Public pensions anchor CGF's £81.5m second close

Two Local Government Pension Scheme pools account for just under two-thirds of Clean Growth Fund's £81.5 million ($110.5 million) second close, announced Sept. 9, giving public pension money the decisive voice in UK Series A climate tech as the vehicle passes the halfway mark on its way to £150 million. CGF launched in 2020 to take Seed and Series A positions in companies whose technology cuts greenhouse gas emissions or improves resource efficiency, working a place-based strategy from Oxford, Cambridge and London to newer hubs, and its second fund—targeting 25 companies—has already written four checks across batteries, food, heavy industry and buildings.

Border to Coast Pensions Partnership anchored the close with £22.5 million from its UK Opportunities Fund, which represents 18 LGPS partner funds and explicitly chases long-term adjusted returns that travel with UK economic growth. Strathclyde Pension Fund added £10 million, taking its Fund II commitment to £30 million, and the two pools' combined £52.5 million leaves pension pools setting the terms for UK Series A climate risk.

The seller's case is that this is exactly the capital UK climate tech now attracts: CGF founder and managing partner Beverley Gower-Jones argues institutional investors are drawn by long-term returns attached to economic growth spread across the country, and Border to Coast portfolio manager Keith Angood describes a fund that matches his pool's objectives and is run by an experienced team with a record.

Fund I is the evidence. CGF says its first fund backed 19 UK startups on track to abate 27 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year by 2030, and that forecast is the number transition investors will grade against. Institutional money can follow climate themes for many reasons, but a portfolio's standing rests on whether the abatement ledger is real.

Half the capital is in; the delivery question isn't. Fund II must turn four early bets into a portfolio whose abatement arithmetic matches what CGF publishes for Fund I, because transition finance has spent this cycle collecting commitments while the funds that clear the next stage will be those that convert them into measured delivery. For CGF, the ledger is the product, and the £81.5 million headline will matter less than the next abatement report.