Hilversum 29 June 2023 - Polestar Capital announces the acquisition of a stake by Societe Generale Amsterdam in Polestar Capital Circular Debt Fund, the sole private debt fund in Europe dedicated to the circular economy. This participation and related commercial partnership will support innovation and help scale up circular economy projects and solutions.

The Polestar Capital Circular Debt Fund (PCDF), launched in 2022 and based in the Netherlands, provides non-dilutive funding to companies with circular economy principles at their core. It targets fast-growing markets addressed by circular models in areas such as biomass waste, biomolecules, plastics pollution processing, and sustainable construction and man-built environment.

Financing circular economy projects, though urgently required, remains a challenge because of applicable regulation, exposure to new technologies and new markets, and the relatively small scale of investments. This partnership aims to establish a continuity of financing solutions for circular ventures, with a first level of debt support provided by PCDF early on and a smooth transition to Societe Generale for their next stages of development.

Marie-Aimée Boury, Head of Impact Based Finance at Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking says: “Supporting the circular economy is crucial in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. It also builds long term resilience and cost-effectiveness into our clients’ business models and across their value chains. We’re very happy to partner with Polestar Capital whose expertise will accelerate our involvement in this new market segment and support our clients in their positive impact transformation.”

Jan-Willem König, CEO of Polestar Capital adds: “The fund finances innovative circular breakthrough technologies that require relatively large sums of capital and that take time to realise positive cashflows. Financing such companies is complex within the context of traditional credit processes and banking regulations. In the meantime, we don’t have the luxury to be patient in scaling sustainable circular technologies, as we need to reduce our emissions and pollution rather sooner than later.

We are therefore very pleased with the combined investment of Societe Generale in the fund, as well our partnership for the mutual financing of the further upscaling of circular innovators. This combination allows us to already support circular companies in a phase not yet suitable for traditional bank financing, but also connects the borrowers of the fund with a partner that may finance the roll-out of their circular technology. We believe the partnership is an important step for the further acceleration of the transition to a circular economy, in the Netherlands and beyond.”

About Polestar Capital

Polestar Capital is an impact investor with close to EUR 1 billion of financing geared towards sustainable initiatives in the Netherlands. The founders of Polestar Capital were driven by one mission: to bridge the financing gap for impact. We fund promising initiatives for a better future through innovative, solution-oriented financing. Thereby we help to realise projects that other investors don’t finance, don’t finance yet or finance insufficiently. To this end, we manage multiple investment funds, amongst which the Polestar Circular Debt Fund, the Limburg Energy Fund (LEF) and the Dutch Heat Fund. The funds have both a societal impact goal, but also deliver a financial return. For more information about Polestar Capital and its funds, see www.polestarcapital.nl and www.pcdf.nl.

About Societe Generale

Societe Generale is one of the leading European financial services groups. Based on a diversified and integrated banking model, the Group combines financial strength and proven expertise in innovation with a strategy of sustainable growth. Committed to the positive transformations of the world’s societies and economies, Societe Generale and its teams seek to build, day after day, together with its clients, a better and sustainable future through responsible and innovative financial solutions.

Active in the real economy for over 150 years, with a solid position in Europe and connected to the rest of the world, Societe Generale has over 117,000 members of staff in 66 countries and supports on a daily basis 25 million individual clients, businesses and institutional investors around the world by offering a wide range of advisory services and tailored financial solutions. The Group is built on three complementary core businesses:

• French Retail Banking with the SG bank, resulting from the merger of the two Societe Generale and Crédit du Nord networks, and Boursorama. Each offers a full range of financial services with omnichannel products at the cutting edge of digital innovation;
• International Retail Banking, Insurance and Financial Services, with networks in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and specialised businesses that are leaders in their markets;
• Global Banking and Investor Solutions, which offers recognised expertise, key international locations and integrated solutions.

Societe Generale is included in the principal socially responsible investment indices: DJSI (Europe), FTSE4Good (Global and Europe), Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, Refinitiv Diversity and Inclusion Index, Euronext Vigeo (Europe and Eurozone), STOXX Global ESG Leaders indexes, and the MSCI Low Carbon Leaders Index (World and Europe).

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