New US consortium plans $1.4bn in cleantech investments

A new US-based consortium plans to invest $1.4 billion of private capital in clean technology companies over the next five years.

The Cleantech Syndicate is a group of 11 prominent families from across the US  with a collective net worth of more than $30 billion. The organization’s planned investments represents the largest pool of dedicated capital to the clean technology space.

Before the syndicate was formed, the member families and their affiliates have over the past five years invested over $1.2 billion directly into privately held cleantech businesses. While co-founders McNally Capital LLC and Black Coral Capital did not identify the member families, they said they include developers of utility-scale wind and solar generation facilities, founders of solar technology companies, and owners/operators of large real-estate properties and fleets of industrial vehicles looking to enhance efficiency.

“The Cleantech Syndicate is the first vehicle of its kind to fully tap into the collective expertise of multiple families,” said Ward McNally, managing partner of McNally Capital. “By working together and sharing capital and investment opportunities, the syndicate’s members can achieve exceptional scale and act cooperatively to accomplish their long-term investment objectives. Family offices with deep and complementary expertise in an industry have a unique investment advantage, especially given their indeterminate hold period.”

“The Cleantech Syndicate is a natural evolution for us — a way to pool our experience and networks with those of other like-minded family offices and create partnerships that will support better, stronger cleantech and green energy companies,” added Christian Zabbal, managing director of Black Coral.

Later this year, the Cleantech Syndicate plans to launch a European Cleantech Syndicate, as well as a US co-investment vehicle that will allow selected non-syndicate members to invest alongside the members.