Impact Investing

Summa Equity is looking to move Norwegian biowaste company Norsk Gjenvinning from its debut fund to a separate vehicle.

The ingredients are all there for a big year in impact secondaries, with GP-leds looking particularly tempting.

The investment firm is managing $200m from HESTA in a fund of one to invest alongside impact and sustainable private equity managers.

The impact secondaries firm has hired a veteran of sustainable private equity investing in anticipation of 'a lot of selling activity' by institutional investors.

The amount of dry powder dedicated to impact secondaries increased markedly in 2022 – if from a very low base.

The market passed the $100bn mark in 2021, according to research by VC secondaries specialist Industry Ventures.

The firm has seen several examples of transactions that it previously passed on being relaunched with refreshed pricing.

Impacts from the broader economy, such as inflation, geopolitical turmoil and slower growth, have made it tougher to value assets in secondaries processes, with a wide gap between buyer and seller expectations.

Of the sellers, 12% said they had tapped the secondaries market to offload private credit fund interests more than once.

The impact secondaries firm has shifted the focus of its clean growth strategy recently to preferred equity structured transactions from traditional LP interests.