Climate change

Climate change advice Pollination attracts investment from ANZ

ANZ Banking Group has taken a minority stake in sustainability investment and consultancy firm Pollination, with the complementary partnership to accelerate the company’s net zero aspirations.

Specialist climate change investment and advisory Pollination has attracted a $50 million investment from Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) banking group as part of its Series B funding round, with the strategic partnership aimed at supporting clients banking institutions in their decarbonization efforts in the transition to net-zero.

As part of the transaction, ANZ will acquire an estimated 12% stake in Pollination and a seat on the consultancy firm’s board.

Pollination was founded in 2019 by Tony O’Sullivan and Martijn Wilder, Baker & McKenzie’s former global head of climate change law and sustainable finance, and has since grown into a team of 120 experts in more than a dozen countries. , with offices in Sydney, London and Chicago. The company said ANZ’s investment will significantly accelerate its growth ambitions and expand Pollination’s impact and reach.

“Strategic partnerships are at the heart of Pollination’s impact model – they extend our reach and scale far beyond what we could achieve alone,” Wilder commented. “ANZ has a strong track record of delivering innovative sustainable financial products. With a presence in fourteen markets across Asia, it has exceptional reach where investing in decarbonization and nature is both critically important and a huge opportunity.

With a range of services that brings together expertise in strategic advice, finance, investment, technology and policy and law, Pollination’s partnership with ANZ (which was advised by Ashurst on the deal and Pollination by Hamilton Locke and BDA) will focus on supporting the transition needs of ANZ clients in areas such as sustainable finance, project and export finance, carbon markets and M&A advisory.

“We are delighted to partner with a team that has strong climate finance and investment expertise, deep relationships and business momentum,” said Mark Whelan, ANZ Group Director for Institutions and former CEO for Australia. “These credentials, combined with ANZ’s long-standing leadership position in the sustainable finance and debt capital markets, will provide significant opportunities for our clients.”

Speaking on the environmental investment landscape, Wilder and Whelan pointed to the $1.64 trillion in sustainable debt issuance last year, which was driven by an increase in sustainability-related loans and bonds and has more than doubled the 2020 figure. They also noted an International Energy Agency estimate that investment in clean energy will need to more than triple to around $4 trillion per year by 2030 for the world to reach net zero by 2050.

“The scale and urgency of climate change is clear, but despite trillions of dollars being spent on climate change, the money isn’t flowing fast enough, or in the right places,” co-founded Pollination, O’Sullivan, former lead investments. banking for Lazard, said at the time of the company’s launch, with the addition of Wilder; “The transition to net zero will be permanent. With courage and vision, we will revolutionize our economies.