Infrastructure investment firm Climate Adaptive Infrastructure (CAI) has raised over a billion dollars for its debut fund to target low-carbon real assets in the energy, water, and urban infrastructure sectors.
CAI said it raised around $825m (€792.6m) for the Climate Adaptive Infrastructure Fund and secured $200m for a co-investment programme.
Late last year, IPE Real Assets reported that Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds was considering a $125m commitment to the low-carbon infrastructure fund.
CAI said the fund’s backers included endowments, foundations, insurance firms, pensions and superannuation funds, and fund-of-funds as well as family offices and high-net-worth individuals.
Founded in 2019, CAI is an investment firm that targets control investments in large-scale, low-carbon real assets in the clean energy, water, and urban infrastructure sectors.
The manager said the fund has so far deployed 39% of its capital across three investments – Intersect Power, a North American clean energy company; Sentinel Energy Center, an 850MW critical peaking power plant in Riverside California; and Rye Development, a leading US developer of low-impact hydropower generation and pumped-hydro energy storage.
Bill Green, CAI’s founder and managing partner, said: “For far too long, our society has invested in infrastructure based on the belief that our future would look just like our past. The climate crisis is now wreaking increasing havoc with assets that were built for a planet that no longer exists.
”At CAI, our mission supports the development of real assets purpose-built for the future, with the lowest feasible carbon emissions profile and designed to withstand the impacts of the climate crisis.”
Sheldon Kimber, co-founder and CEO of Intersect Power, said: “CAI and Bill have been instrumental in Intersect Power’s success and trajectory since the company’s inception. The need for infrastructure that helps to prevent and mitigate climate change is core to both CAI and Intersect Power’s vision.
”Not only are we aligned in our view of the future state of infrastructure, but also in our shared hope for a livable planet. This critical alignment of values and business has forged an enduring partnership.”
Julian Pearson, a co-founder of FirstPoint Equity who served as the exclusive placement agent for CAI, said: “We are proud to have partnered with Bill Green, a visionary investor with an impressive pedigree and track record of success in the climate and infrastructure sectors.
”CAI’s mission clearly resonated with the market amid a challenging and crowded fundraising environment, resulting in one of the largest first-time fundraises for the sector. Notably, CAI’s fundraising process was conducted almost entirely through a virtual process.”
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