January 22, 2024
The Norfund managed Climate Investment Fund is investing 10 million USD in South East Asia Clean Energy Fund II, known as “SEACEF II”. The investment will contribute to providing scale-up capital to early-stage companies focused on advancing the low-carbon transition in Indonesia, Vietnam and The Philippines.
IEAs latest report shows that Southeast Asia barely exceeds the Middle East and Africa in expected renewable energy capacity growth over the next years and that lack of financing for emerging and developing economies is the key issue. The SEACEF II fund will invest in promising renewable energy generation, energy efficiency, electric mobility, and electrical grid businesses at their early-stage, high-risk development phases.
“This investment is the first we are undertaking under our climate investment mandate in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. These are countries where both the need for investments in solutions that will avoid emissions and the potential for positive impact are large. We are looking forward to making further investments in these countries in the future,”
Felix Barwinek, Senior Investment Manager, Renewable Energy at Norfund
Clime Capital Management is a Singapore-based fund manager with good results from a similar fund. In addition to Norfund, the British, Swedish and Dutch development finance institutions are amongst the investors, as well as the Cisco Foundation, DFAT, ACP, IFC and Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP).
“To enable development and scale-up of local companies with local solutions central for the energy transition is important to us, and in line with our mandate. The prospects for further mobilizing private capital are also present.” Said Barwinek.
SEACEF II draws on the flexible risk capital and investment-making discipline that underlies Clime Capital’s successful inaugural fund, SEACEF I. Launched in 2020, SEACEF I has made twelve investments. Its investments made through 2022 have raised more than 27 times the capital provided by SEACEF I – considerably more than that achieved by governments and private-sector funds.
“By crowding in capital to de-risk early-stage businesses and development projects, we have demonstrated that small amounts can be leveraged to produce significant impacts. Now is the time to double down on this approach to maximize the results each investment dollar can achieve. We believe our model is the way to achieve this,”
Joshua Kramer, Chief Investment Officer and co-founder of Clime Capital
Read the official press release here: