Climate solutions-focused investment business Just Climate announced that it has raised $175 million for its Natural Climate Solutions strategy, aimed at directing capital to businesses focused on natural climate solutions to transform land use to achieve global net-zero and nature positive goals, while also delivering attractive returns.

Investors backing the strategy include California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) as institutional anchor, and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund as corporate anchor.

Founded in 2021 by Generation Investment Management, a sustainability-focused investment firm chaired by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Just Climate aims to deliver impact by focusing on scaling solutions for the highest-emitting, most off-track sectors of the economy, investing in climate solutions that can radically reduce or remove emissions, while generating attractive risk-adjusted financial returns.

The firm unveiled the Natural Climate Solutions strategy in September 2023, led by Co-Chief Investment Officer Eduardo Mufarej. The strategy is designed to support entrepreneurs with growth capital and business building support to scale solutions to help transform the way agricultural commodities are produced and to restore degraded landscapes, such as biological fertilizers and pesticides to replace chemicals, as well as development models to finance and operate restoration projects, and technologies to verify carbon and biodiversity outcomes.

Just Climate has grown its Natural Climate Solutions team to 12 investment professionals, based in London, San Francisco and São Paulo. The strategy recently announced its first investment, leading a $25 million Series B capital raise for biodiversity measurement and monitoring solution provider NatureMetrics in January 2025.

Mufarej said:

“We believe a rapid land transition, with the potential to be as profound as the energy transition, is coming. Our strategy focuses on directing and scaling institutional capital to solutions that can help to transform food systems and drive the expansion of the ecosystem restoration sector. “

Microsoft and CalSTRS both also backed Just Climate’s $1.5 billion Industrial Climate Solutions strategy, with Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund as an anchor investor. Microsoft is a also founding member of the Just Climate Nature Alliance, a group of corporate leaders whose influence and expertise is expected to play a vital role in expanding the natural climate solutions investment opportunity.

Erika Basham, Director at Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, said:

“Our work with Just Climate and participation in the Just Climate Nature Alliance reflect our commitment to advancing nature-based solutions that drive high-integrity carbon removals, build resilient supply chains and protect biodiversity.”