First closing of the Althelia Sustainable Ocean Fund for impactful investment in our oceans

Mirova Natural Capital, majority-owned by responsible investment manager Mirova, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers, announces the first close of the Althelia Sustainable Ocean Fund (“SOF”), a new investment fund dedicated to making pioneering impact investments into marine and coastal projects.

The fund invests in scalable, impact-aligned businesses that harness the ocean’s natural capital to generate real assets, build resilience in coastal ecosystems and create sustainable economic growth and livelihoods.

Through SOF, Mirova Natural Capital Limited intends to deploy at least US$100 million across a portfolio of investments into sustainable marine activities in developing countries globally. The initial focus will be on Latin America and the Caribbean. Returns are generated from loan interest, profit shares or the sale of equity. In addition to seeking to provide investors with market returns in fisheries, aquaculture, seafood supply chains, the fund’s investments will be required to deliver substantial positive conservation impacts.

At launch, SOF has attracted investments from several large European institutional investors including the European Investment Bank, AXA Investment Managers and FMO as well as US based family offices and foundations through The Caprock Group and the Inter-American Development Bank. The fund is open to additional investors for a further 12 months.

SOF is the second fund within the newly launched Althelia Funds product line from Mirova, dedicated to scaling responsible natural capital investment strategies. The Fund will be managed by Simon Dent and David Barley.

“We are delighted to announce the first close of the Althelia Sustainable Ocean Fund. This fund will allow us to direct meaningful investments at scale to support sustainable business models, projects and enterprises in the marine sector within developing countries and small island states while also addressing some of the most pressing issues in ocean conservation.” said Simon Dent, SOF Principal.

Target impacts include improved food and climate security, stabilisation or increased fish stocks, improved livelihoods and economic value for local stakeholders, prevention of marine waste and plastic pollution, as well as ecological biodiversity and conservation gains.

Collectively, the global ocean covers 70% of our planet, and over 1 billion people depend on fish for their primary source of protein, with more than 350 million jobs linked to the ocean through fishing, aquaculture, coastal and marine tourism. Ninety percent of the people who derive their livelihoods from fishing live in developing countries. The UN estimate that a healthy ocean, supporting fisheries and aquaculture, energy production, trade and tourism contributes around US$ 3 trillion to the global market economy annually.

However, over-fishing, the changing climate and increased pollution, are exhausting this critical common global resource, with 90% of the world’s ocean fisheries categorised as over exploited or fully exploited.

As a result of expanding coastal population centres and climate change, the ocean has also seen a decline of habitats with 35% of global mangrove, 30% of sea grass beds and 50% of coral reefs destroyed. Further 80% of all marine pollution comes from land-based sources and some 8 million tonnes of plastic enters the ocean every year.

Meeting these challenges will require significant new private investment at scale. SOF aims to deliver this to projects and companies where a compelling business and impact case can be made. The fund benefits from a partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and has executed a risk sharing guarantee through USAID’s Development Credit Authority (DCA) that will provide loan guarantees directly to portfolio investments made by the SOF.

Conservation International as well as the Environmental Defense Fund are engaged as strategic partners for SOF. This collaboration with leading environmental organisations will ensure the fund will direct investments into projects that uphold the highest environmental standards and allow for collaboration with local stakeholders, including communities and governments.

For further reading

• AcT4Nature: Mirova and economic players to preserve biodiversity
• Mirova’s comment on the report of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) on the state of land degradation around the world
• Guide to natural capital investing
• What is natural capital? (VIDEO)