Transforming sustainability in the built environment - Chris Robinson discusses the Apax Global Impact Fund's investment in Integrated Environmental Solutions

IES provides simulation software and consultancy services to building owners, designers and operators, helping them to significantly reduce energy usage throughout the building’s lifecycle. This is incredibly important as the built environment accounts for almost 40% of global emissions and is a hard-to-abate sector, partially due to the low level of penetration of digital solutions today. To help tackle this, IES uses data-driven insights to enable smarter and more sustainable decision-making, with the ultimate aim of making zero carbon targets achievable and improving the quality of life in cities.

This is an important milestone for AGI, as the fund’s first climate-focused investment. As a world leader in intelligent sustainability solutions with a focus on decarbonisation, IES’ purpose and values align closely with AGI’s thematic focus on reducing environmental harm and resource use.

We are firm believers in the huge potential of the company as the building industry increasingly progresses towards Net Zero goals. We see IES’ innovative technology as critical in the transition to a more sustainable future.

Aside from aligning directly with AGI’s objective of decarbonisation and eliminating global reliance on fossil fuels, we see IES as an attractive proposition given its significant growth potential.

It is a leader within the energy modelling software vertical and has a truly differentiated product. At the same time, we see increasing demand in this space driven by a number of tailwinds, including more stringent regulation and growing voluntary interest in sustainability, all of which is driving demand for software such as that offered by IES. 

Overall, we believe IES has the right to win in an exciting, and highly impactful, market.

Through this investment and partnership, we will support the business in scaling its operations to meet the growing demand for its solutions, including from building designers, owners, and tenants.

As part of this, we’ve identified several levers for value creation to help build on IES’s success to date, and will partner with management, as well as Apax’s Operational Excellence Practice (“OEP”), to help execute on these initiatives.

We look forward to working closely with the IES team on our joint vision for the company, harnessing IES’s market-leading software to solve some of society’s biggest climate challenges.