Bregal Investments launches the Bregal Sphere Nature strategy
Appointment of Agustin Silvani, former Conservation International executive, as Managing Partner
London, UK (January 29, 2024) - Bregal Investments (“Bregal”), a leading private equity investment firm, today announced the launch of the Bregal Sphere Nature strategy – a dedicated natural capital strategy focused on investments in high-quality nature-based solutions (“NbS”) – and the appointment of Agustin Silvani, former head of Conservation Finance at Conservation International, who will serve as joint Managing Partner, alongside Alvar de Wolff.
Agustin brings with him extensive experience in natural capital investments and a wide network of corporate partners that will help enable the team to build a high-quality pipeline of investable projects and support the development of a high-integrity Voluntary Carbon Market. Under his leadership, Conservation International became a prominent force in natural capital investing, successfully raising and deploying over $1bn with partners through various financial mechanisms to help safeguard and restore vital ecosystems across the globe. Agustin is also a founding Board member of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Markets (“ICVCM”).
Science tells us that nature is our most important ally in helping meet our climate goals yet, to date, the sector has been woefully underinvested in. By combining complementary investment and impact expertise, we hope to support the mainstreaming of natural capital markets and put private capital to work where it is crucially needed, particularly within agricultural supply chains. I am excited to join this talented team and move quickly to achieve the impact on the ground that we need.
We are excited to announce the launch of Bregal Sphere Nature. I’d like to take the opportunity to officially welcome Agustin to the team - his calibre and expertise will be invaluable as the strategy continues to develop. Addressing the current financing gap for nature is critical for society to meet its global goals and targets around climate change and biodiversity, but also to ensure long-term supply chain resilience - both for agricultural communities, consumers, and global businesses.
Through strategic partnerships with project developers, the Bregal Sphere Nature team will aim to deploy capital into genuine, high-integrity NbS projects that protect and restore nature, address climate change and biodiversity loss, and improve livelihoods for local communities. Bregal Sphere Nature will focus on long-term project investments within agricultural supply chains, such as coffee and cocoa agroforestry models. The strategy will also invest in high-quality reforestation projects in adjacent landscapes and mangrove restoration projects. By focusing on agricultural supply chains, it will seek to support corporate partners to achieve SBTi Forest, Land and Agriculture (“FLAG”) targets through insetting.
We are excited to be launching Bregal Sphere Nature as our first venture into impact investing. As a firm, we are committed to investing our capital with a purpose and will seek to encourage further engagement with natural capital markets.
About Bregal Sphere
Bregal Sphere is an impact investing platform launched by Bregal Investments in October 2022. Bregal Sphere aims to invest targeted capital to help address key societal and environmental challenges in a responsible and sustainable way. These impact investments are made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside financial return. Bregal Sphere’s first investment was in PUR, a leading global nature-based solutions developer and pioneer in the development of insetting within corporate supply chains.
For more information about Bregal Sphere, visit ww.bregalsphere.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
About Bregal Investments
Bregal Investments (“Bregal”) is a leading private equity investment firm providing a platform for its family of direct investment and fund-of-funds teams. Bregal manages over €18 billion in assets across its strategies and has closed over 150 direct investments and invested in more than 200 funds. The Bregal family of funds focuses on long-term sustainable value creation and provides access to private equity, growth equity, credit, and fund-of-fund strategies. Headquartered in London and New York, Bregal has more than 250 employees across its nine offices.
For more information about Bregal Investments, visit www.bregal.com or follow us on LinkedIn.