JP Morgan Creates New Private Equity Team With Sustainability Focus

JP Morgan Asset Management has announced a new sustainability-focused growth private equity investment team.

The team will launch its first private equity strategy, focused on investing growth-stage private companies that drives resource efficiency and climate adaption solutions across a variety of industries.

The asset manager will invest $150 million into the team’s first investment strategy, making it one of its largest capital commitments ever made into an alternative investment strategy.

The team will sit within JP Morgan Private Capital, a growth and private credit investment platform that taps into the growth of private markets and pre-IPO value creation opportunities.

George Gatch, chief executive officer at JP Morgan Asset Management, said: "We are committed to playing a leading role in the transition to a low carbon economy and are proud to be part of a firm that has established a 10-year $2.5 trillion sustainable development target.

"We are in a unique position to leverage our global scale, data science capabilities, and the expertise of our sustainability leaders to source and invest in best-in-class companies driving the sustainable future."

To support the efforts, the asset manager hired Tanya Barnes as co-managing partner of the new team, alongside Osei Van Horne.

Barnes joins from Blackstone Group where she was most recently head of the Blackstone Impact Platform. Prior to this she was a managing director in the merchant banking division of Goldman Sachs, focused on executing direct private equity investments.

Dr. Sarah Kapnick, JP Morgan’s senior climate scientist and sustainability strategist will serve on the team’s investment committee and engage with portfolio companies.

Brian Carlin, chief executive officer at JP Morgan Private Capital, said: "Our new sustainable growth private equity team sits at the intersection of the two investing megatrends of our times – the massive opportunity and innovation required to address the sustainability transition, coupled with the ever-increasing demand from both individual and institutional investors to look beyond public markets.”

Last August, JP Morgan Asset Management was among 53 investors calling for more alignment on climate accountability and consistency.