Climate solutions-focused investment business Just Climate announced that it has raised $540 million in commitments at the final close of Natural Climate Solutions I (NCS I), its strategy aimed at directing capital to businesses focused on natural climate solutions to decarbonize the high-emitting agricultural sector.

NCS I’s anchor investors included California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) as the institutional anchor and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund as the corporate anchor.

Founded in 2021 by Generation Investment Management, a sustainability-focused investment firm chaired by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Just Climate aims to deliver impact by focusing on scaling solutions for the highest-emitting, most off-track sectors of the economy, investing in climate solutions that can radically reduce or remove emissions, while generating attractive risk-adjusted financial returns.

The firm unveiled the Natural Climate Solutions strategy in September 2023, with a focus on scaling products and services across the land use value chain that can decarbonize agriculture and abate emissions through nature-based business models. NSC I is the first fund in Just Climate’s Natural Climate Solutions strategy.

Clara Barby, Senior Partner at Just Climate, said:

“Our Natural Climate Solutions strategy enables investors to back businesses that are tackling water scarcity, falling agricultural yields and waste. These are critical issues for the decade ahead, as resilience rises up the agenda for companies and capital markets. We believe investments made now have the potential to deliver attractive returns by transforming how we manage our land and resources.”

To date, Just Climate has made five investments from NCS I, including biodiversity monitoring startup NatureMetrics, AI-powered fresh food ordering and inventory management platform Afresh, India-based agricultural transformation company AgroStar, agriculture-focused biosolutions provider GreenLight Biosciences, and tropical seeds developer Tropic.

Gustavo Bassetti, Head of Natural Climate Solutions at Just Climate, said:

“Our fund aims to back companies which have reached the growth-stage of their development, having already identified proven and scalable solutions across the food systems, water, waste and other land use change sectors. In an increasingly constrained market environment, we have capital ready to deploy into promising growth-stage companies.”