Institutions

Innovest founder Kiernan and ex-PRI chair MacDonald target retail investors with cleantech venture firm

Invest Green targets retail investors on back of US Green New Deal

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Matthew Kiernan, the founder of pioneering ESG research house Innovest, and Donald MacDonald, the former chair of the Principles for Responsible Investment and the Institutional investors Group on Climate Change, have teamed up in a new cleantech venture capital firm.

Invest Green is targeting retail investors in the context of the US Green New Deal, saying it is the “biggest investment opportunity of the 21st Century”.

Also involved in the new firm are co-founder Andrew McLean, a former host of CNBC’s Eco Capitalist TV series, Alan J. Rice (General Counsel), the former Chief Legal Officer at real estate firm Vornado.

Also on board are Eric Luo (Senior Advisor) and Vicky Sharpe (chair of the investment committee). 

Luo is the former head of Chinese cleantech conglomerate GCL System Integration. Sharpe is founding President & CEO of Sustainable Development Technology Canada; amongst many roles, Sharpe is an advisor to Mercer’s global Sustainable Opportunities funds.

“Everyone has a right to participate in the green wealth revolution” – Invest Green

Also involved is John Wiebe (Technical Advisory Council), the founder and CEO of the Globe Group of Companies, the Vancouver-based environmental business group.

Kiernan founded Innovest Strategic Value Advisors in 1995 as one of the first research firms to analyse ESG risks; the firm was later acquired by RiskMetrics in 2009 for $16m. Riskmetrics was itself bought by MSCI in 2010 in a $1.55bn deal.

Kiernan went on to found Inflection Point Capital Management (IPCM), which was later acquired by La Française Asset Management.

MacDonald, who is Vice Chair of the new firm’s Technical Advisory Council and Principal, was inaugural chair of the PRI. A former trustee of the BT Pension Scheme, he went on to chair the IIGCC from 2011-2016.

According to the new firm’s website, Invest Green is “building a publicly-traded cleantech venture capital firm” on the back of US President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion Green New Deal.

“This is the biggest investment opportunity of the 21st Century, if you choose wisely,” it says.

A promotional video on LinkedIn says: “Invest Green: institutional quality cleantech venture capital with the liquidity of a public company… because everyone has a right to participate in the green wealth revolution.”