DOWNLOAD: H1 fundraising falls to lowest level for more than a decade

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Fundraising for agrifood and forestry funds in H1 2023 dropped to $1.4 billion, down from $2.5 billion in H1 2022 and $4.4 billion in 2021, according to Agri Investor’s inaugural fundraising report.

The capital raised for H1 2023 represents the lowest half-year fundraising figure since 2011, when the market collected $1.2 billion.

The Agri Investor data presented in this report counts the final closes of all closed-ended funds and vehicles dedicated to agrifood and forestry. The numbers also take into account separate accounts and co-investment funds.

We have excluded vehicles that invest into agrifood and forestry assets opportunistically, which is why the numbers presented here are lower than those available on our full online database.

Despite the low fundraising total for H1 2023, an average vehicle size of $220 million represents an increase on the H1 average of $161 million in 2022. The full-year average vehicle size in 2022 was $162 million, while the full-year average figure for 2021 stood at $181 million and was $165 million in 2020.

Overall fundraising figures for 2023 – particularly those for average vehicle size – could be impacted dramatically by decisions at Paine Schwartz Partners. The firm’s 2022-vintage Food Chain VI vehicle has already taken $1.6 billion in commitments against a $1.5 billion fundraising target. If the firm chooses to close the fund before year-end, it would singlehandedly more than double the H1 take ($1.4 billion) and result in a big upswing in the average vehicle size figure ($220 million).

On a sectoral basis, agribusiness strategies have dominated the fundraising landscape in the last five years and represented 66 percent of all capital raised by agrifood and forestry vehicles in 2022.

Timberland’s growing attractiveness is well represented in this report. However, as we are focusing on closed-ended vehicles, we are unable to capture direct investments from undisclosed capital pools, or GP stake acquisitions such as those completed by JPMorgan in 2021 and BNP Paribas AM in 2022.

Check out our interactive fundraising report above for the full breakdown of fundraising activity in H1. You can also download a PDF of the report HERE and download the data HERE.