Bregal Sagemount
08 Jan 2025
New Private Markets spoke with Managing Partners, Agustin Silvani and Alvar de Wolff on the launch of the Bregal Sphere Nature strategy. Read the full article written by Toby Mitchenall at New Private Markets, PEI Group below.
Bregal Investments, a private equity firm with five separate fund strategies, has added a sixth in the form of a natural capital impact strategy: Bregal Sphere Nature.
Bregal established the unit last year when it appointed Alvar de Wolff, its former head of ESG and responsible investing and an influencer in private markets sustainability to lead its push into impact. The firm has now hired Agustin Silvani, formerly head of conservation finance at Conservation International, to lead Sphere's first strategy alongside de Wolff as joint managing partner. Silvani, spent 14 years as chief investment officer of Conservation International Ventures, the NGO's impact investing arm.
Speaking to New Private Markets, de Wolff said there is a nature financing gab that Bregal hopes to help fill:
Alvar de Wolff
Managing Partner - Bregal Sphere
Bregal Sphere Nature will focus on long-term project investments within agricultural supply chains, such as coffee and cocoa agroforestry models. It will work with developers to finance regenerative agriculture projects with farmers and co-operatives, with the view to producing carbon credits.
Agustin Silvani
Managing Partner - Bregal Sphere
Alvar de Wolff
Managing Partner - Bregal Sphere
The firm declined to comment on fundraising plans, citing regulatory reasons.
Silvani sits on the board of the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets, a body established to define and enforce quality in the supply of carbon credits. He believes that voluntary carbon markets are - like any other markets - going through "periods of change and evolution, which is a good thing". "I think we are at the start of 'carbon markets 2.0', in a way," he said. "There are new rules, new standards, new scrutiny, new regulations. So the bar is essentially rising."
Alvar de Wolff
Managing Partner - Bregal Sphere
The Bregal Sphere team is currently seven people, said de Wolff, but would look to get to a dozen by the end of the year.
Alvar de Wolff
Managing Partner - Bregal Sphere