Chris Janiec
An individual with credibility across academic, environmental and financial stakeholders would be an asset for increasingly complex timberland markets.
Chief executive Kevin Schwartz says commitments from the firm’s largest existing LPs grew by as much as 50% and played a key role in pushing Food Chain Fund VI beyond its $1.5bn target.
Investors convened at the Who Will Own the Forest? conference in Portland discussed timberland’s newfound sexiness, as demonstrators’ sawdust attack and reports of smashed windows reflected the growing profile of the asset class.
Managing partner Sebastian Popik says biological inputs are a posterchild for investments pursuing a positive environmental impact and profitably.
Schwartz says the genetics, breeding and licensing segment of the food and ag value chain is made up of ‘fundamentally important and good businesses’.
Policies such as the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities are putting regenerative ag higher on LP priority lists.
US undersecretary says $3bn Climate Smart Commodities program can think beyond cap and trade and work creatively to scale agtech alongside farm and land managers.
Director of real estate Tim Schlitzer says climate-driven purchases have produced a 'mismatch' with appraisers that contributed to underperformance relative to NCREIF’s timber benchmark.
Aqua Capital says it established Biotrop in 2017, instead of entering the market via an acquisition, due to a lack of reasonably priced companies with market presence and proprietary technology.
LeapFrog Investments climate investing team co-head Nakul Zaveri says cross country collaboration in agriculture holds potential for state level leaps forward in innovation.