Wellington Management Announces Close of Inaugural Climate Innovation Fund

Fund seeks to invest in private companies helping to mitigate or adapt to climate change

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wellington Management (“Wellington” or the “Firm”), one of the world’s largest independent investment management firms, today announced the final close of the Wellington Climate Innovation Fund (“CIF” or the “Fund”), with US$385 million in commitments.

CIF is Wellington’s first fund to invest solely in private companies developing solutions to help mitigate and adapt to climate change. The Fund seeks to generate attractive returns for investors by investing in late-venture and early-growth companies developing tech-enabled solutions such as software, software-enabled hardware, sensors, AI, data and analytics in areas including energy transition, sustainable buildings and cities, transportation and mobility, industrial automation, enterprise digitization, sustainable consumer, and food and agriculture innovation.

The Fund’s broadly diversified client base includes sovereign wealth funds, pensions, insurance companies, banks, family offices and high-net-worth individuals.

“Climate change is an existential threat to society and touches every sector of the global economy, making it one of the largest and most necessary investment opportunities we will see in our lifetimes,” said Greg Wasserman, Head of Private Climate Investing at Wellington Management. “For many years, climate solutions required trade-offs, but recent improvements and cost declines in technology around software, hardware, analytics, and connectivity mean today’s solutions are delivering meaningful cost savings and superior user experiences for businesses and consumers. We are excited to bring Wellington’s resources, network, and insights to support innovative entrepreneurs leading the transition to a more efficient and climate-resilient economy.”

The Fund is managed by Greg Wasserman and the CIF investment team, including deal leads Molly Breiner, Mike DeLucia, and Sean Petersen, who are all part of Wellington’s expanding $8.5 billion private investing platform. The team has extensive experience investing in climate solutions and leverages Wellington’s broader investment, research and sustainability capabilities in public and private markets, along with the Firm’s research collaboration with Woodwell Climate Research Center, the leading independent climate change research institute.

Today’s announcement follows Wellington’s three successful final venture fund closes in the past year, Wellington Venture Investments I, Wellington Hadley Harbor IV and Wellington Biomedical Innovation II.

About Wellington Management

Wellington Management is one of the world’s largest independent investment management firms, serving as a trusted adviser to over 2,500 clients in more than 60 countries. The firm manages more than US$1.2 trillion¹ for pensions, endowments and foundations, insurers, family offices, fund sponsors, global wealth managers, and other clients. Wellington aspires to provide excellent service to clients through a unique combination of independence enabled by its distinctive private partnership model, diverse perspectives through its unified, multi-asset investment platform, and relentless curiosity and intellectual rigor fostered by its enduring collaborative culture.

About Wellington Management’s Private Investing Platform

Wellington’s Private Investing platform has a dedicated team that invests across multiple sectors and stages of the private markets and leverages the firm’s more than 900 investment professionals located in offices around the world. From venture capital to private credit, the team actively invests across the business lifecycle in the next generation of industry defining entrepreneurs and changemakers. The team has raised over US$8.5 billion² in global assets to invest across geographies (Asia, Europe, and the Americas) and sectors (consumer, technology, health care, financial services, biotechnology, energy, industrials, climate technology, and real estate). Wellington’s dedicated Private Investing team takes a long-term view and leverages both its deep private market expertise along with Wellington’s broader public market expertise, extensive network, and robust research across its global footprint to benefit both investors and entrepreneurs. For more information about Private Investing at Wellington, please visit www.wellington.com/privateinvesting.

¹ As of 31 December 2023
² As of 29 February 2024