Project detail - Helios CLEAR Fund SCSp

Who is our prospective customer?

The Helios Climate, Energy, Adaptation and Resilience Fund (“CLEAR”, “the Fund”) is a private equity fund being raised by Helios Investment Partners, a leading Pan-African PE firm. CLEAR is a Paris-aligned climate fund dedicated to securing a low-carbon growth trajectory for Africa. The Fund is an ‘article 9 Fund’ according to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation classification system. The Fund adopts a ‘climate first’ lens and is targeting dual climate benefits – both mitigation and adaptation – through investments in mid-cap businesses across five key themes (green energy solutions, climate-smart agribusiness, green transport and logistics, resource efficiency and climate enablers).

What is our funding objective?

The aim is to bring much needed growth capital to companies with meaningful climate mitigation and adaptation impact in Africa. The Fund will focus on growth capital investments in mid-cap businesses with high growth potential in the key themes noted above, alongside reliable and trustworthy partners. CLEAR’s return outcomes extend beyond capital appreciation, including seek to avoid and reduce carbon emissions, enabling sectors and populations to become more resilient and to adapt to climate change, improved ESG standards and performance, aligned to international standards and increased development impact that supports a wider stakeholder community.

Why do we want to fund this investment?

CLEAR is unique in that it is the only Pan-African fund explicitly targeting dual climate benefit (mitigation and adaptation). Furthermore, the Fund targets growth capital investments in mid-cap companies which will support job creation and economic development, and contributes to market creation by enabling private sector development in African markets underserved by private equity. Lastly, at an investee level, CLEAR is expected to support companies implementing operational and financial improvements as well as best practice corporate governance and ESG risk management capabilities. In collaboration with the CLEAR team, FMO expects to promote SDG13 (Climate Action), SDG7 (Access to Affordable Clean Energy), SDG8 (Decent Work & Economic Growth), SDG9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and SDG5 (Gender Equality). These objectives are aligned with the mandates of both the Dutch Fund for Climate & Development and Building Prospects. As a consequence, FMO intends to contribute to CLEAR from each of these mandates to CLEAR, as well as from its own balance sheet.

What is the Environmental and Social categorization rationale?

This Fund will have the E&S risk category B+ as some of the investments in the currently presented pipeline are assessed as medium to high risk. CLEAR has demonstrated a strong commitment to implementing high ESG standards in their investments. They have strengthened their in-house capability to do so and FMO will support the manager in further developing and implementing ESG best practices.

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