Investment firm Eurazeo has partnered with the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) and Bank of America to launch the Lighthouse Initiative, a global investment platform designed to catalyse private capital into underfunded nature and biodiversity projects.
Bank of America and Eurazeo serve as cornerstone investors in the initiative, which closed its initial capital raise with $40 million (£31 million) in aggregate commitments. The platform is structured as an open vehicle intended to crowd in additional institutional partners, development finance institutions, and commercial investors to expand its ultimate deployment scale.
The platform will make minority growth investments in project development platforms and technology-enabled platforms across both developed and emerging markets. Each investment will align with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework—specifically targeting objectives such as Target 3 (“30×30”), which mandates the protection of 30 per cent of terrestrial and marine habitats by 2030—alongside the SMI’s Terra Carta charter.
The initiative’s primary investment pillars include:
- Ecosystem protection and regeneration: Funding commercial models that restore natural ecosystems at scale, including developers focused on regenerative agriculture and sustainable forestry.
- Supply chain and material transition: Backing industrial shifts toward nature-positive supply chains, focusing on bio-based materials, biological agricultural inputs, circular processes, and resource reduction technologies.
- Nature finance infrastructure: Structuring project development platforms on infrastructure-like financing models to attract joint co-investments from public and institutional capital.
- Measurement and impact verification: Investing in digital measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) platforms, environmental DNA (eDNA) biodiversity monitoring, and supply-chain traceability tools.
Managed by Eurazeo’s Future Industries division, the platform’s portfolio assets will be evaluated using an updated impact framework featuring dedicated biodiversity footprint assessments.
Jennifer Jordan-Saifi, President and Global Envoy of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, stated that the platform harnesses private sector capital to direct much-needed financing into nature-based economic solutions.
Brian Moynihan, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Bank of America and Chair of the SMI, noted that investors are increasingly seeking direct exposure to biodiversity assets, highlighting Eurazeo’s track record in managing growth companies in sustainable sectors.
Matthieu Bonamy, Partner in Future Industries at Eurazeo, added that protecting and restoring natural systems presents a scalable commercial opportunity, stating that the fund aims to demonstrate the long-term business case for nature-positive enterprise.
