At a glance
- Just Climate launched the strategy in September 2023 to back companies across the land-use value chain that reduce agricultural emissions through nature-based business models.
- The final close ends the subscription window, so family offices and fund selectors cannot add NCS I at this vintage.
- Clara Barby, a senior partner at Just Climate, said the strategy lets investors back businesses "tackling water scarcity, falling agricultural yields and waste."
Just Climate raised $540 million at the final close of Natural Climate Solutions I, its first fund for cutting emissions from agriculture and land use, ESG Today reported Nov. 12.
California State Teachers' Retirement System is the institutional anchor and Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund the corporate anchor. Just Climate launched the strategy in September 2023 to back companies across the land-use value chain that reduce agricultural emissions through nature-based business models. It was founded in 2021 by Generation Investment Management, chaired by former Vice President Al Gore.
The final close ends the subscription window, so family offices and fund selectors cannot add NCS I at this vintage. The five disclosed portfolio companies give allocators a reference set across biodiversity monitoring, fresh-food software, crop inputs and seeds, and a marker for what a public pension and a corporate strategic chose to anchor at the growth stage.
Clara Barby, a senior partner at Just Climate, said the strategy lets investors back businesses "tackling water scarcity, falling agricultural yields and waste."
The fund has made five investments: biodiversity monitoring startup NatureMetrics, AI-powered fresh-food ordering platform Afresh, India-based agricultural transformation company AgroStar, agriculture-focused biosolutions provider GreenLight Biosciences and tropical seeds developer Tropic.
Reported by the Transition Finance desk from ESG Today. Published . Corrections