Capricorn Venture Partners holds final close of its Capricorn Sustainable Chemistry Fund at € 86.5 million adding new investors

7 January 2019

Leuven, Belgium: January 7, 2019 - Capricorn Venture Partners has successfully held the final closing of its Capricorn Sustainable Chemistry Fund ("CSCF") at € 86.5 million, adding over € 30 million to its committed capital. CSCF focuses on early and growth stage investments in the sustainable chemistry field. Demographic shifts, climate change and resource pressure drive a need for more sustainable resource use, improved processes, better materials and food & feed ingredients. Toyobo, a Japanese specialty chemicals company, A.S.R. Insurance and Belfius Insurance, respectively a Dutch and Belgian Insurance company and a Belgian family office led the capital contributions. They join existing investors Quest for Growth, Siam Cement Group of Thailand, the Belgian sovereign wealth fund FPIM-SPFI, PMV and SRIW, the investment companies of respectively the Flemish and Walloon region, entrepreneurs and another Belgian family office.Since its first close, the team already built a portfolio of four promising technology based companies, which already well represent the fund's diversified investment strategy. With Virovet (www.virovet.com), cLEcta (www.c-lecta.com), DMC-BIO (www.dmcbio.com) and Black Bear Carbon (www.blackbearcarbon.com), CSCF contributes to a sustainable protein supply chain, novel food & feed ingredient development, circular economy and efficient resource use in both early and growth stage companies. Jos Peeters, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Capricorn Venture Partners says, "We already had a financially very strong shareholder base from which we can leverage significant co-investments. With the new shareholders we not only have strengthened the shareholder base from a financial point of view, but we also added strong industrial partners who bring insights and access to new markets and who can benefit from our presence in this emerging field for their own innovation strategy." Jacques van Rijckevorsel, chairman of the CSCF: "The added value of a fund investment strongly enhances the innovation capability of a corporate investor. It improves the reach of the innovation field, but it also broadens the view of the corporation beyond its current business areas. It provides a good view on technology and business possibilities that may arise beyond the horizon of the normal corporate business planning cycles and allow for early stage option development. We are proud to have two chemicals corporates on board, from Thailand and Japan, supporting not only the global reach of CSCF, but also illustrating the upcoming business shift to emerging markets in the chemicals world."