Alantra advises Bridges Fund Management on its investment in Evora Global

Oct 2022

Buy-side advisory

London – Alantra, the global investment banking and asset management specialist, has advised Bridges Fund Management, a specialist sustainable and impact investor, on its investment in Evora Global (“Evora”).

Founded in 2011, Evora helps real estate companies with their ESG strategies, sustainable finance and climate risk management and disclosure, both through advisory services and use of its software, SIERA.

Evora already has a large roster of major clients, including Invesco Real Estate, Hines and M&G.

SIERA currently holds ESG data for over 8000 major buildings globally.  

The equity investment round will enable Evora to expand its offering to support clients globally, while further developing its tech platform.

The investment includes support from MSCI and Farview Equity which, along with Bridges, will each take a seat on the Evora board. The mission critical decision support tools, insights and market access provided by the consortium will further aid the business’ growth and maximise the value of its ESG and climate solutions to the global real asset investment community.

Evora, founded by Chris Bennett, Paul Sutcliffe and Ed Gabbitas, has rapidly grown over the past two years following the addition of key senior hires and as demand for action on sustainable finance and climate risk has risen up the agenda of corporations generally. The company has over 200 staff.

Bridges Fund Management was advised by Richard Holden, UK Head of Business Services, and Chris J. Bates.

Richard Holden, Partner and UK Head of Business Services, commented, “The Evora team have successfully managed to productise the key outcomes of their advisory business into a software tool that delivers improved and more automated ESG data retrieval and reporting to real estate funds. The business has only scratched the surface of its potential as institutional investors demand more visibility of important ESG performance data.

The Alantra Business Services team’s expertise in working with different advisory businesses was a significant factor in being asked to advise on the deal. Bridges Fund Management have a fantastic track record of sustainable/impact investing and are the ideal partner for Evora. The addition of MSCI and Farview as investors brings a really interesting mix of capabilities to underpin the development of an exciting equity story.”

Emma Thorne, Partner at Bridges Fund Management, said, “Alantra were integral to the deal from the early stages to completion. Richard, Chris and team provided wise counsel about the overall deal at every step and displayed phenomenal commitment throughout the process.

Real estate is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions, so Evora’s tools and services can play an important role in reducing emissions and building a more sustainable economy. We think there’s a significant commercial and impact opportunity here. So we’re excited to partner with this excellent team and help the business scale, drawing on Bridges’ 20 years’ experience of helping ambitious companies to accelerate their growth and achieve more impact.”

Chris Bennett, Founder of Evora, said, “When we founded this business over a decade ago people didn’t want to talk about climate risk or sustainability. It was a real battle to even get a meeting. Now, we are experiencing huge demand for our services globally as the world has woken up to the risks of climate change. Our client base is made up of leading asset managers and owners, and they have been asking us to support them globally. This funding enhances our ability to support them and to improve our technology and advisory services globally. We wanted investors who were aligned with our vision. We had a lot of options, but Bridges really stood out for its commitment to sustainability and impact investing, as well as being a B Corp.”