We hope you didn’t miss our interview with Anders Stromblad this summer, where we discussed the crucial role pension funds can play in financing the future of cleantech. If you missed it in our Q2 Quarterly Briefing, we’re sharing it again here!

Some takeaways:
– Long Time Horizons ⏳🌿 Cleantech stands out as an investment area by often being very capital intensive and consisting of long time horizons. Extending investment periods and prioritizing long-term returns over short-term gains may be essential for climate-focused investments

– Sustainable Investment Performance 💰💼 AP2’s portfolio shows promising performance in sustainable investments. Their sustainable infrastructure portfolio, which includes funds like Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Generate Capital, Pattern Energy, Sandbrook, and Climate Finance Partnership, has averaged a 13% return since 2020. Their private equity portfolio, featuring climate-focused funds like Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, TPG Rise Climate, Generation Just Climate and DCVC, has also performed well, often outperforming the listed stock market. While returns have varied, it’s promising to see such positive outcomes in the cleantech space.

– U.S. Outperforms Europe 🌎🏆 Most investments remain U.S.-centric due to the larger availability of venture capital and the relative ease of scaling companies in the U.S. compared to Europe, where legal and market conditions vary widely between countries. Therefore, improving the European investment landscape is crucial for attracting pension funds and other institutional investors to Nordic cleantech companies.