London-based Helios Investment Partners is aiming to raise $400 million for its Climate, Energy, Adaptation and Resilience, or CLEAR, fund to invest in African companies supporting climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives.
CLEAR Fund will invest in mid-sized companies to help them green their businesses and curb carbon emissions and in entrepreneurs building companies in green mobility, resource and waste management, digital climate finance, and climate-smart agriculture.
Helios is halfway to its $400 million target with anchor investments from InfraCo Africa and the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. The European Investment Bank, the Emerging Markets Climate Action Fund, and Swiss, Dutch and British development finance institutions also invested.
Green growth
Capital remains scarce to support the green transition of small and mid-sized companies in emerging markets. British International Investment and Symbiotics’ pair of “green basket bonds,” for example, is expanding access to green loan products for small and mid-sized businesses.
Gilles Vaes of catalytic infrastructure investor InfraCo called Helios’ first close for CLEAR a “watershed moment” for climate finance for Africa’s growth businesses and infrastructure developers. “CLEAR will unlock much needed access to finance and exit routes for climate entrepreneurs while giving investors comfort that their investments will generate the growth they expect and support global efforts to address climate change.”
