KKR held the final close of the KKR Global Impact Fund II (GIF II) with $2.8 billion in commitments to support companies that strike a balance between financial performance and positive societal impact by offering products and services that advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
GIF II was launched last year. Its predecessor fund was launched in 2018 and closed in 2020 with $1.3 billion, making GIF II more than twice as successful, thanks to strong backing from public pensions, family offices, insurance companies and other new and existing global institutional investors. Additionally, KKR will invest $250 million of its own capital in the fund through its balance sheet, affiliates and employee commitments.
GIF II recently received a $250 million commitment from the Washington State Investment Board.
“We are grateful for the support of our investors who share our conviction in this space, which we believe is well-placed given the strong performance of our first fund,” said Robert Antablin, KKR partner and co-head of KKR Global Impact.
The KKR Global Impact platform centers on four key investment themes: climate action, sustainable living, lifelong learning and inclusive growth. These themes aim to address challenges that impact communities around the world, including climate change and its consequences, growing waste due to reliance on non-renewable resources, social and economic inequality, and a widening skills gap caused by lack of access to quality education.
The dedicated KKR Global Impact team has over 20 members and the full support of the firm’s suite of global resources. Since inception, KKR Global Impact has invested in 18 companies including GreenCollar, Australia’s environmental markets project developer and investor; CoolIT, a provider of scalable liquid cooling solutions for energy-hungry data centers; Advanta, a global seed business providing farmers with innovation and new technologies to address food insecurity and climate change; and Lightcast (formerly known as Emsi Burning Glass), a provider of software and research to help companies ready their workforces for the future.
Ken Mehlman, KKR partner and co-head of KKR Global Impact said Lightcast research has found that the skills requested for the average U.S. job have changed 37% since 2016, requiring a significant. “We believe our Global Impact strategy is well-positioned to invest behind” macro tailwinds including the growing need to accelerate upskilling,” he added.
