BofA, SMI and Eurazeo Launch $40 Million Biodiversity Fund

Bank of America, the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) and French investment firm Eurazeo have launched a new biodiversity fund with $40 million in committed capital. The Lighthouse Initiative will finance nature restoration and biodiversity protection projects, with Bank of America and Eurazeo acting as cornerstone investors.

The figure is a starting point. The fund is structured to attract further investment by bringing in new partners in order to increase its scale, according to the announcement. No target size for the expanded vehicle was disclosed.

Eurazeo will manage the fund within its Future Industries Fund III. Investments will be monitored through the firm's existing impact framework, enhanced with dedicated biodiversity indicators, including a biodiversity footprint assessment.

What will the fund invest in?

The investment strategy concentrates on four areas:

• Ecosystem protection and restoration through regenerative agriculture and forestry
• Supporting the transition of industries and supply chains to more sustainable materials and processes
• Developing financing platforms to attract institutional and public capital into nature-related projects
• Technologies for measuring, monitoring and verifying biodiversity outcomes

The initiative will take minority positions. Its investments will target project development platforms and technology-based solutions across both developed and emerging markets.

Matthieu Bonamy, Partner Future Industries at Eurazeo, framed the commercial case for the vehicle.

"Nature is the foundation of the industries we invest in, yet biodiversity remains one of the most underfunded investment themes," Bonamy said. "With this initiative, we want to demonstrate that protecting and restoring Nature makes commercial sense, at scale."

How does the fund align with global targets?

The initiative aligns with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the global agreement reached at the COP15 biodiversity summit. Each investment is expected to contribute to at least one of the framework's targets, including the goal of conserving and managing at least 30% of the world's land, inland waters, coastal and marine areas by 2030.

The initiative also supports the objectives of SMI's Terra Carta, the sustainable business charter that aims to place sustainability at the center of private sector activities.

SMI is a global sustainability coalition launched by King Charles III. Jennifer Jordan-Saifi, President and Global Envoy of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, positioned the fund within the coalition's broader mandate.

"The Lighthouse Initiative's launch represents the global economic leadership and impact of the Sustainable Markets Initiative," Jordan-Saifi said. "Nature is a fundamental pillar of our mandate and is the true engine of our economy. The Lighthouse Initiative will mobilise much needed private capital into Nature and Nature-based solutions. It represents our unique ability to harness the power of the private sector to deliver results for Nature, people and planet."

What comes next?

The immediate milestone is the recruitment of additional investors beyond the two cornerstones, which will determine whether the $40 million base grows into a vehicle of institutional scale. Market watchers will also track the first minority investments from the fund, and whether the biodiversity footprint assessment and the framework's other indicators produce verifiable, reported outcomes against the 2030 conservation targets.

For the material transition segment of the strategy, the fund's deployment into sustainable materials and supply chain processes represents a direct capital link between biodiversity commitments and industrial feedstocks. The pace of those deals will show whether private capital can be moved into nature at the scale the initiative's backers envision.