Mirova, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers dedicated to sustainable investing, announces the final closing of its first impact private equity strategy, Mirova Environment Acceleration Capital (MEAC¹), which invests in companies offering innovative solutions and technologies to foster the environmental transition.

When launching its dedicated impact private equity strategy in 2021, Mirova's ambition was to combine financial returns with support for the environmental transition by rolling out ‘acceleration capital’ to develop sustainable businesses by addressing major growth-generating trends and supporting innovative solutions and technologies.

Two years after its launch, the strategy has lived up to its promise, raising €211m in commitments, from which 30% come from private clients attracted by the multi-thematic approach¹. This achievement is within the context of the current challenging fundraising environment. Based on the five pillars of its investment thesis - clean energy, circular economy, natural resources, agri-agro technologies, smart cities - MEAC has already rolled out over €80m in 10 European and North American companies and completed one exit². MEAC has also been awarded the Greenfin label³ and is eligible for the Tibi initiative⁴.

Building on the strategy initiated with MEAC and the development of its private assets offering, Mirova recently launched a second private equity strategy dedicated to societal impact. ‘Mirova Impact Life Essentials (MILE)⁵, which aims to support the growth of French and European companies around four investment themes: knowledge & know-how, well-being & health, responsible consumption, and diversity & inclusion.

Mirova's aim is to enable institutional and retail investors to benefit from potentially attractive long-term returns and risk diversification based on multi-sector holdings, while contributing to society's ecological and social transition. Mirova intends to position MILE under SFDR Article 9, like all its other strategies⁶. 

"With this first private equity strategy, we are proud to have delivered on our ambitions to invest in unlisted companies displaying a high environmental impact. We already completed ten investments in key sectors of the ecological transition, with the aim of achieving attractive financial returns. We remain convinced that positive impact and profitability go hand in hand, particularly when it comes to companies that are driven by fundamental trends designed to meet specific sustainable development objectives. It is the same conviction that underpins our newly launched MILE strategy dedicated to societal transition." Marc Romano, Head of Impact Private Equity, Mirova

Companies invested by MEAC

• Ombrea, French startup specialized in crop management and protection against climatic hazards, sold to TotalEnergies in September 2023 ;
• Tallano Technologies, French company whose patented system captures the fine particles emitted by braking systems in the road and rail sectors ;
• Agronutris, French biotech company specialized in the production of insect proteins for use most notably in aquaculture and pet food ;
• Vestack, a technology company with expertise in the design and construction of low-carbon buildings ;
• Naïo Technologies, a pioneer and leader in agricultural robotics aimed at mitigating the consequences of labour shortages and the physical constraints on workers in the sector ;
• Norsepower, the world's leading supplier of mechanical sails for cargo ships, contributing to the decarbonisation of the maritime sector ;
• Nuventura, German manufacturer of high medium-voltage switchgears, which has developed an alternative to the use of the eternal pollutant SF6 in order to accelerate the decarbonisation of the energy sector ;
• Waste Robotics, Canadian company that develops and markets autonomous robots for sorting centers ;
• Nline Energy,  US developer of energy efficiency projects using high-efficiency micro backpressure turbine technology to generate electricity from the waste heat of industrial processes ;
• Gridbeyond, a ‘virtual power plant’ operator, supporting its industrial and commercial customers in decarbonising their energy mix and providing electricity network operators with the flexibility they need to maximize the penetration of renewable energies.