Danish pension fund Velliv has invested in the second iteration of a private equity impact fund run by Nuveen, which focuses on helping reduce social inequality and negative effects on the climate.

Nuveen announced this morning it had raised around $200m (€186m) in investment for its second global climate inclusion private equity strategy at the fund’s first close, with capital coming from a mix of global investors, including Velliv.

The asset manager said the second version of the strategy aimed to generate strong financial returns and address the sustainable development challenges of climate change and inequality.

Velliv told IPE it had pledged an investment of DKK700m (€93.8m) in the new sustainable fund, which it said met the so-called Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) Article 9 requirements — confirming its ambitious objectives.

Anders Stensbøl Christiansen, Velliv’s chief investment officer, said: “At Velliv, we have shown that it is possible to contribute to the solution of some of the world’s challenges, at the same time as delivering attractive returns to customers.”

Impact investments were forming an increasingly large part of the mutual pension provider’s investments, he said.

“The [Nuveen] fund focuses on climate change and social inequality, which are some of the biggest challenges we are looking into, and these are areas that Velliv is already focusing on in our existing investments,” the CIO said.

Velliv invested in Nuveen’s first such fund back in 2020 — a fund which Nuveen said today had won more than $200m of investor capital, in turn investing in eight global businesses. The most recent had been in US clean energy technology platform and community solar servicer Perch Energy, which was aiming to expand access to renewable energy, Nuveen said.

Rekha Unnithan, head of private equity impact at Nuveen, said the asset manager believed climate change and inequality could be addressed by commercial businesses.

“The changing regulatory environment and shifts in consumer sentiment means overcoming those challenges also presents a compelling investment opportunity,” she said.

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Rachel is IPE's Nordic correspondent. She has long been a freelance writer, and over the years, has written for The Telegraph, The Independent, The Observer, AMWatch and elsewhere. In 2001, Rachel's personal finance book Kickstart Your Money was published by John Wiley & Sons.View full Profile

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