Camas-based Invest Green raises $172.5M in IPO

Camas-based Invest Green Enterprises raised $172.5 million in its first initial public offering on New York’s Nasdaq stock market Wednesday.

Invest Green Acquisition Corp., which now trades on Nasdaq under the stock ticker IGACU, aims to boost the renewable energy sector.

The company announced earlier this week it would offer 15 million shares of common stock at $10 per share with the goal of raising at least $150 million. It ended up selling 17.25 million shares.

The corporation, a subsidiary of Invest Green Enterprises, is a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

Sometimes referred to as a blank check company, a SPAC is an investment vehicle created to raise money and ultimately merge with an existing private company to take that private company public.

Washington native Andrew McLean founded Invest Green with sustainable investment pioneer Matthew Kiernan at the height of the pandemic. The pair wanted to motivate investment in green projects by drawing attention to the fact that there’s wealth to be made in the sector. McLean serves as the company’s CEO.

McLean, who spent years hosting “The Eco-Capitalist” show on CNBC, said the initial goal of the company was to educate investors on strong, sustainable investments.

But with his team of investment heavyweights — including the former chief financial officer at Fidelity, the former president of Robinhood Financial and the former chief investment officer at Microsoft — customers expected the company to have an investment opportunity.

“We see this as a natural progression,” he said.

An Oregon-based advanced nuclear small modular reactor technology company, NuScale Power, merged with a special purpose acquisition company in 2022, taking it public. NuScale, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange as SMR, is now worth around $6 billion.

McLean is hoping Invest Green will be able to boost a similar kind of clean energy company to power the projected skyrocketing demand for electricity.

“The amount of electricity that this AI-data center boom is going to require is more than twice the amount of electricity currently produced in the U.S.,” McLean said, citing a report from global consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Data centers need energy that can be delivered where they are, McLean said. His company sees renewable energy projects as the perfect solution.

“We are taking advantage of the huge opportunity that the data center boom is creating,” McLean said, “and using our knowledge and connections in the clean energy space to find a fantastic opportunity for Invest Green Acquisition Corporation to merge with.”

Invest Green Acquisition Corporation’s stock closed Wednesday at $10.01 per share.