives of each investment and so makes it possible to evaluate their performance.

The “Golding Impact 2021” allows investors to make measurable contributions to mitigating climate change and global inequality. The fund’s first investment went to a target fund aimed at European companies in their growth phase with business models aimed at a positive contribution in the fight against climate change. The target fund has already invested in seven individual companies actively engaged in areas such as the energy transition, sustainability in agriculture and transport and the decarbonization of industrial production.

The second target fund is specialized in fintechs that are enabling better access to financial services in emerging markets. The fund is thus supporting companies with the potential for exceptional innovation and returns. To date, the fund has already invested in 16 individual companies.

The “Golding Impact 2021” is structured as a Luxembourg SCS SICAV-FIAR and is open to institutional investors making a minimum commitment of €5 million. The fund is initially conservatively classified under Article 8+ (“light green plus”) in accordance with the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) for the time being, but in the long term, it is aiming for classification as an Article 9 fund (“dark green”).