A fund with an investment thesis to invest in line with Article 9 has completed its first close having raised EUR 40mn. The GAIA Energy Impact Fund II has secured EUR 40mn and has earmarked its final close for the end of 2024, when it expects to have raised EUR 80mn.
The fund was launched by Gaia Impact, an investment advisory firm that launched in March last year alongside Capital Croissance, Schneider Electric, Capelan and Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P). And follows fund 1 (Gaia Impact Fund), which invested in a dozen companies, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. This included an investment in Osmosun, which listed on Euronext Growth.
This second fund has the same investment thesis. It will back seed, series A and series B companies by providing them with equity and quasi-equity. Ticket sizes will range from EUR 500,000 to EUR 5mn. This fund aims to invest in approx. twenty companies with around 85% of them active on the continent.
Following the same investment thesis, GEIF II is poised to invest in seed, Series A, and Series B stages, in equity and quasi-equity, with ticket sizes ranging from €500,000 to €5 million. The fund aims to invest in approximately twenty companies, with around 85% of them active in Sub- Saharan Africa. The fund will focus on decarbonized energy access, productive use of energy, electric mobility, new energies and enabling technologies. And expects to avoid the emission of four million tonnes of CO2.
Capital Croissance is the fund manager while Schneider Electric and Capelan (family office) are the two cornerstone investors. I&P is the fund’s strategic partner.
The fund has already invested USD 1mn in Surechill, a Kenyan company that has developed technology that enables medical and productive refrigeration.