Six billion dollars and counting. That’s how much TPG Rise has brought in from more than two dozen investors for its second climate fund ($6.2 billion committed and $5.8 billion closed, to be specific).
The firm is targeting between $8 billion and $10 billion for its final close.
TPG is also hitting the market with its fourth flagship Rise impact fund, which it expects to reach a first close by the end of the year, TPG’s Jim Coulter said on the firm’s recent earnings call.
Since launching its climate strategy, TPG has made more than 20 investments, including five this year, all of which are outside of the US. The US market “paused for a bit to see where policy would land,” Coulter said.
TPG Rise Climate’s recent investments include SICIT Group, an Italian company that converts leather waste into new products, and UK-based Aurora Energy Research, which provides forecasting for the power markets. Now that the dust has settled, “in most areas, there’s more support than there was in 2022,” when TPG Rise Climate launched, Coulter said.
The private equity giant’s first climate fund closed at $7.3 billion in 2022. The climate strategy has not yet made public any exits.
Seeding climate tech
London-based climate VC firm Clean Growth Fund reached a £49 million ($66.2 million) first close for its second climate tech fund. The fund has early backing from local pension funds, including Strathclyde Pension Fund, which invested in Clean Growth’s first fund, and the local government pension schemes of Islington, in London, and East Riding, in Yorkshire.
The B Corp fund manager is aiming to raise £150 million for early-stage companies improving green power and energy systems, transportation and real estate, as well as sustainable agriculture and land use, industrial decarbonization and the circular economy. It will write checks of £500,000 to £5 million.
“Raising capital in this market isn’t easy, especially with global political uncertainty affecting climate policy momentum,” Climate Growth Fund’s Beverley Gower-Jones said in a statement. “Despite this, the UK continues to standout as a hub for climate innovation.”
The pension fund backing aligns with a UK policy push to get more pension schemes to invest in riskier but high-growth economic sectors, including VC and climate innovation.
