The New Private Markets Podcast focuses exclusively on sustainability issues in private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate and infrastructure. J...
Capricorn's bet on Closed Loop and the circular economy
Capricorn Investment Group is an unusual organisation. Born from the private wealth of billionaire and former eBay president Jeff Skoll, it now operates a number of different sustainability-oriented strategies from its bases in New York and Palo Alto, and acts as an outsourced chief investment officer for other foundations and endowments alongside the Skoll Foundation.
Among its strategies is the Sustainable Investors Fund, a programme which seeks to add scale to the sustainable investment universe through GP stakes investment. In February, the strategy backed Closed Loop Partners, a leading firm in the field of circular economy investing (and also a winner in the latest New Private Markets Global Awards).
In this episode of The New Private Markets Podcast, recorded at PEI Group's NEXUS 2025 event in Orlando, we speak to Marie-Céline Damnon, investment director at Capricorn Investment Group, to discuss the strategy, the Closed Loop Partners deal and the landscape for investing in sustainable asset managers at a time when the concept of sustainability – in the US anyway – is not flavour of the month.
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12:19
Inequality as a systemic risk
The risks that climate change and biodiversity loss pose to portfolios have become more understood in recent years. However, inequality, as well as social risks and opportunities, remain difficult to understand and evaluate.
The Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures is seeking to address this. The initiative is developing a framework to facilitate more effective disclosures about impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities related to inequality.
In this episode, New Private Markets senior reporter Charles Avery speaks to Delilah Rothenberg, co-founder of the non-profit Predistribution Initiative and a member of the TISFD steering committee. They discuss the latest on the TISFD and how investors can start to understand and address the risks that rising inequality poses to their portfolios.
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27:11
Making employee ownership the core of an investment strategy
Thanks to initiatives such as Ownership Works, a growing number of private markets firms have begun to integrate employee ownership schemes. However, few firms have gone further in this regard than Apis & Heritage Capital Partners.
Founded in 2020, the firm finances the conversion of companies with substantial Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) workforces into 100 percent employee-owned businesses through its employee-led buyout strategy. The firm closed its first fund in 2022.
In this episode, senior reporter Charles Avery connects with Philip Reeves, who co-founded the firm alongside Todd Leverette, to understand how such a strategy works in practice and how it delivers positive impact and returns for investors.
To subscribe and hear more episodes, search for The New Private Markets Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, or click here.
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19:53
Building a private markets firm for the 'missing middle'
The transition to a low- or no-carbon economy requires more than just money. It requires a combination of skills and capital that has not traditionally existed in private markets.
This was the view taken by Charles Cherington and Troy Thacker, who in 2017 co-founded Ara Partners to take a "builder" approach to the decarbonisation of industry, with a particular focus on difficult-to-abate sectors. Eight years later, the firm has raised three generations of its flagship private equity fund, and is raising an infrastructure strategy. In doing so it has helped define the emerging category of decarbonisation-focused private markets investors.
"You hear a lot in this world about the missing middle; that's right where we sit; And you know, we're a drop in the bucket," says Cherington in this episode.
"We are taking the hand-off from venture, we are taking proven technologies in companies that need to be industrialised, building the first handful of plants, and when we are done, we'll be handing those companies off to public markets, large strategics or mega-cap private equity."
Join us as we talk to Cherington about the rapid growth of the firm, and what he wishes he had known eight years ago.
To subscribe and hear more episodes already online, search for The New Private Markets Podcast wherever you like to listen, or click here.
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18:19
Temasek’s journey into impact investing and beyond
Singapore's Temasek is a large investor in both dollar terms and in terms of its influence in private markets. As of March 2024, it had S$389 billion ($291 billion; €278 billion) in assets under management and has become known for its focus on sustainability and climate investing. For around five years it has had a formalised approach to impact investing.
Leading that formal approach is Benoit Valentin, one of our 50 influencers in sustainable private markets. Valentin is Temasek's head of private equity fund investments, head of partnership solutions, deputy head of EMEA and head of impact investing.
In this episode, Valentin explains the three principles to Temasek's approach, the challenges encountered since launching the programme and the qualities the investor looks for in a GP.
To subscribe and hear more episodes already online, search for The New Private Markets Podcast wherever you like to listen, or click here.
The New Private Markets Podcast focuses exclusively on sustainability issues in private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate and infrastructure. Join the editorial team behind New Private Markets as they pick through the sustainability trends shaping these asset classes, from ESG to impact and beyond, with help from industry insiders
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