Lightrock launches dedicated climate vehicle with an eye on external LPs

Impact firm Lightrock, an offshoot of Liechtenstein’s LGT Group, has launched its latest fund. The vehicle is dedicated to climate impact and has received a €75 million commitment from Thailand-listed energy corporation Gulf Energy. The commitment is notable as a sign that Lightrock is tilting towards thematic strategies and raising capital from external institutional investors.

Lightrock Climate Impact Fund will invest along five themes: energy transition, decarbonisation of industries, sustainable transportation, sustainable food and agriculture, and “enabling technologies and solutions, such as advisory services for developing emission reduction projects”, according to a statement from Gulf Energy. It has a term life of approximately 10 years, Gulf Energy stated.

Lightrock closed its debut impact fund last year at $900 million, financed by the LGT Group and its private banking clients. The vehicle, Lightrock Growth Fund I, was created to house 26 of LGT’s existing impact assets from three separate LGT impact investing strategies under one roof. It has global assets and addresses both social and environmental impact.

Since then, Lightrock has pursued more focused strategies. “Our intention is to do more regional and sector-focused funds,” chief executive Pål Erik Sjåtil told New Private Markets in May. “The first global growth fund was global because it made sense for kicking off the platform and bringing together all our stakes in all those companies. [But] a global fund can become a bit too generic for certain LPs. In future, we will look at regional and thematic funds.”

In May, the firm announced a final close of a Latin America-focused fund for social and environmental impact at $300 million. The regional focus for this fund was “because we want to be able to attract LPs in Latin America”, Sjåtil said at the time.