Israel-based investment platform OurCrowd recently announced that they will build a dedicated investment portfolio of 15 leading water and agricultural technology companies. The water management company Waterfund committed $50 million of capital to the OurCrowd managed portfolio; with an initial investment in the indoor vertical farming company Plenty Inc.
The companies also announced that they are jointly working on an innovative water-focused platform called Aquantos; a financial product platform that will issue Blue Bonds alongside other innovative water investment products.
Scott Rickards, CEO of Waterfund, said: “We are working to issue Blue Bonds that can be both climate bonds-certified and backed by sovereign or sub-sovereign borrowers. This new financial tool and others are being designed to enable water projects in the Middle East to acquire leading technologies to address water scarcity in a fundamentally new way.”
According to Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, sustainable investing assets now total more than $30 trillion globally – up 34% over the last two years. In the United States alone, one in four dollars – roughly equating to $12 trillion – is sustainably invested.
“In 2016, the Paris Agreement heightened interest in green bonds; in the years since, we’ve seen a spike in companies, municipalities, sovereigns and banks issuing green bonds. We expect that demand for next-generation water-oriented bond products will see similar growth,” Rickards continues.
“The lack of private capital has held back the huge growth potential of the water innovation sector. Waterfund’s partnership with OurCrowd is designed to solve those challenges by offering equity investments in innovative tech companies and debt financing to carefully selected projects and water-saving technologies. Waterfund is constantly seeking innovations to attract private capital to water,” Rickards added.
Jon Medved, Founder & CEO of OurCrowd, said: “The Abraham Accords present a huge opportunity to bring new water and agricultural technology to the water scarcity challenges of the entire Middle East. Alongside Waterfund, it is our mission to invest in and help build game-changing technology companies. We are excited to be working together with Waterfund to drive more private capital to address the critical challenges of water.”
