Nuveen closes $150 million funding for its Global Impact Fund to tackle income inequality and climate change

The current global pandemic underscores critical need for private equity investment as equality gap widens and issues of waste, energy efficiency and climate change become more pressing than ever due to COVID-19.  Millions of low-income families currently lack the economic access to grow their income. A lack of financial inclusion and access to education and healthcare risk holding back this group with 1.7 billion adults currently have no banking of any kind; 200 million small businesses globally lack access to working capital to grow; 250 million children have no access to education and 50% of the population lack access to healthcare of any kind.

To drive positive change and address the above challenges, today, Nuveen Investments, a Chicago based private company in the asset management industry, announced it has closed $150 million for its Nuveen Global Impact Fund, LP. The private equity fund is open institutional investors globally. The initial funding commitment is toward its targeted $400 million offering.

The Global Impact Fund will invest in inclusive growth to support the low-income consumer, with a primary focus on emerging markets. Nuveen’s Global Impact Fund seeks to drive positive change in two critical sustainable development challenges – inclusive growth and resource efficiency. The fund will target a 40-60% allocation to each theme.

Founded in 1898 and previously named The John Nuveen Co., after founder John Nuveen, the firm has $1 trillion in assets under management as of 31 March 2020 and operations in 27 countries. Its investment specialists offer deep expertise across a comprehensive range of traditional and alternative investments through a wide array of vehicles and customized strategies.

“The current global pandemic heightens the need for investment in mitigating accelerated climate change, pollution and waste, and in creating a more inclusive economy addressing inequality. Low-income individuals have been hit the hardest by Covid-19, further widening the equality gap as the lack of access to quality and affordable services like education, health and financial products is more starkly visible than ever,” said Rekha Unnithan, CFA, co-head of private markets impact investing at Nuveen.

“We are seeing attractive investment opportunities at a time of tremendous dislocation in the economy, allowing us to collaborate with businesses focused on creating scalable and commercially viable products that are focused on solutions for people and planet,” said David Haddad, co-head of private markets impact investing at Nuveen.

Six of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out as part of the Paris Agreement will be supported by the Global Impact Fund: SDG1 (No poverty); SDG 2 (Zero hunger); SDG 3 (Good health and wellbeing); SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities); SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and reduction) and SDG 13 (Climate action).

A combined focus on both investment performance and advancement on issues relating to the SDGs by the Global Impact Fund was an important motivation for the fund’s investors, including the Danish pension fund Velliv which committed $50 million in capital.

Anders Stensbøl Christiansen, CIO at Velliv, comments: “Nuveen has been an investment partner of ours for several years and we are delighted to further strengthen our relationship. They are a pioneer in Impact Investing and its experienced team has a proven track record. Now more than ever, there is a compelling case for Impact Investing, and we believe this strategy provides us with an appealing market opportunity to achieve competitive returns, whilst ensuring we are also achieving measurable Impact goals.”