Energy Efficiency

Ambienta Small Cap Fund I is a private equity fund managed by Ambienta SGR, the Milan-based investment manager that pioneered environmental sustainability-focused private equity in Europe. The fund marks a strategic return to Ambienta's origins in small-cap investing, addressing an opportunity that has become too early-stage for its flagship mid-cap vehicle, Ambienta IV (€1.55 billion). It targets companies operating in the same environmental framework as larger Ambienta funds but at an earlier and smaller scale, broadening the firm's market reach across the environmental ecosystem. The fund invests in eight to ten European small-cap companies with revenues up to €150 million and enterprise values in the range of €50 million to €100 million. Like all Ambienta vehicles, the fund applies the firm's proprietary Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA) framework to identify, measure, and actively improve the environmental performance of each portfolio company. The ESG in Action program supports portfolio management. Deployment is led by Partners Francesco Lodrini, Yann Bak, and Giacomo Forti from Ambienta's Milan and Paris offices, with plans to expand across other European locations as the strategy scales. Ambienta Small Cap Fund I closed in June 2025 at €500 million, surpassing its initial €450 million target due to strong institutional demand. The fundraise demonstrated that environmental sustainability continues to attract premium investor appetite across market capitalizations, and positions Ambienta to cover the full spectrum from small-cap through mid-cap and credit across its integrated European environmental platform. The fund's final close represents Ambienta SGR's third strategy, complementing its mid-cap PE and private credit offerings.

Ansor, a UK-based private equity firm, has successfully closed its second fund, Ansor Fund II, at the hard cap of £250 million, nearly doubling the size of its inaugural fund raised in 2019. The fund was significantly oversubscribed, attracting a carefully curated group of high-quality limited partners, including leading US-based endowments and blue-chip European investors. Ansor Fund II will continue the firm’s strategy of building high-quality assets through rapid “ground-up” buy-and-build consolidation within fast-growing yet fragmented subsectors. The firm targets resilient, EBITDA-positive businesses that can undergo multiple value inflections through its precision-engineered value creation approach. Led by founding partners Edward Ainsworth, Peter Marson, and Peter Strafford, Ansor leverages over 20 years of experience creating businesses from scratch within the UK SME ecosystem. Since transitioning to a private equity model in 2019, the firm has refined its systematic investment approach and expanded its team and tech infrastructure.

Ara Infrastructure Fund I is the debut infrastructure vehicle of Ara Partners, a private markets firm headquartered in Houston with offices in Boston and Dublin, recognized as a specialist in the decarbonization of the industrial economy. The fund reached its final close in May 2025, raising over $800 million in aggregate commitments—surpassing its $500 million initial target and drawing strong support from both existing Ara investors and new institutional partners including pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, and foundations from North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Unlike traditional infrastructure funds focused on mature operating assets, Ara Infrastructure Fund I pursues a distinctive strategy centered on developing new infrastructure and repurposing high-quality legacy assets for the low-carbon industrial economy. The fund invests in mid-market infrastructure businesses across North America and Europe in sectors including terminal services and energy logistics, renewable fuel and biofuel feedstock infrastructure, and organics recycling and waste management. At the time of final close, the fund's portfolio encompassed 12 operational assets, including Lincoln (terminal services, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States), USD Clean Fuels (renewable fuel feedstock, U.S. West Coast), and Natural World Products (organics recycling, Ireland). The strategy is led by industry veterans George Yong and Teresa O'Flynn and represents a natural extension of Ara's existing private equity capability into infrastructure-grade assets, where longer hold periods, predictable cash flows, and defensible contract structures complement the firm's industrial decarbonization thesis. The infrastructure strategy operates alongside Ara's flagship private equity program (Ara Fund III, closed at $2.8 billion in December 2023), providing investors with exposure across the capital structure spectrum of industrial decarbonization.

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.

GEF US Climate Solutions Fund II LP is a private equity fund managed by GEF Capital Partners. It focuses on investing in North America-based lower middle-market companies that have developed solutions to address climate change and pollution mitigation. The fund exceeded its original $250 million target, closing with $325 million of capital commitments. Limited partners in Fund II include various climate change-focused institutions such as Blue Earth Capital, HQ Capital, ODDO BHF, INGKA Investments, GEM Investments, Första AP-fonden, Quilvest Capital Partners, Granite Capital Management, and Nordea. The fund aims to support small-scale businesses critical to the transition to a net zero and circular economy by providing both capital and guidance from impact investors. GEF Capital invests in companies in sectors including clean energy, energy efficiency, waste, water, and resource efficiency. As of May 2024, the fund has invested in six companies: InSite, a Washington DC-headquartered provider of software used by real estate owners and operators to reduce energy usage and improve building performance in order to meet sustainability goals (2021); Lifecycle Renewables, a Massachusetts-based recycler of used cooking oil into a branded heating oil that is used by universities, hospitals and utility companies to attain net zero carbon emission targets (2022); Murf E-Bikes, a California-based designer and maker of electric bikes (2022); Polargy, a California-based designer of energy efficient systems for hot and cold aisle containment systems, modular walls and structural ceilings in data centers (2023); Civic Renewables, a Maryland-based provider of residential solar energy installation services (2023); and Next Step Energy Solutions, a Colorado-based provider of LED lighting systems used in the healthcare, manufacturing and commercial real estate sectors (2023).. With the closing of Fund II, GEF Capital welcomed two new operating partners, bringing expertise in carbon credit development, sales, marketing, and operational support to deepen value creation and impact for portfolio companies. The fund aims to showcase that environmental outcomes can result in strong financial and environmental benefits. FirstPoint Equity served as the lead placement agent for GEF Capital in fundraising for Fund II, attracting a broad spectrum of responsible investors. Additional placement agent services were provided by Asante Capital, TritonLake, and Impactus Partners. Latham & Watkins served as legal counsel for the formation of Fund II.

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 Keppel Sustainable Urban Renewal Fund (KSURF) is a flagship initiative by Keppel Ltd., aimed at transforming aging urban infrastructure into sustainable, high-performance assets. Launched as part of Keppel's broader Sustainable Urban Renewal (SUR) strategy, KSURF focuses on retrofitting and rejuvenating existing buildings to meet modern environmental standards. The fund leverages Keppel's extensive experience in real estate development and asset management to drive decarbonisation in the built environment. KSURF targets value-add opportunities across various real estate segments, including commercial, residential, life sciences, hospitality, and logistics. By integrating renewable energy solutions, energy and water efficiency measures, and smart building technologies, the fund aims to enhance the operational performance and sustainability of its assets. This approach not only contributes to environmental goals but also seeks to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns for investors. With a geographical focus on key Asia-Pacific markets such as Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and China's first-tier cities, KSURF is positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for sustainable urban development. The fund's strategy aligns with global efforts to reduce carbon emissions, particularly in urban areas where buildings account for a significant portion of energy consumption. Through its investments, KSURF aims to play a pivotal role in shaping greener, more resilient cities.

Mirova Energy Transition 6 (MET6) is the sixth investment vehicle of Mirova, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers focused on sustainable infrastructure and renewable energy. The fund seeks to invest in proven clean‑energy technologies—including onshore and offshore wind, photovoltaics, hydropower, energy storage and efficiency solutions—while also supporting low‑carbon mobility and hydrogen infrastructure. With a target size of up to €2 billion, MET6 aims primarily at European infrastructure markets, but remains open to investments in other OECD countries, leveraging Mirova’s strong relationships with developers and its flexible investment approach of taking majority or minority stakes, and deploying equity or subordinated debt. The fund builds on Mirova’s prior energy‑transition funds and draws on a dedicated infrastructure team with decades of investments behind it. The strategy positions itself to help accelerate decarbonisation across the energy value‑chain by backing both project promoters and platform scale‑ups throughout full project life‑cycles. MET6 is aimed at institutional investors seeking both financial returns and positive environmental impact, offering a means to deploy capital into resilient energy transition infrastructure aligned with global net‑zero ambitions.