SJF Ventures, a North Carolina-based impact private equity firm dedicated to a mission of “creating a healthier, smarter, and cleaner future” has closed its fourth fund oversubscribed at $125 million. The firm and fund focus on investments that will advance clean energy, climate change mitigation, sustainable food and agriculture, recycling, education, and health and wellness.
Fund IV closed 25 percent oversubscribed beyond its $100 million target and 40 percent over the amount raised by its third fund. This reflects investor interest due to the firm’s “really good track record,” David Kirkpatrick, SJF Ventures managing director and co-founder, told The News & Observer, without divulging actual returns.
“We made some investors angry because we turned people away,” said Kirkpatrick. “It’s a nice position to be in, although I don’t like making people unhappy.”
Limited partners that have subscribed to SJF Ventures IV include more than two dozen foundation endowments, as well as family offices, funds of funds, pension, and individual impact investors. The announcement of the $125 million close follows closely after an announcement in late October that the firm raised $75 million for SJF Ventures IV, bringing its total at that time to nearly $90 million.
“We are thrilled to bring together this assembly of impact investors to help us support highly successful businesses driving lasting, positive changes,” said Kirkpatrick, who noted to The News & Observer that fund raising by the firm has benefited from investors increasingly realizing that positive social impact and investing for profit are not necessarily mutually exclusive. “…You can have great returns and great impact. There doesn’t have to be a sacrifice,” Kirkpatrick stated.
Focusing on expansion stage companies, SJF’s investment team pursues investments of between $3 million and $10 million, remaining thoroughly engaged with the Board of each portfolio company to help deliver positive impact while achieving business growth.
One such portfolio company is Austin-based organic egg producer, Vital Farms. Founded in 2007, Vital Farms has grown from a single operation in Austin to include over 90 contracted family farms across Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Georgia, California, and Missouri. Under Vital Farms’ business model, SJF Ventures states on its website that it requires each hen to live on a minimum of 108 square feet of pasture during daylight hours, feeding on wild grasses and bugs – a diet that provides the hens with more vitamins and minerals that a corn-based diet and which produces eggs that have one third less cholesterol than factory-produced eggs, one quarter less saturated fat, two thirds more vitamin A, twice the omega-3 fatty acids, three times more vitamin E and seven times more beta carotene.
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Lynda Kiernan