Generate Capital has raised $2bn in new money to back clean energy projects, getting an endorsement from existing and new investors for its infrastructure-as-a-service model.

Australian investment firm QIC Ltd. and pension fund AustralianSuper led the fundraising, while other early investors in Generate, like Swedish pension system Andra AP-fonden and the U.K.’s Railways Pension Scheme, also participated, Generate said.

New investors included Birmingham, Ala.-based investment firm Harbert Management Corp., CBRE Caledon Capital Management, a private-equity firm in Toronto; and Aware Super, another Australian pension fund.

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San Francisco-based Generate, which focuses on sustainable infrastructure, doesn’t raise traditional private-capital funds. Instead, it expands its asset base by allowing investors to buy stakes in the firm itself, and then invests balance-sheet capital in projects like solar farms, waste-recycling systems and hydrogen-fuel plants.

Generate will use the new money to expand beyond North America into other regions, including Europe, and into sectors like water and agriculture, said Generate Chief Executive Scott Jacobs.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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