OurCrowd, Waterfund launch new water investment platform
Waterfund committed $50 million of capital to the OurCrowd managed portfolio, with an initial investment completed in Plenty, Inc., a vertical farming leader.
By ZEV STUBFuture Crops will set up a farm to grow vertical agriculture in the UAE(photo credit: Courtesy)OurCrowd and Waterfund said Monday they will build a dedicated investment portfolio of 15 leading water and agricultural technology companies.Waterfund committed $50 million of capital to the OurCrowd managed portfolio, with an initial investment completed in Plenty, Inc., a vertical farming leader.The companies also announced that they are jointly working on a water-focused financial product platform called Aquantos, which they said will "pioneer the issuance of Blue Bonds and other innovative water investment products."“We are working to issue Blue Bonds that can be both climate bonds-certified and backed by sovereign or sub-sovereign borrowers," said Scott Rickards, CEO of Waterfund. "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.” Sustainable investing assets now total more than $30 trillion globally, with 34% growth over the past two years, According to Morgan Stanley research cited by the companies. In the United States alone, $12 trillion is sustainably invested, they added.“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 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," said Jon Medved, Founder & CEO of OurCrowd. "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."
