The Clean Growth Fund says it has closed its first fund with £101 million in capital commitments. The latest commitments, totalling £31 million, are from the Merseyside and South Yorkshire local authority pension funds, Queens’ College Cambridge and Aviva Investors, the global investment management company.
The Clean Growth Fund’s remit is to accelerate the commercialisation of clean growth technologies in the UK. It was established in 2020 with funding from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and investment manager CCLA, the Fund has already received investments from Strathclyde Pension Fund and Aviva.
The Fund will now focus on expanding its investment portfolio, adding to previous investments in smart charging, low-carbon heating, grid services, renewable energy generation and emission reductions in heavy industry. Its most recent investment was in Sunswap, a company that has developed a zero-emission transport refrigeration technology.
Beverley Gower-Jones, managing partner of the Clean Growth Fund, said: “Given our background in clean tech commercialisation, the Clean Growth Fund is an active investor; we will help companies in our portfolio to fully realise their business goals and so make a massive and positive contribution to the UK’s Net Zero goal, whilst at the same time deliver top quartile returns to our investors.”
George Graham, Director of the South Yorkshire Pensions Authority, a £10.5 billion local government pension fund, said “Achieving the country’s and our pension fund’s net zero goals requires the development and exploitation of new technologies which support the decarbonisation of the economy. The Clean Growth Fund connects investors with the innovators who will give us the tools to make the step change necessary to get to Net Zero.”
Councillor Pat Cleary, Chair of Merseyside Pension Fund & Leader of the Green Party Group of Wirral Council: “I’m delighted that Merseyside Pension Fund is able to make this kind of investment; supporting innovative young green businesses and helping to support the UK’s low carbon economy.”