AIIB launches $160m to cleantech VC strategy

The three-year programme is launching with an initial USD 130m plus a USD 30m co-investment sleeve. It is AIIB's first move into VC, although renewable energy and cross-border connectivity have always been core themes. The USD 100b multilateral development bank was set up in China in 2016 and now covers 106 member jurisdictions, mostly comprising emerging markets.

Despite the prolonged economic uncertainties in the global markets, VC investment has exhibited continued strength in South and Southeast Asia and collectively across the Caucasus, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East," AIIB said in a statement. "However, these regions are facing less representation, which invites further capital to bridge the funding gap."

AIIB said it would be rigorously selective in partnering with reputable and seasoned VC managers, taking a portfolio-driven approach to mitigate risk through diversification. The bank stressed that fund selection would be subject to its environmental and social policy. The initial target portfolio will comprise 12-15 funds.

The most recently established organisations in infrastructure investment have tended to address the asset class with a greater sense of ambiguity in terms of crossover with technology and venture-oriented strategies. AIIB officially describes its mandate as infrastructure and "other productive sectors," which has come to include a broad a spectrum of PE-targeted industries.

"The advantage of having good private managers is they have the flexibility to actually accommodate certain trends and react to certain developments. So, in that sense, that flexibility is in the interest of the LPs," Thomas Walenta, a senior investment officer at AIIB, told the AVCJ Forum in November.

"However, it shouldn't be necessarily a sustained blurring because I do think for LPs, it gets more and more difficult for their own asset allocation to be entirely clear where they have their assets allocated if everything is a mix."

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• Topics
• Greater China
• South Asia
• Southeast Asia
• LPs
• Infrastructure
• Cleantech
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Asia
• Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
• development finance institution
• renewable energy
• ESG