Retail Employees Superannuation Trust, Sydney, committed A$50 million ($32 million) to the Octopus Australia Sustainable Investments Fund, run by Octopus Investments, according to a statement on Tuesday.
The fund invests in Australian assets that help with the renewable energy transition, including wind, solar and storage. This involves developing, constructing and operating these assets.
"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," said Andrew Lill, chief investment officer of Rest, in the statement.
"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," he said.
The initial A$50 million investment from Rest has potential to increase as Octopus' assets are moved into construction over the next six to 12 months, an Octopus Australia spokesman said.
In this second round of fundraising for the fund, Octopus Australia raised a total of A$250 million from investors, including existing cornerstone investors such as industry super fund Hostplus, Sydney, the Clean Energy Finance Corp. and Sky Renewables.
The total amount of funds raised since launch 12 months ago is now A$550 million. Octopus Australia is planning another fund raise in November that will bring the total amount to A$1 billion, the spokesman said.
The company currently owns the 180-megawatt Dulacca Wind Farm in Queensland, and is developing the 400MW Giffard Wind Farm in Victoria and the 400MW Hay Plains Wind Farm in New South Wales.
Rest has A$75 billion in assets and Octopus Australia has an operating portfolio of A$1.5 billion and a development portfolio of A$8 billion across wind, solar and storage.
