The fund will look at relevant startups in Apac as well as companies from other geographies that could benefit from expanding into this region
[SINGAPORE] Octave Capital, formerly Heritas Capital, and Katapult Ocean are launching a new US$75 million impact fund, Asia Ocean Fund.
The fund will be focused on six areas – maritime decarbonisation, ocean restoration, biodiversity, circular economy, sustainable aquaculture and marine biotechnology. This Asia Ocean Fund will tap into a nascent area here in Asia-Pacific.
“There has been a rise in the blue economy space and with climate change, what we see is quite a number of opportunities in which the blue ocean will be more and more important,” May Liew, CEO of Octave Capital, told The Business Times.
The fund will tap Octave’s networks and its backer Tsao Pao Chee, a family firm which owns IMC’s shipping business, to get users or customers for future portfolio companies. This made partnering Octave a natural choice for Katapult.
“Combining our strengths felt like a natural fit – Octave brings deep expertise and networks in Asia and shipping, particularly in China, while we bring ocean impact experience from Europe and the US,” said Maureen Bresil, associate director for Katapult Ocean Asia.
The fund will look at relevant startups in Apac as well as companies from other geographies that could benefit from expanding into this region.
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“We envision expanding our portfolio companies who are ready and willing to scale their impact in the region, enriching the fund’s reach and relevance,” said Bresil.
The fund will allocate 25 per cent of its monies to an accelerator targeting early stage companies to commercialise their solutions and fine-tune their business models. The remaining capital will be used to invest in companies coming up through the accelerator pipeline and other firms that have solutions that fit in Apac.
Octave and Katapult will jointly manage the fund on a 50/50 basis, and expects to partner with foundations, family offices and high-net-worth individuals who have an interest in ocean restoration and ocean health.
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“We have actually built a very strong pipeline of companies within Asia-Pacific as well as companies that are in the US and Europe who are really eager to enter this market that we will be able to invest in when we have our fund ready,” said Liew.
Success for Octave will go beyond just financial metrics, but the impact the solution creates. This includes factors from the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to microplastics diverted from nature.
“We will measure success by the amplified impact created through such investments,” said Bresil.
This is the first fund Octave is launching since rebranding from Heritas Capital in August. The rebrand was done to sharpen the focus as an impact investor, with the name inspired by music.
“(Octave) carried within it both structure, resonance, intention and harmony,” said Liew.
With the rebrand, it is about doing it in collaboration with partners, as well as finding harmony and rhythm within the ecosystem. Octave will invest in the six key pillars of healthcare, education, food security, energy transition, nature and climate.
This is an expansion of what Heritas used to invest in, which was mainly healthcare and education.
