Decarbonization

The Ardian Nature Based Solutions Fund – Averrhoa is a climate impact fund launched by Ardian in collaboration with aDryada, dedicated to financing large-scale nature restoration projects across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It is structured as an SFDR Article 9 fund and aims to catalyze institutional investment into ecosystems that can deliver both high-integrity carbon credits and measurable biodiversity outcomes. In its first wave of fundraising, the vehicle secured approximately €100 million in anchor commitments from leading development finance institutions, including the European Investment Bank (€50m), Proparco (€20m), and British International Investment (€10m). These early backers reflect growing momentum behind nature as a scalable investment category and aim to attract further capital from corporates and private asset managers focused on net-zero strategies. The strategy focuses on permanent carbon sequestration through afforestation, wetland rehabilitation, and mangrove restoration. It aims to remove 85 million tonnes of CO₂ over a 40‑year horizon while producing co‑benefits such as water resource preservation, local job creation, and habitat revitalization. Projects are screened for additionality, high biodiversity value, and strong MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, Verification) protocols.

Blackhorn Ventures Industrial Impact Fund II, LP (IIF II) is a $150 million venture capital impact fund managed by Blackhorn Ventures, an investment firm founded in 2017 by entrepreneurs, operators, and investors. The fund achieved its final close on June 27, 2024, with a 2022 vintage year reflecting the initial deployment period. IIF II attracted a distinguished group of limited partners including Mitsubishi Electric, Mercuria Energy, Goldbeck GmbH, Simpson Strong-Tie, Jonathan Rose Companies, the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, and Caprock, alongside other institutional investors who share a conviction that the industrial energy transition represents one of the defining investment opportunities of this decade. IIF II deploys capital at the Seed and Series A stages into capital-efficient software solutions, vertical SaaS platforms, and AI-enabled applications addressing resource efficiency and decarbonization across hard-to-abate industrial sectors. Blackhorn's 'bits and atoms' investment thesis targets the intersection of digital intelligence and physical-world processes across four interconnected verticals: energy, construction and the built environment, supply chain and logistics, and transportation. The fund prioritizes founders at the forefront of industrial AI — particularly those commercializing scalable solutions to critical labor shortages, operational inefficiency, and the carbon intensity of industries that together represent trillions in U.S. and global GDP. Investment geography is primarily the United States, with selective exposure to European opportunities meeting the same industrial thesis criteria. IIF II has deployed into over 20 portfolio companies, including Formic (industrial robotics software), Circuit Mind (electronics manufacturing automation), ThinkLabs, Specifix, EcoWorks, Optera, and Electric Era. As documented in Blackhorn's 2024 Annual Impact Report, portfolio companies deliver measurable outcomes across greenhouse gas reduction, labor productivity gains, and operational cost savings. The fund's impact mandate is structurally enforced: carried interest is linked to demonstrated environmental and social outcomes, aligning GP incentives with the fund's stated mission of industrial decarbonization. Managed from the United States and structured as a Delaware limited partnership, Blackhorn Ventures Industrial Impact Fund II is the second in the firm's flagship fund series and represents the fullest expression of the firm's Industry 4.0 investment philosophy combining digitization and decarbonization.

The Brookfield Global Transition Fund II (BGTF II) is dedicated to investing in the global transition to a net zero economy. The fund targets investments in clean energy expansion, sustainable solutions, and the transformation of companies operating in carbon-intensive sectors to more sustainable business models. It focuses on accelerating the global transition to a net zero economy while delivering strong risk-adjusted returns for investors. The fund is co-headed by Mark Carney and Connor Teskey and has a robust pipeline of investment opportunities in various sectors and geographies. It aims to capitalize on trends such as supplying clean power to the data and technology sector, building new industrial supply chains, and scaling technologies required for industrial decarbonization. The fund is the largest transition investor among private fund managers and is on track to exceed the size of its predecessor fund. It is managed to science-based sector pathways for net zero and has a goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.

Energize Ventures Fund III, with $430 million in capital commitments, is a VC fund by Energize Capital. The fund went over its initial target of $350 million. This fund aims to invest in early-stage companies developing digital and software-enabled solutions that drive energy and industrial transformation. The closure of Fund III brings Energize Capital's total assets under management to over $1.8 billion. The fund focuses on asset-light, digital-first climate solutions, particularly in sectors such as industrial digitization, next-generation infrastructure, and the energy transition. Energize Capital plans to invest in companies at the Series A to C stages, with average check sizes ranging from $15 million to $20 million. Initial investments from Fund III include Tyba, a battery optimization software platform; Archive, a resale technology solution for brands; and Nira Energy, a grid interconnection software platform for energy developers. Energize Ventures Fund III is backed by a diverse group of institutional, corporate strategic, family office, and impact investors. New limited partners include Sweden’s Första AP-Fonden (AP1), Capricorn Investment Group, Reference Capital, Keeling Capital, Keysight Technologies, and WEX Venture Capital. Returning investors comprise GE Vernova, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Builders Vision, UBS, and WEC Energy Group.

The Inlandsis Fund is the inaugural carbon finance vehicle created by Inlandsis ManagementCo, a joint initiative of Priori-T Capital and Fondaction Asset Management, both headquartered in Montréal, Québec. Launched in 2017 with a fund size of CAD $30 million and backed by Fondaction as its lead investor alongside more than fifteen institutional and strategic investors from Québec and across Canada, the fund operates over a ten-year investment horizon through 2027. The fund pioneered a unique project-finance model for the North American carbon market: it provides upfront capital to developers of greenhouse gas reduction and natural sequestration projects in exchange for the future stream of carbon credits generated by those projects. This structure addresses a critical financing gap by giving project developers the liquidity needed to implement and certify emissions-reduction initiatives before credits can be sold on compliance markets. Typical project investments range from CAD $2 million to CAD $15 million, targeting compliance markets including the California-Québec linked cap-and-trade system, California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), the Alberta carbon market, and voluntary carbon markets. Since inception, the Inlandsis Fund has supported more than 45 individual projects spanning nature-based and industrial decarbonisation sectors. As of May 2025, portfolio projects have collectively protected 22,456 hectares of land and generated reductions or removals totalling over 3 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. Notable portfolio projects include Bluesource dairy farm methane reduction, The Climate Trust grassland conservation programme in the western United States, and the Northeast Wilderness Trust forest preservation initiative in Vermont. The fund's commercial success validated the model and led Fondaction Asset Management and Priori-T Capital to launch Inlandsis II in 2022, which closed at nearly CAD $130 million in 2024.

The Greenbelt Capital Partners III fund is a dedicated middle‑market private equity vehicle focusing on companies that are at the intersection of energy, power, and infrastructure transformation. Backed by institutional investors globally, the fund reached its hard cap of US$1 billion, surpassing an initial target of US$750 million, signalling strong confidence in the strategy. The strategy centres on backing commercial leaders that enable electrification, digitalisation, grid‑modernisation, energy efficiency and decarbonisation in the built energy system. By partnering with management teams in the middle‑market, the fund seeks to scale businesses that are driving the “new energy economy” and bridging the gap between traditional energy infrastructure and more modern, resilient, low‑carbon systems. With a seasoned leadership team that has deployed over US$6 billion in equity across more than 260 transactions in their careers, the fund leverages sector experience, operational know‑how and a collaborative culture to generate value for both investors and portfolio companies. The fund targets companies with robust growth potential, operating in geographies around North America, Europe and Asia‑Pacific, and aims to deploy capital initialising now that the fund is closed. The manager is actively building a pipeline of investment opportunities aligned with global megatrends around electrification, infrastructure modernisation and sustainability.

The fund is the second dedicated “small‑cap” vehicle from Nazca Capital, designed to back unlisted Spanish SMEs with ambitious growth potential and strong sector positioning. With a target size of €220 million, the vehicle aims to leverage Nazca’s deep experience in the Spanish low‑middle market segment and its track record of 100+ transactions since 2001. Nazca Small Cap II focuses on companies that are established but capable of accelerated growth via operational improvements, expansion (national and international) and potential add‑on consolidation. The firm targets business models with strong management teams, defensible competitive positioning and tailwinds in their markets. A key thematic emphasis for the fund is ESG and sustainability: the fund classifies as an Article 8 product under the EU SFDR framework, and its first investment is in a decarbonisation‑services provider, underscoring this strategy. Geographically concentrated on Spain (its core market), the fund may invest in local companies with potential for cross‑border growth. Through time‑horizon investment, value creation and eventual exit channels (trade, secondary buy‑outs or IPOs), Nazca Small Cap II expects to deliver attractive returns aligned with both financial and ESG objectives.