Osmosis Launches $80 Million Emerging Markets Sustainable Equity Fund

Sustainability-focused asset manager Osmosis Investment Management has launched the Osmosis Emerging Markets Core Equity Transition Fund, seeded with $80 million from the IMAS Foundation, targeting companies that demonstrate superior resource efficiency across carbon, water and waste metrics in emerging market economies. The fund formally launched on 10 December following a three-year effort to standardise sustainability data across major sectors.

Founded in 2009, Osmosis manages $16.6 billion in sustainable assets backed by institutional shareholders including the Oxford Endowment Fund and Capricorn Investment Group. The new fund is built on the firm's Resource Efficiency process, which identifies companies that are more efficient users of carbon, water and waste than their sector peers, and seeks to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns versus the MSCI Emerging Markets benchmark. Osmosis hired a dedicated analyst team to collect, extrapolate, clean and standardise publicly reported carbon, water and waste data across emerging markets over three years before launching the strategy.

Emerging markets, including India, represent one of the most underdeveloped areas for sustainable equity investment, often constrained by concerns about data availability and reliability. The Osmosis approach of building proprietary data infrastructure rather than relying on third-party ESG ratings addresses a persistent gap in the market. For Indian companies that invest in credible sustainability data collection and disclosure, inclusion in resource efficiency-oriented strategies such as this fund provides a valuation and cost-of-capital benefit, as institutional allocators shift preference towards demonstrably better-managed, lower-leverage companies in the region.

The fund's investment universe spans emerging markets globally, with Osmosis' research indicating that resource-efficient companies tend to be better managed, more consistently profitable and operate with lower leverage than sector peers. The strategy's low tracking error design is intended to attract investors seeking a sustainable core allocation without significant benchmark deviation. With $80 million in seed capital from the IMAS Foundation, the fund provides a proven institutional anchor to support further capital raising. Osmosis said it expects the platform to support growing investor demand for sustainable core strategies across emerging markets.

Key figure — $80 million seed capital