Lightsmith Climate Resilience helps companies scale up by applying their technologies to help businesses and communities adapt to climate change, by expanding internationally, particularly in emerging markets, and by partnering with Lightsmith’s global network of companies and governments. Lightsmith Climate Resilience is focusing on six initial technology areas: water efficiency and smart water management, resilient food systems, agricultural analytics, geospatial intelligence, supply chain analytics, and catastrophe risk modeling and risk transfer. Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) has concluded that Lightsmith Climate Resilience is the first private equity fund focused on climate resilience, and reported that until now, less than $500 million per year of private investment has targeted climate change adaptation. Lightsmith Climate Resilience invests in growth-stage companies whose technologies can address the growing physical impacts of climate change, which represents an estimated total addressable market of over $170 billion today. Richard Kauffman, the Former Chairman of Energy and Finance for New York State, serves as Chairman of the investment committee for Lightsmith Climate Resilience. Lightsmith’s global investment team draws from experience at Goldman Sachs, True North Partners, Baring Private Equity Asia, IFC, and US DFC. Lightsmith’s two founding partners, Jay Koh and Sanjay Wagle, each have over 20 years of experience in direct investing at The Carlyle Group and VantagePoint Capital Partners as well as at US Development Finance Corporation (DFC), International Finance Corporation (IFC), US Department of Energy, and New York Green Bank. By committing to the first private sector investment fund for adaptation, GCF’s catalytic investment will accelerate the transfer of private sector technologies to developing countries, boosting climate adaptation efforts and resilience, while promoting a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic” Tweet this
“GCF is extremely proud to make this investment in CRAFT. In the Fund, Lightsmith has brought together leading investors from around the world, including PNC Insurance Group, The Rockefeller Foundation, Kinneret Group, and Caprock Impact Partners, as well as the Green Climate Fund (“GCF”), European Investment Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, KfW on behalf of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Nordic Development Fund, the Government of Luxembourg and other investors. Lightsmith Climate Resilience is the first private equity fund to have focused on climate resilience and adaptation, investing in growth-stage technology companies that address the effects of climate change. from the University of California at Berkeley.NEW YORK–( BUSINESS WIRE)–Lightsmith Group (“Lightsmith”), a global sustainable private equity firm, is pleased to announce the final closing of Lightsmith Climate Resilience Partners SCSp RAIF (“Lightsmith Climate Resilience” or the “Fund”) with $186 million of commitments.
Sanjay was an Investment Officer at the World Bank/International Finance Corporation, where he led equity investments in private transport, power, and water infrastructure projects in developing countries. Sanjay was part of the founding team for ARPA-E and served as the agency’s first Associate Director for Commercialization, launching ARPA-E’s “tech to market” program to commercialize breakthrough energy technologies.Įarlier in his career, Mr. Department of Energy, overseeing the implementation of $15 billion of investments in clean energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Sanjay served as a senior official at the U.S. In the first three years of the Obama Administration, Mr. As a Principal at VantagePoint Capital Partners, he helped to launch the firm’s CleanTech Group, which invested over $1 billion in 25 cleantech companies–most notably in the first institutional investment round in Tesla Motors. Sanjay’s experience includes 12 years investing in venture capital and growth equity. Sanjay Wagle is co-founder and Managing Director of The Lightsmith Group, a private equity firm investing in growth-stage technology companies that address critical societal needs, with a current focus on climate change adaptation and resilience.