Arcano raises €200m for impact FoF

Arcano Asset Management, one of Spain’s largest private equity managers, has held an interim close on its debut impact fund.

The Madrid-headquartered alternatives manager has raised more than €200 million for Arcano Impact Private Equity Fund against a target of €300 million, according to a statement.

The fund launched in September and has received all of its commitments from Spanish institutional and private investors, according to a spokeswoman for the firm. Arcano will look to investors from outside of Spain for the rest of the capital.

AIPEF makes primary, secondaries and direct co-investments in funds and businesses with a “clear focus on environmental impact”, according to the statement. The fund has already executed 10 deals in health and wellness, education and energy transition verticals, the statement said.

The spokeswoman, who would not go into detail on investments, noted that AIPEF has made commitments to two Europe-focused generalist impact funds and a $1 billion US healthcare life sciences vehicle that invests in businesses at the crossroads of technology and biotechnology.

In December, the firm held a €292 million final close on its debut sustainable infrastructure fund. Arcano Earth Fund invests in sustainable infrastructure in Europe and North America via primary fund commitments, secondaries and co-investments, Secondaries Investor reported.

Arcano was the first Spanish independent alternatives manager to sign up to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment, it said in a May document outlining its approach to impact investing.

Speaking to Secondaries Investor in 2019, Scott Barrington, chief executive of sustainability-focused secondaries firm North Sky Capital, estimated there was “easily $90 billion” of impact assets in the secondaries market.