Private sustainability investment strategy Cowen Sustainable Investments (CSI) announced the closing of its inaugural fund, raising $919 million. According to CSI, the fund received commitments from leading institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, public pension funds, family offices, and foundations from around the world.
Elizabeth Flisser Rosman, Head of Cowen Investment Management, said:
“Sustainability is a cornerstone at Cowen, anchoring the desire to make a broad positive impact within the firm, on the financial industry, in communities, and among the companies with whom we partner. Consistent with our approach and our focus on all three components of ESGEnvironmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are a set of standards for a company’s operations that socially conscious investors use to screen potential investments. More, CSI looks to identify unique opportunities by leveraging the team’s deep cross sector expertise, identifying emerging themes and actively driving value in the investment process through the disciplined use of data analytics. We are proud of the success of this strategy and are looking forward to future outperformance for our clients.”
CSI is managed by Cowen Sustainable Advisors LLC, a division of diversified financial services firm Cowen. The strategy was founded in 2018, aiming to provide tailored financing and data analytics solutions to companies that are accelerating the world’s transition towards an environmentally sustainable economy, with investment themes including clean transportation, sustainable food production, industrial efficiency as well as renewables and storage. To date, CSI total assets have reached $1.1 billion, and the strategy has invested $350 million in two privately held, sustainability-focused companies.
Ewa Kozicz, Co-Head of CSI, said:
“CSI is focused on providing both capital and data analytics solutions to companies at the cutting edge of innovation in environmentalEnvironmental criteria consider how a company performs as a steward of nature. More sustainability. We believe the current market is well positioned for CSI as many of these companies are in need of capital and strategic support to stay ahead of increasing competition. For CSI, these are more than investments, these are partnerships that have the potential to create meaningful change in their respective industries with positive impact on both economies and society.”
Vusal Najafov, Co-Head of CSI, added:
“The fundamental environment for ESG-focused investments is quite attractive, and the level of innovation and disruption has tremendous velocity. Furthermore, the gap between data-driven business models and the rest continues to expand. Key to understanding a sector in such extreme forward motion, CSI actively utilizes technology and data analytics in all phases of the investment process from sourcing to portfolio management. CSI is actively looking to utilize its data analytics software platform to help companies create value.”
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