London-based Local Pensions Partnership Investments plans to allocate between £13 million ($17 million; €15 million) and £19.5 million to natural capital strategies.
The plan is part of the pension’s 2025 deployment from the £500 million Environmental Opportunities Fund.
LPPI ESG analyst Yathavan Thanapalan explained that this allocation is guided by the fund’s focus on climate mitigation, adaptation and environmental additionality.
LPPI is actively assessing which types of agriculture and forestry strategies meet its standards, with a key emphasis on measurable impact.
TPG’s Rise Climate strategy and Renaissance Partners have jointly acquired a controlling stake in Italian biostimulants producer SICIT Group.
Renaissance Partners is already a stakeholder in SICIT alongside Intesa Holdings. Both parties will sell their stakes in the company, with Renaissance Partners reinvesting in SICIT – through Renaissance Partners Fund IV – alongside TPG’s Rise Climate platform.
The investment has also been backed by LGT Capital Partners and Schroders Capital, with Intesa Holding reinvesting to take a minority stake.
Founded in 1960, SICIT serves the agriculture, construction and energy markets by repurposing residues from the leather industry. The company creates biostimulants for plants and crops, plaster retardants for the construction industry and fat for biofuel.
New Forests hires European head of fundraising
New Forests has appointed Anne Dillé as head of institutional fundraising, UK and Europe, making her the Sydney-based firm’s first hire in Europe.
Dillé will lead New Forests’ engagement with institutional investors across the UK and Europe, driving capital towards the firm’s forestry, agriculture and natural capital strategies.
She brings more than 30 years of experience in financial markets to her role, and most recently served as EMEA business development director at Nomura Asset Management.
Read the full story here.
Manulife welcomes back McGowan as agriculture CIO
Manulife Investment Management has rehired Brent McGowan and appointed him as global head and chief investment officer of agriculture.
McGowan brings 30 years of experience to the role, having most recently worked as chief operating officer for Novus Ag. Prior to this, he was global head of agricultural operations at Manulife IM.
Read the full statement here.
Paine Schwartz adds e-commerce-focused exec
New York-headquartered Paine Schwartz Partners has hired Trilantic North America executive Lee Nussbaum as managing director on its investment team.
Paine announced its hire of Lee Nussbaum in a LinkedIn post that described his role as designed to expand deal sourcing, execution and value creation, and continue the firm’s efforts to strengthen their position in the downstream segment of the food value chain.
Nussbaum continues to serve as board member for Trilantic portfolio companies Orva – an e-commerce platform specialized in the sale of footwear, apparel accessories and home products also backed by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan – and TSC, which provides on-demand and screen print fulfilment services for customized merchandise selling into e-commerce.
Read the full story here.
Campbell elevates Davis to chief executive role
Campbell Global has elevated current company president Angie Davis to serve as chief executive of the Portland-headquartered timberland manager, effective October 1.
The JP Morgan subsidiary announced that in mid-May Davis would succeed John Gilleland, who is transitioning to a strategic role with the firm after more than 20 years as chief executive and 43 years with the company.
Davis joined Campbell in 2001 and served in roles including managing director of portfolio management before assuming her current position in 2016. In the new role, she will continue her current lead roles and oversee acquisitions, economics and research, forest operations, valuations and resource management, and treasury and accounting.
Campbell closed its Forest & Climate Solutions Fund II on $1.5 billion in April and has $101.1 billion in assets and 1.4 million acres under management as of December.
Read the full statement here.
VC fundraising
Farmley, an Indian healthy snack company, raised a $42 million Series C funding round led by L Catterton, with participation from existing shareholders including DSG Consumer Partners.
Metafoodx, a California-based AI food operations company, raised $9.4 million in a funding round led by Trustbridge Partners, with participation from BlueRun Ventures and ScalableVision Capital.
Veritree, a Canadian platform for improving verified nature restoration, raised $6.5 million in a funding round led by Pender Ventures, with participation from Garage Capital, Northside Ventures and Diagram.
Blank Beauty, a Tennessee-based provider of automated consumer-packaged goods services, raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A funding round led by Kirker, with participation from Evolution VC Partners and Epson Robots.
Freshr, a Canadian sustainable packaging solutions company, raised a seed funding round of an undisclosed size, backed by Invest Nova Scotia, Diamond Edge Ventures, Nàdarra Ventures, BDC’s Climate Tech Fund, and Blue Tide Capital Ventures.
Also in the news…
Microsoft and Meta crowd into EFM’s forestry and carbon strategy Managing director Amrita Vatsal says the firm is hopeful that the involvement of Microsoft, which has strict due diligence procedures for carbon credit projects, will help de-risk its strategy for other LPs (Agri Investor).
Mercer on nature: ‘You cannot provide food security by investing locally only’ Mercer head of impact solutions Angelika Delen will be on stage at the Impact Investor Global Summit later this month (New Private Markets).
Uncertainty has climate investors prioritizing liquidity Political and economic uncertainty could prevent investors from committing to illiquid climate funds, according to Capricorn Investment Group partner Mark Berryman (VCJ).
EcoEnterprises rolls to first close for fourth fund Women-owned investment manager receives commitments from FinDev Canada, FMO, IDB Invest and others for EcoEnterprises Partners IV (New Private Markets).
Inari opens 2,000 sqm greenhouse in Belgium The Ghent indoor facility triples the company’s indoor plant growth capacity in the region (PR Newswire).
