Entrepreneur Jo Bamford gets behind new £1 billion clean energy backer
The entrepreneur, who is the boss of Wrightbus and the son of Lord Bamford, who chairs construction equipment maker JCB, will run fund management business Hycap. The new company aims to help support speeding-up green hydrogen production and supply.
It has been launched with family office Vedra Partners, and so far more than £200 million has been raised — of which a substantial amount has come from the Bamford family.
The fund has its sights on raising £1 billion and Bamford told the Evening Standard it will look to attract investors including “pension funds that have big ESG (environmental, social and governance) mandates, people already in the hydrogen value chain and other private family offices that want to help decarbonise our economy”.
Hycap, headquartered in Oxford, has identified more than 40 firms which will be evaluated as investment targets.
He estimates that between 20% and 40% of the fund will be spent on the production of hydrogen, and the group will also look to back hydrogen refuelling stations for vehicles.
Vedra Partners’ founder Max Gottschalk said: “The fund will be investing across the entire value chain, focusing on production, manufacture and supply in order to put the UK firmly on the map when it comes to hydrogen.”
Bamford pointed to a number of key drivers for interest in hydrogen, including the UK Government pledging to have 5GW of low-carbon hydrogen production by 2030.
