Swedfund invested USD 30 million on the 1stof March in the Mirova Gigaton Fund[1]. The main purpose of investing in the fund is to reach out to projects in developing countries, with debt financing through a wide range of important, complementary solar energy solutions outside the regular grid, so-called off-grid solutions.
Mirova SunFunder is a leading impact investor, solving energy access and climate change challenges in frontier markets, primarily Africa, by providing clean energy financing.
- Solar energy solutions are crucial to achieving the 2030 goal of universal access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy, says Swedfund's CEO Maria Håkansson.
Mirova, the affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers dedicated to sustainable investments, supported by Mirova SunFunder East Africa Ltd as Investment Advisor, a wholly-owned subsidiary based in Nairobi, launched this blended finance debt fund to accelerate the clean energy transition in emerging countries in Africa and Asia Pacific predominantly, as well as Latin America and the Middle East
The fund’s target size is USD 500 million and expects to deploy USD 1.2 billion of private debt throughout its life primarily to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in solar home systems, agri-solar, commercial & industrial solar, telecom tower solarization, mini-grids and other promising sectors such as e-mobility, battery storage, climate-smart food systems, energy efficiency and carbon credit pre-financing.
Classified “Article 9” under the framework of the new European SFDR[2], the fund aims to impact peoples’ lives by offsetting CO2 emissions (SDG 7, SDG 13), creating jobs (SDG 8), advancing gender equality (SDG 5) and improving energy access (SDG 7, SDG 8, SDG 5). Swedfund is a long-standing partner of Mirova SunFunder: in 2020, it invested USD 12 million in the firm’s prior debt fund.
Swedfund contributed to develop the fund’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects through guidance on the implementation of sustainability improvements, the hiring of an ESG & Impact Manager and by providing Technical Assistance support to build an environmental and social management system and strengthen the fund's gender equality work.