UK Infrastructure Bank backs Greensphere Capital’s innovative British climate and nature fund

The fund will support the creation and scaling of businesses which harness innovation and intellectual property from globally renowned British bioscience and environmental science institutes, helping to unlock the commercial potential of cutting-edge UK research to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss.

The Bank’s financing is part of a conditional £66.3 million capital raise, alongside a £15 million investment from Frank Mars, Member of the Board of Directors at Mars, Inc., who will also step into a role as chair of the advisory committee for Gaia Sciences Innovation.

Gaia Sciences Innovation brings together a world-leading group of British bioscience and environmental science institutes. Collectively, these organisations are home to more than 4,000 scientists, researchers, and conservationists, including Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, ZSL, University of York, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, and the Anglia Innovation Partnership, where partners include the Earlham Institute, John Innes Centre, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Quadram Institute, The Sainsbury Laboratory, and the University of East Anglia. 

Funds will be deployed to invest into start-up, spin-out, and scale-up businesses linked to these institutions, providing products and services that can help tackle biodiversity loss and climate change. Companies will be based across the UK, with a particular focus on regional research hubs such as York and Norwich. 

UK Infrastructure Bank’s investment into Gaia Sciences Innovation will enable a greater range of businesses focused on developing activities to support natural capital investment to benefit from its financing. This supports UK Infrastructure Bank’s twin missions to help the transition to net zero and boost regional growth and aligns with the British Chancellor’s recent strategic steer to the institution to support nature-based solutions. 
 

John Flint, CEO of UK Infrastructure Bank, said:  

"We need to scale investment in natural capital if it is going to deliver on its net zero promise in the UK. This deal will help. Our matched funding will support the commercialisation of the science, data and technology, which is so crucial. This will, in turn, generate investor confidence, creating opportunities for nature investment, while also boosting skills and innovation in a nascent green sector.”