Octopus Australia has secured a new commitment from Rest, one of Australia’s largest profit-to-member superannuation funds.
This comes as it closes the second round of fundraising for its flagship renewable energy fund, the Octopus Australia Sustainable Investments Fund (OASIS).
OASIS provides local and international institutional investors with exposure to Australia’s renewable energy transition.
The fund invests in assets across wind, solar and storage from development through to construction and operations.
Rest is a A$75bn (€45bn) super fund with more than 1.9m members, including more than a million aged 30 or younger.
In addition to this commitment, existing cornerstone investors in OASIS, including Hostplus, the CEFC and Sky Renewables, followed on from their first round with an additional A$200m.
This brings the total funds raised by Octopus Australia across its renewables platform to A$550m in just over 12 months since inception.
With this second close milestone, Octopus Australia now manages A$1bn in operating and construction assets, A$4.2bn of projects under development and a further A$1.3bn under exclusivity.
So far this year, Octopus Australia has secured development rights to the 400MW Hay Plains wind farm in New South Wales.
Andrew Lill, Rest Chief Investment Officer, said: “Rest represents more than a million members aged 30 or younger who will retire after the year 2050.
“We have strong conviction that responsible investing adds value.
“OASIS is expected to enhance our members’ long-term financial interests and help shape Australia’s energy transition through a pipeline of solar, wind and storage infrastructure projects.
“This investment will also contribute to Rest’s objective to achieve a net zero carbon footprint for the fund by 2050 and is a welcome continuation of our plan to increase our allocation to climate-related solutions.”