In its first year since inception, the Qblue Global Sustainable Leaders Fund has more than tripled its assets under management.

Launching in mid-January of last year with investments worth USD 140,5m, the fund has now raised USD 430m, London-based asset manager Heptagon Capital writes in a press release. 

The fund was founded by Bjarne Graven Larsen, former CIO at ATP and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, and his company Qblue Balanced in collaboration with Heptagon Capital. 

The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) Article 9 fund is using a quant investment strategy to find the most sustainable companies in every industry and region worldwide, and has attracted several Nordic investors, including Chr. Augustinus Fabrikker and Swedish insurance company Dalarnas Försäkringsbolag. 

In October, the fund also received a USD 175m investment from the IKEA Foundation entity IMAS Foundation. 

”In a challenging year where regulatory pressure in Europe has led to fund managers downgrading the SFDR classification of more than USD 140bn in Article 9 funds, we are confident in Qblue’s sustainable credentials and the fund’s current SFDR classification,” Heptagon’s CEO Tarek Mooro says. 

Since inception, the fund has yielded a negative return of -15.98%, outperforming its benchmark (MSCI World NR) by 2.27%. 

“In some ways, this is a high-conviction portfolio. We’re not a benchmark tracker. We also don’t aim to perform extremely well one year and then underperform another. Our goal isn’t to deliver a 50% return one year, followed by -20% the next. Our aim is to beat the benchmark annually by a couple of percentage points on average. It’s more like a core equity portfolio with strong sustainability integration,” Larsen told AMWatch at the launch.