January 30, 2024

Newsletter Jan. 2024

Building on a year of positive momentum

As a new year begins, we would like to take a moment to reflect on an eventful year 2023 that culminated in the successful closing of Vidia Climate Fund I, exceeding its target at a hard cap of €415 million. Given the current economic climate, this is a massive milestone for the entire Vidia Equity team. The oversubscribed fund received strong interest from investors globally, attracting sizeable commitments from highly regarded European and North American institutional LPs, including public pension funds, insurers, global PE consultants, endowments and foundations. We are incredibly grateful for the trust and confidence placed in our team and our strategic vision to deliver ambitious decarbonization targets alongside financial outperformance for our investors.

Closed just before Christmas, we are delighted to announce the latest addition to the Vidia portfolio. Wierig Group is a leading service provider for large industrial flat roofs, complementing energetic refurbishment with the installation of solar systems and other alternative energy systems – a rapidly growing market. The investment follows the acquisition of Best Plastic Management, a specialized plastic recycling company. Both companies exemplify Vidia’s investment sweet spot in the DACH midcap market: Significant scale-up and climate impact opportunities, presenting collinearity between impact and financial return potential.

Both deals were either sourced off-market or in eventually close-to-exclusive situations thanks to our strategic approach to lead generation. In the face of economic fluctuations, the robust deal flow seen throughout 2023 underscored both the resilience of impact assets entering the market as well as the effectiveness of our proprietary subsector research approach to identify hidden climate champions.

With platform investments and add-ons underway, we continued to expand our team, bringing our headcount to 18. Most recently, Philip Hattemer and Nicolas Corsi joined Vidia from BCG. In addition, Josef Art joined Best Plastic Management as Portfolio Company Officer, driving the buy-and-build strategy as well as operational expansion of the platform. We are actively searching for further additions to our investment, impact and operations teams, plus roles in HR, finance and investor relations.

Given the urgent need to drive decarbonization of global value chains, it is an extremely exciting time to be investing into climate solutions. Vidia is built for capturing this opportunity and we as a team are entering the new year fueled by a clear sense of purpose. Thank you for supporting us on this journey.

Johanna Struthmann
Founder

VIDIA News

INVESTMENT INTO Wierig: Unlocking scale to accelerate
Germany’s energy transition

Germany is ambitious about its energy transition, especially for solar energy. The federal government aims to have 215 GW of solar capacity by 2030, more than a third of the total installation target for the European Union. To reach this goal, the rate of installation needs to triple from its 2022 figure.

Politicians are legislating to make it happen. Last August, the federal government unveiled a new solar policy package, while several states have made solar systems mandatory on new and refurbished buildings.

The second addition to the Vidia Climate Fund I portfolio is well positioned to succeed in this environment. Wierig Group (“Wierig”) is a leading service provider in the large industrial flat roofs sector. Based on its renowned expertise in the field of energetic roof maintenance and refurbishment, Wierig is also active in the installation of solar and other alternative energy systems.

Founded 130 years ago, Wierig employs about 210 people across five locations in Germany. Its geographic reach and combined expertise of refurbishment and installation make its services attractive to large blue-chip clients.

 

Driving decarbonization through solar installation and roof refurbishment

As is typical of Vidia’s investments, Wierig presents a decarbonization opportunity as well as a commercial one. Much of the execution needed to meet Germany’s energy transition ambitions will be done by the industrial sector. Wierig is well positioned to meet the growing demand for energetic refurbishment and solar installation and help Germany transition away from fossil fuels.

“For us, impact and returns go hand in hand,” says Johanna Struthmann, Founding Partner of Vidia. “With every additional roof refurbished and every solar panel installed by Wierig, the business scales and the amount of renewable energy produced in Germany increases. We’re looking forward to partnering with management and the current owners to take Wierig to the next stage.”

 

Wierig’s path to growth

Vidia’s growth strategy for Wierig is based on two pillars.

The first involves realizing untapped operational potential in the existing business. For example, adopting a structured sales approach will help increase the number of leads generated, while removing operational bottlenecks will create capacity to service more clients. There is also scope for complementing and adding second-level management to free up the C-suite to focus on strategy, business development and management of key accounts.

The second pillar is value creation through selected add-on acquisitions, aided by the fragmented nature of the roofing as well as the solar installation market. This could improve inorganic growth by boosting capacity, extending regional coverage and unlocking synergies.

“Germany’s energy transition is a massive opportunity for Wierig to grow as a business and play an even bigger role in decarbonizing the economy,” says Thomas Wierig. “Vidia is the entrepreneurial partner we need to make the most out of this moment. We’re confident Vidia’s experience and hands-on approach will help us achieve the scale we’re capable of.”

VIDIA Blog

OVERSUBSCRIBED VIDIA CLIMATE FUND I CLOSES AT €415M HARD CAP

Vidia’s Climate Fund I received strong interest from investors globally with significant commitments from highly regarded institutional investors. Fund I has already made two investments.

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VIDIA IMPACT PERSPECTIVE – IMPACT ATTRIBUTION

Companies that contribute to the reduction of GHG emissions face methodological challenges in assessing their impact contribution. In this article, Vidia explains its approach to attributing the impact of climate protection and overcoming these challenges.

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CO-LINEARITY OF CLIMATE IMPACT AND FINANCIAL RETURNS

Vidia’s investment strategy focuses on achieving financial and impact goals by investing in and scaling climate solutions providers. Read more how Vidia supports portfolio management with its own experts for driving growth and emission reduction.

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OUR INVESTMENT CRITERIA

In this case study, we highlight our investment strategy, using BPM as an example to demonstrate how we formulate operational hypotheses, identify impact themes, and assess target companies for collinearity of impact and financial return.

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WE ARE HIRING

We are actively searching for additions to our investment, impact and operations teams, plus roles in HR, finance and investor relations.

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