Jenson Funding Partners Launches £60m Green Early-stage Fund

The £60m fund named Aurora I is set to be deployed in mid-2023 and will be managed by Jenson partner and CIO Jeffrey Faustin.

Funding will be deployed over three years, with 60 pre-seed and seed stage companies in the first year, 20 follow-ons in the second year, and a final ten investments then made in the most successful firms.

The fund will see 20% carried interest after limited partner capital is paid back and a 2% management fee for the first four years, then reducing to a 1.42% average annual fee, with total fees sitting at 14.31%. 

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Jenson said the fund will target "commercially-minded, cost-effective technology solutions that can be easily integrated with the everyday lives of consumers or businesses".

The firm cited a recent report from Tech Nation that identified a significant funding gap between seed and Series A climate tech start-ups as a case for the fund, adding that regional investments will be a key component of the fund.

Jenson also said it had taken on two new venture partners, co-founders of the sustainable business think tank Hyve Forum, Samsurin Welch Abdulaziz Bin Redha.

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Sarah Barber, CEO of Jenson, said: "There are some fantastic companies out there that are busy making greener alternatives affordable and practical.

"We see this as a critical step to encouraging the mass adoption of more sustainable ways of living and doing business, and an excellent opportunity for investors.

"Aurora I is the opportunity for us to leverage our track record of successfully backing early stage businesses with the potential to directly impact the way we live and work - and extend what we have already done in discovering some exciting startups with strong sustainability credentials." 

Faustin added: "Samsurin and Abdulaziz have been hugely influential in setting up the fund and will continue to play an active role in it.

"They bring decades of experience advising senior government officials and top executives at some of the world's largest corporations on sustainability and Net Zero transition."

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