Intrado Global News Wire, | Source: Cowen Inc.
Closes Inaugural Fund with $919 Million of Commitments
CSI was established in 2018 to provide tailored financing and data analytics solutions to companies that are accelerating the world’s transition towards an environmentally sustainable economy. Led by Ewa Kozicz and Vusal Najafov, CSI’s investment themes include clean transportation, sustainable food production, industrial efficiency as well as renewables and storage. Since its founding, CSI has invested $350 million in two privately held, sustainability-focused companies.
“CSI is focused on providing both capital and data analytics solutions to companies at the cutting edge of innovation in environmental sustainability,” said Ewa Kozicz, Co-Head of CSI. “We believe the current market is well positioned for CSI as many of these companies are in need of capital and strategic support to stay ahead of increasing competition. For CSI, these are more than investments, these are partnerships that have the potential to create meaningful change in their respective industries with positive impact on both economies and society.”
Vusal Najafov, Co-Head of CSI, added, “The fundamental environment for ESG-focused investments is quite attractive, and the level of innovation and disruption has tremendous velocity. Furthermore, the gap between data-driven business models and the rest continues to expand. Key to understanding a sector in such extreme forward motion, CSI actively utilizes technology and data analytics in all phases of the investment process from sourcing to portfolio management. CSI is actively looking to utilize its data analytics software platform to help companies create value.”
Elizabeth Flisser Rosman, Head of Cowen Investment Management, commented, “Sustainability is a cornerstone at Cowen, anchoring the desire to make a broad positive impact within the firm, on the financial industry, in communities, and among the companies with whom we partner. Consistent with our approach and our focus on all three components of ESG, CSI looks to identify unique opportunities by leveraging the team’s deep cross sector expertise, identifying emerging themes and actively driving value in the investment process through the disciplined use of data analytics. We are proud of the success of this strategy and are looking forward to future outperformance for our clients.”
About the CSI Team:
Ewa Kozicz: Ms. Kozicz is the Co-Head of CSI and has more than two decades of investment experience across asset classes and sectors, including significant expertise in agriculture, industrials, and financial services. Before joining CSI, she held various executive and leadership positions at BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.
Vusal Najafov: Mr. Najafov is the Co-Head of CSI and has two decades of experience investing across asset classes and sectors including significant expertise in energy, transport, and financial services. He has applied data analytics throughout his career and has held various portfolio management and leadership positions at Goldman Sachs, Highbridge, and Indus Capital.
Threadmark Partners Limited and Frontier Solutions LLC served as placement agents, and law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP acted as lead legal counsel to CSI.
About CSI:
The CSI strategy is managed by Cowen Sustainable Advisors LLC, a division of Cowen Inc. (“Cowen”). Cowen is a diversified financial services firm offering investment banking services, research, sales and trading, prime brokerage, global clearing, commission management services and investment management. Cowen focuses on delivering value-added capabilities to our clients in order to help them outperform. Founded in 1918, the Company is headquartered in New York and has offices worldwide. Learn more at Cowen.com
Media Contact:
Gagnier Communications
Dan Gagnier
646-569-5897
dg@gagnierfc.com
