The Brief

ImpactAlpha LP/GP: Just Climate is writing big checks for nature

ImpactAlpha · August 19, 2025

Greetings, Agents of Impact! 

Welcome to this week’s ImpactAlpha LP/GP, where we take you inside the real business of impact investing and the dynamic relationships between owners, managers and intermediaries of impact capital.

In this week’s newsletter:

  • Just Climate’s natural capital
  • TPG Rise’s second climate fund
  • Clean Growth Fund’s funding milestone
  • Secondary funds in emerging market

Just Climate leans into ‘natural’ strategies, with Latin flavor. Just Climate is writing big checks for nature. The dedicated climate investment arm of Generation Investment Management is complementing its focus on industrial decarbonization with solutions that could deliver faster results in agriculture, forestry, and waste and water solutions. Those sectors generate up to one-third of global emissions but attract less than 10% of climate financing. “Just Climate really wanted to be intentional and say, ‘OK, we will cover this one-third because very few people are covering it with a dedicated perspective,” says Just Capital’s Eduardo Mufarej. The growth equity strategy has drawn backing from Microsoft and the California State Retirement Systems, or CalSTRS, which anchored the fund with $175 million in March. Mufarej’s 10-person Natural Climate Solutions team expects to invest $30 million to $50 million per company, though initial checks may be smaller. It backed a $25 million Series C round in March for GreenLight Biosciences, a maker of biological solutions for protecting crops and pollinators. The fund is looking to invest in sectors and technologies that have been derisked by early investors and are ready to scale. “There are clear opportunities where the markets are mature,” Mufarej tells ImpactAlpha.

  • LPs for nature. CalSTRS and Microsoft are among a growing contingent of limited partners that see opportunity in nature-based and natural solutions. Based on ImpactAlpha’s recent reporting, our LP/GP database has identified more than 30 LPs that have recently invested in funds supporting regenerative agriculture, reforestation, carbon sequestration, ocean restoration and other nature-based strategies. Among them: More corporate investors, including Klarna, Salesforce and Spotify.
  • Latam link. In May, Just Climate acquired Mufarej’s former firm, São Paulo-based Good Karma Partners to spearhead its Latin America strategy. IDB Invest, the private sector arm of the Inter-American Development Bank, is collaborating with Just Climate to develop the strategy and will become a founding investor. Just Climate’s focus on Latin America is intentional. The region is home to the Amazon and 40% of the planet’s biodiversity, yet has lagged in climate funding. Brazil and the broader region have been carving out a leadership position in sectors such as regenerative agriculture and bio-based products, and in modeling community-driven solutions. “If you’re in the fashion business, you need to be in Paris or in Milan,” says Mufarej. “If you’re in the climate business, you need to be in Latam.”

Dealflow: Climate Finance

TPG Rise and Clean Growth Fund hit climate fundraising milestones. 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. The private equity giant’s first climate fund closed at $7.3 billion in 2022. 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.

  • Global view. 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 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. 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.
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • ROC USA raised $47 million for its National Acquisition Loan Pool, which will support collective real estate buying in low-income communities in the US (see, “Putting an ownership lens on the preservation of affordable housing”.) The loan pool is backed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, Charles Schwab Bank, Ceniarth, ImpactAssets, Mercy Community Capital and Enterprise Community Loan Fund. (ROC USA)
  • LifeSight, a multi-employer pension scheme in the UK, invested £450 million ($608 million) in Schroders’s Greencoat Global Renewables+ Long-Term Asset Fund, an energy transition infrastructure fund focusing on advanced economies. (LifeSight)
  • Infrastructure investor Africa50 reached a $118 million first close for its Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa Project Development Fund. Investors include the African Development Bank, Germany’s KfW, the West African Development Bank, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Soros Economic Development Fund and the African Climate Foundation. (Africa50)

Signals: Impact Exits

Secondary markets develop in emerging markets in need of liquidity. Helping limited partners sell their stakes to secondary funds has saved the hides of many US fund managers, who have been looking for creative ways to return capital to antsy LPs (see “Restive LPs look to secondaries and creative exits to recoup capital”). Continuation vehicles, which roll over portfolio company stakes from one vehicle to another, are increasingly common. There are even continuation vehicles for continuation vehicles, or CV2s. In emerging markets, impact investors and development finance institutions are trying to jumpstart resales to unlock much-needed liquidity and draw in more investors. India is leading the growth in emerging market secondaries, according to the Global Private Capital Association. 

  • Global stakes. Asia accounts for two-thirds of secondaries deal volume in emerging markets, with the largest deals in India, Japan and China. Last year, British International Investment sold its stake in Aavishkaar’s second Goodwell India Microfinance Fund to Switzerland-based Blue Earth Capital. The deal was the first for BII’s strategy to help itself and other investors exit emerging market impact funds. “Building a secondaries market can help to nurture the private equity ecosystem,” said BII’s John Owers (see, “Building an impact secondaries market”). In February, Synergy Private Equity Fund, which invests in small- and mid-sized businesses in Nigeria and Ghana, sold an LP stake to Sango Capital.
  • Keep reading, “Secondary markets develop in emerging markets in need of liquidity,” by Lucy Ngige.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

The Clean Energy Fund of Texas welcomes Steve Anglin, previously with Uptopio, as project finance director… Trimtab Impact adds Tamar Honig, a former investment manager at Align Impact, as manager of investments… The Global Development Incubator welcomes Hayling Price, previously with Mobility Alliance Incubation Hub, as managing director of economic and social inclusion.  

Jennifer Jaffe, previously with Blackstone, joins Energy Impact Partners as an investment associate… The MacArthur Foundation has an opening for a senior analyst of real assets and sustainable investments in Chicago… Capital Group is on the hunt for an ESG research analyst in New York… TPG is recruiting a climate impact associate in Washington, DC.

ClimateWorks Foundation’s Adaptation and Resilience Fund is seeking proposals for local initiatives to combat extreme heat and strengthen economic stability, workers’ rights and health outcomes in South Asia and Africa… Applications are open for impact investing organizations to get support on impact and ESG strategies and research projects from Duke MBA teams through the CASE i3 Consulting Program.

The Environmental Defense Fund has a request for proposals for a fund manager to design, set-up and manage the Dairy Impact Fund, a blended finance vehicle to accelerate methane-reducing practices and technologies in the US dairy sector… Alaska Community Foundation is looking for an investment consultant.

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– Aug. 19, 2025