By Simon Jessop
LONDON (Reuters) – French private equity investor Eurazeo said it has raised an initial 300 million euros ($314.64 million) for a fund investing in line with the planet’s ecological limits and made its first investment in an agricultural pest-control firm.
The money raised at the first close of the Eurazeo Planetary Boundaries Fund, 10 months after its marketing launch, is 40% of the target amount of 750 million euros, Managing Partner Sophie Flak told Reuters.
The demand came from a range of institutional investors, including insurance companies, asset managers and family offices.
“Our fund is not based on regulation, it’s not based on politics, it’s based on the physical world … you’re seeing storms, fires and droughts, water shortages,” Flak said.
“This fund is really about addressing the physical world challenges.”
The fund uses a ‘buy and build’ strategy to scale up small- and medium-sized companies and has an advisory board of economic and environmental experts.
The fund’s first investment was Bioline AgroSciences, which designs, produces and markets biological-based solutions to prevent pests destroying crops such as berries, flowers and vegetables.
The company, which the fund will take a majority stake in alongside family-owned impact investment fund Aurae, operates six factories across the United States, Britain, France, Spain and Kenya.
($1 = 0.9535 euros)
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
