Mirova, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers dedicated to sustainability investing, has been awarded Investment team of the year, as its ambition has translated into a comprehensive product range within the natural capital investing space.
Leveraging on an investment platform staffed with more than 30 professionals, the firm claims its investment team contains the vision and expertise necessary to scale up this area of impact investing, while serving institutional clients seeking market-level returns with “high-impact” investment solutions. These include funds designed to fighting climate change and to protect landscapes, biodiversity, soil and marine resources.
The managers of the Althelia Climate Fund invest with the intention to support sustainable land-use projects that protect forests, using a $133 million guarantee to manage risk for investors.
In 2019, Mirova launched the Althelia Biodiversity Fund Brazil with the objective to provide venture and growth finance for sustainable businesses that have a transformational, positive impact on biodiversity and communities in the Amazon rainforest.
It has since announced a $50 million partnership with L’Oreal, and the creation of the L’Oréal Fund for Nature Regeneration. The vehicle aims to finance forest and marine ecosystem restoration projects across the world, in addition to create new social and economic development opportunities for the populations that depend on these ecosystems.
Also this year, Mirova closed its Althelia Sustainable Ocean Fund with $132 million, above the target amount of $100 million. The fund will make impact investments in marine and coastal projects and enterprises intended to deliver sustainable economic returns in fisheries, aquaculture, the circular economy and marine conservation.
The firm is still raising public and private capital for its Land Degradation Neutrality Fund aiming to achieve the target of a land degradation-neutral world (SDG target 15.3) by investing up to $300 million in sustainable land management and land restoration projects, with anchor investors including EIB, the French Development Agency and DEFRA.
Land Degradation Neutrality was defined by the UN as: a state whereby the amount and quality of land resources, necessary to support ecosystem functions and services and enhance food security, remains stable or increases within specified temporal and spatial scales and ecosystems.
Mirova’s natural capital platform is itself set up to demonstrate the power of blended finance and a “multiple bottom line approach”, and it claims its nature-based investment solutions are already showing a pathway to positive transformation in the areas of climate, conservation and sustainable social development.