Lukas Walton, the grandson of Walmart Inc. founder, Sam Walton has joined around nine other family offices and private foundations in backing a $25 million fund aimed at strengthening the ‘circular economy’ which minimalizes waste.
This fund is the last of the two funds raised by Circulate Capital, a Singapore-based investment firm that focuses on climate-change mitigating technologies. These technologies include extremely efficient recycling, and the development of insulation materials, and sustainable textiles. Circulate raised about $106 million in 2019 from PepsiCo Inc., Chanel, Procter & Gamble, among other corporations for fund-targeting recycling companies based in Asia, and working to reduce ocean-bound plastic waste.
The money raised in the final and new round will be used for direct investments in climate-tech startups, and towards Asian recycling companies. The former will start with three companies in the U.S, Arzeda, a biotech company based in Seattle, a Virginia-based recycling technology company Circ, and Phase Change Solutions, a company that makes plant-based temperature-stabilizing materials in North Carolina.
Circulate’s chief executive office, Rob Kaplan said that the latest round was raised from private capital, such as family offices unlike the first fund, where corporations where the sole investors.
Kaplan said in an interview that he jumped at the opportunity “to build those bridges with the private investment community,” when private investors began to approach Circulate a year ago.
“We knew early on it was going to take a lot more than $100 million to solve this problem,” said Kaplan. “It was going to take many, many billions of dollars,” he added.
Other investors in the round include a charitable foundation of Angela C. Huang a former Hillhouse Capital Director and trader Geo Chen, as well as the family office of real estate investor, Stanley Tan.
Kaplan sad that he met Lukas Walton around 2014 when he was working as director of sustainability for Walmart. Lukas is 31 years old, and the only child of Sam’s late son, John and his wife Christy with a net worth of $21.6 billion. In recent years, he has emerged as a significant promoter of green technologies, and other ventures regarding sustainability. Apart from his stake in Walmart, he also owns shares worth about $500 million in First Solar Inc.
Lukas formed Builders several years ago. It was he entity through which he made investments in Circulate. Based in Chicago, Builders invests in for-profit and non-profit companies that work to address societal and environmental problems, such as food insecurity, and overfishing. The organization has committed about $2 billion in charitable capital over the last three years, and has also made $1 billion since 2014 in direct investments.
Builder’s Circulate investment was made through a new fund it created that focused on ocean health. According to Builder’s senior program officer, Peter Bryant, Circulate’s strategy “is aligned with ours to capture opportunities at the nexus of climate innovation and circular plastics.”
Many family offices are boosting their allocations to climate-friendly investments as opportunities for investment strategies arise. Many are already showing great potential. The billionaire investor Jeremy Grantham who predicted the dangers of climate change said that his venture-capital portfolio returned 102% led by his green investments.
‘Walmart Heir Joins Family Offices in Fund to Eradicate Waste‘- Devon Pendleton, Bloomberg Wealth
