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Sustainable Development Capital LLP Announces Minority Investment from General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero Fund

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General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero fund is to acquire 24.9% of SDCL, subject to regulatory approvalAs part of its investment, General Atlantic BeyondNetZero Managing Director Michael Bevan will join SDCL’s board of directorsSeparately, Tony Davis, CEO & CIO of Inherent Group and a co-founder of Anchorage Capital Group, has become a shareholder of SDCL and will serve as an advisor to the CompanyThese investments reinforce SDCL’s position as a preeminent investment firm focused on efficient and decentralised generation of energy (“EDGE”) markets

LONDON and NEW YORK , June 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Sustainable Development Capital LLP (“SDCL” or the “Company”), a market leading developer, investor and fund manager focused on energy efficiency and decarbonisation solutions globally, is pleased to announce a minority investment from General Atlantic, a leading global growth investor, through the firm’s BeyondNetZero climate growth fund. General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero fund is to acquire 24.9% of SDCL, subject to regulatory approval. The transaction is expected to complete in the coming months.

SDCL’s core strategy is to develop and invest in sustainable energy infrastructure assets that reduce cost and carbon emissions and improve the reliability of energy supply to a diverse range of customers. SDCL, which has assets under management of $2.5 billion, has a proven track record in delivering solutions for major technology, healthcare, commercial, industrial, and public sector clients. Solutions include enterprise and hyper-scale data centres, hospitals, heavy and light industrial facilities, universities, warehouses, and hotels.

The Company deploys a wide range of commercially proven technologies such as on-site renewables including solar paired with storage, renewable heat and cogeneration, as well as energy conservation measures such as LED lighting, energy efficient heating and cooling, motors, building management systems and controls. Notable clients have included Citigroup, Santander, the UK National Health Service, the Irish Health Service Executive, Tesco, Rolls Royce, ArcelorMittal, and Panasonic.

General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero fund combines the firm’s global platform and growth orientation with a dedicated team of investors and industry executives across the climate and energy sectors. The fund identifies and supports growth companies delivering innovative climate solutions that have the potential to meet and exceed net-zero emissions targets, with a focus on decarbonization, energy efficiency, resource conservation and emissions management. Following this new investment, General Atlantic will partner with SDCL to support the buildout of the Company’s operating capabilities to help drive its next phase of expansion.

As part of the transaction, General Atlantic Managing Director Michael Bevan will join SDCL’s board of directors. Mr. Bevan brings with him over 25 years of experience exclusively focused on sustainable growth investing. Previously, he was a General Partner at Element Partners, a firm dedicated to growth equity investing in environmental businesses.

In addition to the investment from General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero fund, Tony Davis, CEO & CIO of Inherent Group and a co-founder of Anchorage Capital Group, will also become a shareholder of the Company and act as an advisor to the firm.

Jonathan Maxwell, CEO of Sustainable Development Capital LLP, said: “SDCL is delighted to partner with General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero team. We believe that resource efficiency is key to sustainability and that energy efficiency is one of the largest, fastest, cheapest, and cleanest source of greenhouse gas emission reductions, energy cost reductions and energy security.[1] The world cannot reach net zero, or beyond, without it. This fact is key to SDCL and BeyondNetZero’s strategies.

“Supported by General Atlantic’s vision, track record and expertise in technology and investment, BeyondNetZero is a complementary partner to help SDCL deliver on its ambitions to develop and invest in the most efficient and decentralized energy solutions for our clients, and to continue to deliver strong and sustainable returns for our investors in doing so.

We’re also delighted to have welcomed Tony Davis onboard as a shareholder, whose considerable expertise in sustainable investing and private equity will help support the SDCL Private Equity and its infrastructure investment teams.”

Michael Bevan, Managing Director at General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero, said: “We are excited to support Jonathan and the SDCL team in their mission to develop scalable net zero solutions. Energy efficiency is a critical, but too often overlooked, component of the solution set that will enable the global energy economy to transition to net-zero, and we believe this market needs both real asset capital and growth equity to power transformational change. SDCL has built a differentiated platform led by a leading management team that has a demonstrable track record of execution and returns. We look forward to helping SDCL scale its ability to provide capital solutions of all kinds to clients across the energy efficiency markets.”

Emanuel Citron, Managing Partner of SDCL Private Equity, said, “Energy efficiency is as important to the energy transition as adding clean new supply. SDCL is expert in developing and managing sustainable energy projects for critical uses, and as asset owners, we know which technologies, services and software are critical to their efficient operation. We have known the BeyondNetZero team for years and believe that with their partnership, we hope to back the best of these businesses and to enable the further scaling of energy efficiency solutions worldwide.” 

SDCL was represented by Herbert Smith Freehills. Jefferies International Limited acted as sole financial adviser to SDCL on the transaction. General Atlantic was represented by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer with additional support from Deloitte.

General Atlantic joins Emigrant Partners, a New York based strategic capital provider that invested into SDCL in 2022, as an investor in the Company.

Jenny Souza, CEO & President of Emigrant Partners said, “We are thrilled to see SDCL continue to experience impressive growth and success, while also being such a thoughtful and impactful organization. We have been tremendous believers in the SDCL leadership team and their long-term vision since we first provided strategic capital to SDCL in 2022; we are excited to continue our partnership with the SDCL team alongside General Atlantic.”

Notes to editors

About Sustainable Development Capital LLP

SDCL was established in 2007 and has a proven track record of financing and developing clean energy, energy efficiency, and decentralised energy infrastructure projects in the UK, Continental Europe, North America, and Asia. SDCL is headquartered in London and has an AUM of over $2.5 billion. The group and its investment vehicles also operate worldwide from offices in New York, Greenwich, Dublin, Hong Kong, and Singapore. SDCL is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority. SDCL’s Founder and CEO is Jonathan Maxwell, whose book, ‘The Edge: how competition for resources is pushing the world, and its climate, to the brink, and what we can do about it’ was published in 2023.

About General Atlantic and BeyondNetZero

General Atlantic is a leading global growth investor with more than four decades of experience providing capital and strategic support for over 500 growth companies throughout its history. Established in 1980 to partner with visionary entrepreneurs and deliver lasting impact, the firm combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to scale innovative businesses around the world. BeyondNetZero is the climate growth fund of General Atlantic that invests in growth companies delivering innovative climate solutions that have the potential to meet and exceed net-zero emissions targets, with a focus on decarbonization, energy efficiency, resource conservation and emissions management. General Atlantic has approximately $84 billion in assets under management inclusive of all products as of March 31, 2024, and more than 300 investment professionals. For more information on General Atlantic, please visit: www.generalatlantic.com.

[1]  https://www.iea.org/commentaries/how-energy-efficiency-will-power-net-zero-climate-goals

 

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IronNet Inc. and Asterion Partner to Strengthen Cybersecurity and Counter-UAS Defense Solutions

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WASHINGTON and MANAMA, Bahrain, Nov. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — IronNet, the AI-based collective defense cybersecurity company, and Asterion, a leader in counter-UAS technology, announced today at the Bahrain International Airshow a partnership on the protection of critical infrastructure through the integration of AI-based cybersecurity and counter-UAS solutions.

This collaboration addresses the growing need for comprehensive and integrated defense strategies, representing a significant milestone in the evolution of air and space security. To enhance defense capabilities against unauthorized and hostile drones, the partnership integrates IronNet’s IronDome solution with Asterion’s advanced counter-UAS technology, delivering a layered defense framework that strengthens the protection of critical infrastructure, urban environments, and national borders.

The partnership integrates IronNet’s “IronDome” real-time cyber threat detection and coordinated response with Asterion’s drone detection and tracking systems, protecting airspace and critical assets from potential threats.

The methodology employs artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced sensor networks to analyze patterns and anomalies across a broad range of data sources. The result is a more robust and proactive defense system capable of identifying and mitigating threats before they can cause significant damage.

“Our partnership with Asterion represents a paradigm shift in how we approach critical infrastructure protection,” said Linda Zecher, CEO of IronNet. “By embracing the convergence of cyber and aerial threat detection and defense, governments and organizations can ensure a more comprehensive and effective approach to safeguarding critical infrastructure and national interests.”

“Together we’re creating a solution that addresses the multi-dimensional threats facing our clients today, including those originating from both ground, air and space-based sources,” said Andreas Mustert, Asterion Founder and CTO

About IronNet 

Founded in 2014, IronNet combines cutting-edge cybersecurity technology with exceptional expertise to deliver advanced, real-time defense solutions for organizations across the private and public sectors worldwide. Leveraging a team of top-tier cybersecurity specialists from industry, government, and academia, IronNet is dedicated to protecting enterprises, critical infrastructure, and nations against highly organized and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. With its industry-leading products and innovative approach, IronNet empowers clients to stay ahead of evolving cyber adversaries.

About Asterion 

A team of sensor, wireless IP and aircraft design specialists, all with outstanding track-records in their fields, have gathered in Asterion to follow a vision of creating a system of a fully networked early risk detection and game changing, collateral damage avoiding, protection of both local high-risk assets as well as long range border crossing threats, through groundbreaking efficiency and EW protected wireless communications. Rather than considering current risks, contemplating any conceivable future countermeasures is an important part of Asterion’s mission.

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Laconic and the Plurinational State of Bolivia announce landmark 5 Billion USD Sovereign Carbon Transaction

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CHICAGO and LA PAZ, Bolivia, Nov. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Laconic Infrastructure Partners Inc. (Laconic), announced today that it has been mandated by the Plurinational State of Bolivia to utilize its SADAR™ Natural Capital Monetization (NCM) platform to provide technology transfer in support of Bolivia’s capacity building initiatives as it seeks to finance the enhanced ambition set forth in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

By using Laconic’s first-of-its-kind carbon securitization platform, multiple large-scale environmental data streams will be aggregated to monetize up to 5BN USD of Bolivia’s present & future carbon stocks in the world’s first Article 6 compliant benchmark Sovereign Carbon sale.

“The Plurinational State of Bolivia is committed to completely ending deforestation within our territorial borders by 2030”, said Marcelo Montenegro Gomez Garcia, Minister of Economy & Public Finance. “By working with Laconic, we have been able, for the first time, to generate sufficient development financing to enable our country to make this commitment a reality and enhancing our ambition under the Paris Agreement. This benefits not only our own citizens, but all of mankind, as we collectively strive to meet NetZero 2050.”

By creating its unique Sovereign Carbon product, Laconic has revolutionized financial intermediation in the global carbon market by allowing carbon to be traded as a true financial asset for the first time. This capability allows governments to efficiently monetize their natural capital assets by issuing bona fide securities to institutional buyers at scale globally.

The Sovereign Carbon market is the only mechanism capable of generating the 1 Trillion USD of carbon trading required annually for mankind to achieve its collective NetZero pledge.

Laconic’s unique technology platform, SADAR™, works continuously to manage the data streams which the Sovereign Carbon product requires – ensuring compliance with the not only the Paris Agreement itself, but all applicable local and regional regulatory authorities governing the carbon market. Governments rely on Laconic to ensure seamless compliance with their treaty commitments, allowing them to focus on further enhancing their NDC ambitions and accelerating the pace of global decarbonization.

“Laconic is honored to be working with the Plurinational State of Bolivia to champion the innovative Sovereign Carbon market”, said Andrew Gilmour, CEO of Laconic. “This transaction demonstrates the power of technology to drive change in emerging markets finance, as, for the first time, we are able to collectively harness market forces to generate more economic growth from the preservation of natural capital assets than from the exploitation of them. Put simply – our technology has made it possible to make more money preserving your forests than you can by cutting them down.”

About Laconic
Laconic delivers accurate environmental intelligence, data management tools, and geospatially-fused insights that enable governments, corporations, and financial institutions to engage fairly in data interchange activities that facilitate open and compliant capital markets activity in carbon-linked instruments.

Founded in 2021, the company is a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) headquartered in Chicago, with offices in Toronto, London, and Singapore.

For more information, please visit www.laconicglobal.com.

Laconic and SADAR (Sentient All-Domain Augmented Response), LUEI, and LUCID are trademarks or registered trademarks of Laconic Infrastructure Partners Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Media contacts:
Laconic
Brant Pinvidic
brant.pinvidic@laconicglobal.com

Elke Heiss
Elke.heiss@laconicglobal.com

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Kyndryl Unveils Dedicated AI Private Cloud in Japan to Accelerate Customer Deployment of AI Services

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Kyndryl AI private cloud supports customer testing and adoption using the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA

Private AI cloud is also available to Japanese academic institutions for AI research and innovation

TOKYO, Nov. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Kyndryl (NYSE: KD), the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider, today launched a dedicated AI private cloud designed to enable AI innovation in Japan. Supported by a collaboration with Dell Technologies using the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, Kyndryl is establishing a controlled, security-rich and sovereign cloud where organizations can develop, test and implement AI services that expand their ability to compete and accelerate business performance.

Kyndryl’s new AI private cloud in Japan will help financial institutions, insurance providers, manufacturers, retail companies, and academics to confidently design and prepare to deploy innovative AI-powered solutions.

Under the collaboration, Kyndryl is establishing a Kyndryl Vital AI Lab capability that will leverage the AI-powered open integration digital business platform, Kyndryl Bridge, to support end-to-end AI applications and solution development on the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform. Kyndryl experts will assist with envisioning and co-creating solutions that harness the benefits of generative AI and large language models to drive innovation and achieve business objectives. Kyndryl also will apply the domain and industry expertise of Kyndryl Consult to advance customers’ ability to create, verify and deliver AI at scale.

“Organizations want to explore and understand how AI and generative AI can enhance and accelerate their business and technology transformation initiatives. They need a reliable and scalable environment with advanced security capabilities where they can develop, test and refine new solutions,” said Jonathan Ingram, President, Kyndryl Japan. “Our new AI private cloud with the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA will provide a stable and trusted space where customers and Japanese academic institutions can confidently and privately design new applications and solutions, with support for their security, sovereignty, and data residency requirements.”

Customers using the AI private cloud environment also can access Kyndryl’s decades of experience supporting and managing mission critical applications and systems. The collaboration also will leverage Kyndryl’s ongoing work with NVIDIA that is focused on driving the development, implementation and use of solutions that deliver AI-powered insights and business outcomes.

“The Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA integrates Dell’s leading AI portfolio with the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, providing Kyndryl customers the option to procure an end-to-end, pre-validated, full stack infrastructure,” said Kyle Dufresne, SVP, AI solutions sales, Dell Technologies. “With this collaboration, Kyndryl customers can get started on a wide range of AI and generative AI use cases that require security and performance, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), model training, and inferencing.”

“Enterprises need next-gen expertise and skills to drive innovation within their businesses and tackle today’s AI challenges,” said Bob Pette, Vice President of Enterprise Platforms, NVIDIA. “The combination of Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA and Kyndryl’s infrastructure services experience will provide the technical foundation and know-how that organizations require to develop and deploy AI at scale.”

Kyndryl will support a variety of customer use cases via its AI private cloud and plans to explore ways the environment can be optimized to enable efficient workload orchestration and workload placement, along with examining how it can enable fractional GPU capabilities to support more granular control over computing resources. 

To accelerate customer adoption and implementation of generative AI solutions Kyndryl also plans to leverage NVIDIA NeMo, NVIDIA NeMo Retriever and NVIDIA NIM microservices, all part of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise platform for the development and deployment of production-grade generative AI applications. This will advance customers’ ability to transform the build, operation and scale-out of an AI factory, leveraging AI integrations across the NVIDIA stack for smooth performance of the AI private cloud.

Through Kyndryl’s new dedicated private AI cloud service, customers can tap into a wealth of expertise crucial to their adoption of AI at scale, with support for their data security, sovereignty, and residency requirements.

Learn more about Kyndryl’s collaborations with Dell and NVIDIA.

About Kyndryl
Kyndryl (NYSE: KD) is the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider, serving thousands of enterprise customers in more than 60 countries. The company designs, builds, manages and modernizes the complex, mission-critical information systems that the world depends on every day. For more information, visit www.kyndryl.com.

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements often contain words such as “will,” “anticipate,” “predict,” “project,” “plan,” “forecast,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “target,” “may,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “outlook” and other similar words or expressions or the negative thereof or other variations thereon. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, including without limitation statements representing management’s beliefs about future events, transactions, strategies, operations and financial results, may be forward-looking statements. These statements do not guarantee future performance and speak only as of the date of this press release and the Company does not undertake to update its forward-looking statements. Actual outcomes or results may differ materially from those suggested by forward-looking statements as a result of risks and uncertainties including those described in the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kyndryl Press Contact
press@kyndryl.com 

 

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