Specialist climate investment firm Just Climate, established by Generation Investment Management, has announced the final close of its inaugural Natural Climate Solutions I (NCS I) fund, securing $540 million in total capital commitments alongside related co-investment vehicles.
The fund represents the first investment vehicle within Just Climate’s Natural Climate Solutions strategy, which targets growth-stage companies addressing emissions and resource inefficiencies across land use, food production, water management, and waste reduction.
Capital commitments were secured from a broad syndicate of global institutional investors, pension funds, and financial institutions, including Achmea Investment Management, the Environment Agency Pension Fund, and the Royal Bank of Canada. The fund was anchored by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) as institutional anchor and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund as corporate anchor.
The investment strategy combines growth equity capital with scientific, policy, and operational expertise to target commercial returns alongside measurable environmental outcomes in sectors that account for roughly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions but remain historically underfunded relative to industrial energy transition assets.
To date, NCS I has deployed capital across five portfolio companies spanning agricultural technology, biotechnology, food supply chains, and biodiversity analytics. The initial portfolio includes US-based grocery supply chain artificial intelligence platform Afresh, Indian agricultural technology and farmer retail network AgroStar, RNA-based agricultural biosolutions developer GreenLight Biosciences, UK environmental DNA biodiversity monitoring specialist NatureMetrics, and tropical crop genetics developer Tropic.
Clara Barby, Senior Partner at Just Climate, stated that the strategy enables institutional investors to back commercial enterprises tackling water scarcity, declining agricultural yields, and supply chain waste as climate resilience becomes an increasingly critical priority for capital markets.
Eduardo Mufarej, Co-Chief Investment Officer at Just Climate, added that directing institutional capital into food systems, water infrastructure, waste recovery, and land-use transformation unlocks significant decarbonisation potential in sectors previously overlooked by climate finance.
Gustavo Bassetti, Head of Natural Climate Solutions at Just Climate, noted that the fund is positioned to deploy growth capital into established businesses possessing proven, commercially scalable technologies across natural resource value chains.
