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Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent investment management firms, today announced the final close of the Wellington Climate Innovation Fund, with US$385 million in commitments.
CIF is Wellington’s first fund to invest solely in private companies developing solutions to help mitigate and adapt to climate change. The Fund seeks to generate attractive returns for investors by investing in late-venture and early-growth companies developing tech-enabled solutions such as software, software-enabled hardware, sensors, AI, data and analytics in areas including energy transition, sustainable buildings and cities, transportation and mobility, industrial automation, enterprise digitization, sustainable consumer, and food and agriculture innovation.
The Fund’s broadly diversified client base includes sovereign wealth funds, pensions, insurance companies, banks, family offices and high-net-worth individuals.
“Climate change is an existential threat to society and touches every sector of the global economy, making it one of the largest and most necessary investment opportunities we will see in our lifetimes,” said Greg Wasserman, Head of Private Climate Investing at Wellington Management. “For many years, climate solutions required trade-offs, but recent improvements and cost declines in technology around software, hardware, analytics, and connectivity mean today’s solutions are delivering meaningful cost savings and superior user experiences for businesses and consumers. We are excited to bring Wellington’s resources, network, and insights to support innovative entrepreneurs leading the transition to a more efficient and climate-resilient economy.”
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The Fund is managed by Greg Wasserman and the CIF investment team, including deal leads Molly Breiner, Mike DeLucia, and Sean Petersen, who are all part of Wellington’s expanding $8.5 billion private investing platform. The team has extensive experience investing in climate solutions and leverages Wellington’s broader investment, research and sustainability capabilities in public and private markets, along with the Firm’s research collaboration with Woodwell Climate Research Center, the leading independent climate change research institute.
Today’s announcement follows Wellington’s three successful final venture fund closes in the past year, Wellington Venture Investments I, Wellington Hadley Harbor IV and Wellington Biomedical Innovation II.