IMPACTASSETS 50™
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
ImpactAssets 50
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
FullCycle Climate Partners, LP
Climate Change
Food Systems and Agriculture
Natural Resources and ConservationFirm Overview
FullCycle is a growth equity fund focused on accelerating systemic solutions to the climate crisis. Investing in climate-critical infrastructure is the fastest path to reach net-zero emissions. FullCycle commercializes proven technology solutions to the climate crisis through our acceleration ecosystem. We invest in companies and their associated climate-critical infrastructure projects, with the majority of capital invested in project assets in areas of the economy that most intensely produce greenhouse gases - energy, waste, agriculture, fashion and manufacturing. Our investment strategy equally maximizes financial returns and climate impact. We measure impact using a proprietary methodology, "Carbon Return on Investment" (CROI-20), prioritizing technologies that mitigate the largest amount of CO2 (equivalent) over their first 20 years of warming. This pillar of our investment strategy and reporting, highlights the urgency of putting capital to work faster and achieving greater impact by targeting those emissions with disproportionately high warming potential.
Years of Operation: Less than 3 years
% of Capital from Top 3 Investors: Less than 25%
FullCycle’s investment thesis is based upon our belief that investing in climate solutions presents the greatest economic opportunity of our time. We invest in companies with market-ready, globally scalable technology and associated infrastructure projects that demonstrate measurable, material climate impact and compelling financial returns.
Investing in climate-critical infrastructure is the fastest path to reach net zero emissions. FullCycle’s investment thesis uniquely addresses the magnitude of the climate challenge, simultaneously maximizing positive climate impact and risk-adjusted returns on our invested capital: Market-Ready Technologies. We invest in companies with climate-critical technologies that have proven efficacy and that can be deployed at scale today; not early, unproven innovations. Measurable, Material Climate Impact. Companies demonstrate quantitatively that projects have the potential to materially abate GHG emissions, defined as gigaton-scale abatement of CO2 equivalent annually at full deployment. We assess the Carbon Return on Investment over the first 20 years of warming potential (GWP-20) - “CROI-20”. Invest Directly in Companies and Projects, key differentiation from many funds. Compelling Financial Returns. Project investments feature lifetime internal rates of returns in mid-teens or higher. Investments in successful projects increase the enterprise value for our portfolio companies and exit value for our investors.
Climate action is a race against time. We invest in growth stage companies with scalable technologies and proven GHG abatement efficacy. As a capital and operational partner, we accelerate commercialization and asset deployment while de-risking project development, focusing on economic sectors with the most potent emissions. All investments are screened and investment committee decisions are made based on the investment’s potential Carbon Return on Investment. We are differentiated in the market because we invest in companies as well as their associated projects, so the majority of capital is actually invested in project assets. This strategy offers a diverse portfolio of stable, cash flow-generating project assets and increases the enterprise value of our portfolio companies. Our asset-led growth strategy helps companies scale infrastructure projects without diluting ownership. FullCycle provides an acceleration ecosystem: project finance, climate expertise and regional, operational experience, thereby reducing cycle times for deployment of climate-critical infrastructure globally.
Investment Example
FullCycle's latest investment is Sustainitech - an energy-efficient, fully-enclosed indoor farming company. Sustainitech’s controlled-environment agriculture complex technology exemplifies FullCycle’s investment strategy because of the financial opportunity and emissions abatement potential. Sustainitech’s HIFI (High Intensity Farming Indoor) horizontal grow containers are 30-40% more dense than standard hydroponic vertical farms or greenhouses and consume less electricity per unit of produce output than vertical farms, indoor farms and artificially-lit greenhouses. Farms are capital efficient, growing at 17% a hydroponic vertical farm's capital density and deployed 2x faster from breaking ground to first harvest. Produce grown in Sustainitech’s highly controlled, software-driven, automated complexes has 10x shelf life compared to standard produce, resulting in 25% less waste and significant emissions savings, specifically methane. Sustainitech partnerships with major companies create large, CO2-sequestering indoor complexes with impressive unit economics. With this investment, FullCycle acquired substantial equity and exclusive rights to invest in a series of new projects.
Leadership and Team
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Ibrahim AlHusseini – Founder and Managing Partner More Info
Ibrahim AlHusseini is a renowned venture capitalist, sustainability-focused entrepreneur and philanthropist with more than 25 years of experience in operations, sales and finance. He’s dedicated much of his career to helping angel investors find clean technology and natural resource related investments in an effort to advance social change around the globe, while producing significant returns for investors. As founder of FullCycle, Ibrahim is focused on reversing the effects of climate change by accelerating the deployment of climate-restoring technologies. |
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Giffen Ott – Managing Director and Chair of Investment Committee More Info
In addition to his wealth of experience as a clean tech entrepreneur, Giffen Ott brings 35 years of experience structuring deals and applying strategic and operational improvements to private equity investments. Giffen founded Synova Power, a developer and supplier of waste-to-value technology and projects, in 2012. He served as its Chief Executive Officer through 2018, stepping down to focus full-time on FullCycle. Synova, an innovative, clean technology company that transforms trash - including plastics- into valuable resources, is FullCycle’s first portfolio investment. |
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Stephan Nicoleau – Managing Director, Head of Capital Solutions More Info
Stephan Nicoleau is a Managing Director at FullCycle and leads the firm’s capital formation and partnerships. He brings more than a decade of investing and investment advisory experience to FullCycle. Stephan began his career as a member of the founding team of Coalition Ltd., a boutique strategy consultancy. That team grew the company to $50 million in revenue in just four years, growing its staff from eight to ~400 in that same time period. In that role, Stephan closely worked with the senior leadership of a number of sell-side investment banks. He was part of the seconded team which restructured the Global Currencies and Commodities division at JP Morgan, building it to be a globally nimble business that doubled trading revenue while mitigating macroeconomic risk. |
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Rachel Payne – Managing Director, Head of Technology and Innovation More Info
Rachel Payne is a technology executive, entrepreneur, investor, inventor and philanthropist. Rachel is Managing Director, Head of Innovation and Technology at FullCycle, a growth equity fund that invests in climate solutions. Rachel served as a Board Director for BRAC USA (BRAC is ranked #1 NGO), CREDO Mobile, KCET and dashboard.earth. She teaches at U.C. Berkeley and mentors with Techstars. Rachel was on the founding team of Google.org and created the blueprint for a hybrid corporate philanthropy and investment fund focused on Global Development and Climate Change. While at Google, Rachel led International Business Operations in Emerging Markets, living and working in sub-Saharan Africa as Country Manager on the Africa Regional Leadership Team. |
Financial Performance
Impact Performance
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Percentage of Total Assets Under
Management that are Impact Investments: |
100%
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The primary impact objective for FullCycle aligns with UN SDG 13: Climate Change Mitigation - Climate Action. All investments are initially screened, and investment committee decisions are based upon an investment’s potential Carbon Return on Investment (“CROI-20”): CO2(e) tons saved during lifetime per $1,000 invested (GWP 20). We prioritize opportunities to invest in technologies targeting Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs). SLCPs are potent greenhouse gases that are 86 -1,300 times more heat-trapping than CO2 in the first 20 years of emissions. They make up 24% of atmospheric greenhouse gases but are responsible for 47% of global warming to date. Examples include methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases. The fund will abate CO2 and SLCPs by deploying and accelerating commercialization of low carbon infrastructure globally. In addition, we use secondary metrics to evaluate and report on investments, with an emphasis on gender equality and climate justice.
FullCycle selects investments based on expected contribution to total impact of the portfolio by setting benchmarks for the segment based on similar levels of impact, risk and financial return (i.e. waste management project assets in developing markets). We then estimate Portfolio Impact using Benchmarks and calculate total expected impact to see how funds should be strategically allocated by company (and associated projects) within each sector. Each potential investment is assessed against benchmarks. Once investments are made, we generate a new impact model based on the expected impact of the projects/platforms and compare this number to the initial projections based on the benchmarks. Doing this allows us to monitor expected under and over-performance and helps create benchmarks. We then incorporate actual impact results, which are collected on a regular basis and inputted into the portfolio model. As more actual impact results are incorporated, benchmarks are revised for greater accuracy.
Impact Tracking and Monitoring
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1620 26th St. Suite 1060N, Santa Monica, CA 90405 USA
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