Switzerland-based specialist impact investor Blue Earth Capital has raised more than $100 million in the first close of its inaugural impact secondaries strategy, as investors seek ways to add liquidity and reduce risk in one of the youngest corners of the private markets.
Blue Earth said the commitments came from institutional backers in Europe and the US, including Proparco, the French development finance institution, the Ursimone Wietlisbach Foundation and Germany-based Stella.
The close marks Blue Earth Capital’s first dedicated offering focused solely on impact secondaries, an area that has historically been underserved despite rapid growth in impact investing overall.
Secondary transactions are well-established in traditional private equity, but have been slow to gain traction in impact portfolios due to a lack of product and limited market infrastructure. Impact secondaries offer investors exposure to more seasoned assets while helping to mitigate blind-pool risk, concentration and long fund durations, according to the firm.
Blue Earth Capital said the strategy is designed to appeal to more risk-sensitive investors by offering the potential for earlier distributions and pricing advantages, while also providing liquidity that allows existing impact investors to recycle capital into new opportunities.
Nicolas Muller, head of private equity partnerships at Blue Earth Capital, said the first close underscores the firm’s ambition to play a catalytic role in addressing a key structural challenge for impact investing: liquidity.
The strategy will invest globally across developed and emerging markets, targeting sectors including climate action, circular economy, financial inclusion, healthcare and education. A dedicated emerging-markets sleeve — which Blue Earth Capital said is a first for the impact secondaries space — is aimed at helping build a more structured secondary market in regions where transactions have historically been limited and opportunistic.
The emerging-markets allocation includes a first-loss tranche provided by Proparco and supported by the European Union through the EFSD+, a structure designed to catalyse private capital and improve risk-adjusted returns in underserved markets.
Early investments include a GP-led continuation transaction sponsored by Suma Capital involving Gestcompost, Spain’s largest organic waste treatment manager, which processes about 1.2 million tonnes of waste annually and is expanding into biogas and biomethane. The portfolio also includes an LP-led transaction in which Blue Earth Capital acquired stakes in four impact funds operating across India and Africa.
CEO Philipp Mueller said the strategy fills a critical gap in the impact sector by combining the firm’s experience in secondaries with its impact investing capabilities. Over time, the development of a functioning impact secondary market could help attract more asset owners to a segment still widely viewed as illiquid.
