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Bain Capital Double Impact, the impact vertical of private equity firm Bain Capital, has made its first foray into sustainable agriculture.
The investment is a buyout via a merger between three companies in the sustainable agriculture ecosystem: BW Fusion, a maker of soil and crop nutrition products, Biodyne, a which harnesses microbiology for soil health, and Agronomy 365, a provider of data management tools for crop analytics and management.
The combined entity, to be called BW Fusion, will “create a complete solution that fuses leading agronomy, environmental microbiology, and grower-support to accelerate BW Fusion’s impact,” said Jacob Donnelly, a partner at Bain Capital Double Impact.
“We’re excited to partner with BW Fusion and accelerate its environmental impact,” said Donnelly. “Through a combination of sustainable crop nutrition inputs and innovative software, BW Fusion helps growers improve soil health, enhance yields, and reduce negative impacts from traditional chemical-based fertilizers, ultimately lowering the environmental footprint from agriculture. The platform’s unique solutions support growers and farming communities, while simultaneously helping the environment win.”
“BW Fusion’s biological crop nutrition can help boost crop yields, lower usage of chemicals, and improve ROI for farms,” Bain said in an emailed statement to ImpactAlpha. “By encouraging the uptake of regenerative agriculture practices, it will also provide benefits to local water, soil and air.”
“Additionally, BW Fusion’s solutions support improved climate resilience, by helping plants and soil withstand adverse weather conditions and reduce GHG emissions associated with agriculture,” Bain said.
Bain Double Impact moves
Bain Capital Double Impact’s acquisition of the newly-merged BW Fusion marks its first investment directly into the sustainable agriculture sector. (One of the Bain Double Impact’s first investments was Living Earth, a sustainable waste management services provider for organic waste, in 2017).
Bain Capital was one of the first private equity buyout firms to develop an impact investing strategy. It launched the Double Impact vertical in 2016, the same year as TPG launched the Rise platform and a year before KKR’s launch of Impact Fund I in 2017.
Bain Capital Double Impact was founded by former Massachusetts governor and one-time presidential candidate Deval Patrick. Patrick first left Bain Double Impact in 2019 to focus on his (ultimately unsuccessful) 2020 presidential campaign, returning to the firm in 2021 as a senior advisor. He again left Bain in January 2024 to become a senior advisor at the Vistria Group, and was appointed a senior partner at the firm earlier this month.
