SWEN Terra Secures €125M at Second Close as Institutional Capital Deepens Its Bet on Regenerative Ag

Paris-based SWEN Capital Partners has secured a €125 million second close for SWEN Terra, its regenerative agriculture investment strategy, as institutional investors move from the sidelines to writing checks. The total builds on a €40 million first close at launch and coincides with the fund's second investment: a €10 million commitment to a French company planting bamboo on farmland.

COFIDES, Spain's state-controlled development finance company, has committed €25 million through its Social Impact Fund, a vehicle it manages for the Spanish government, bringing SWEN Terra closer to its €200 million fundraising target. COFIDES joins a roster of first-close backers that includes insurers Macif and Abeille Assurances, both Aéma Groupe brands, and Suravenir, the life-insurance arm of Crédit Mutuel Arkéa.  French mutual health insurer MGEN and ADEME Investissement, the investment arm of France's ecological transition agency, have also committed. 

Follow the Capital

The close lands in a market that is consolidating into fewer, larger checks. Regenerative Food Systems Investment (RFSI), which tracks capital flows into the sector, counted 34 regenerative agriculture and food deals worth more than $458 million in Q1 2026, fewer transactions than any quarter of 2025 but a higher total than the last three of them. 

Fund activity followed a similar trend. Four fund closes raised more than $211 million in the quarter, led by a $52 million close for Conservation Resources' second farmland fund. Six new investment vehicles launched, among them Lucerne Capital's regenerative farmland strategy targeting $500 million. 

On the map, Europe accounted for 29% of tracked deals, behind the U.S. at 43%. Against that backdrop, SWEN Terra's €125 million in commitments ranks among the largest single-fund totals tracked so far this year, a picture that will shift as more closes land before December. 

Nuts, Then Bamboo

SWEN Terra's €10 million goes to Horizom, a French company founded in 2022 that plants bamboo on farmers' land and sells the harvest into the construction industry as low-carbon insulation and building materials. The company has worked with over a dozen farmers so far to establish nearly 460 hectares, about 1,100 acres, of bamboo, and plans to use the new capital to bolster planting and build out its team.

The deal will extend SWEN Terra's reach in regenerative ag across a wider spectrum of what regenerated farmland can produce. Bamboo grows as a perennial on working farms, rebuilds soil and sequesters carbon while it stands, and gives growers a second harvest alongside the food crops that have long defined the sector.

SWEN Terra takes minority stakes in agricultural asset developers and operators across annual crops and orchards, with a remit that reaches across the value chain: logistics, processing facilities and distribution networks supporting regenerative agriculture.

The fund's first investment, completed in September 2025, backed GreenPods, a French developer of regenerative nut orchards that plans to spend €30 million through 2028 acquiring five farms and building its own processing unit, part of what SWEN Capital Partners describes as an effort to bring nut production, much of it now concentrated in California, back to Europe. That is a food-system bet. Horizom is a materials bet that happens to run through farmland.

Emmanuel Simon, managing director who leads the SWEN Terra strategy, tipped his hand to the playbook, saying, "As we continue deploying capital, we are building a diversified portfolio of businesses that demonstrates environmental impact and attractive financial returns can go hand in hand. We are proud to be supporting Horizom as it invests to promote biodiversity on farmers' land and increase supply of sustainable construction materials."

Horizom Co-Founder Dimitri Guyot documented the journey in a LinkedIn post, writing, "In 2022, we raised €2 million without proof, only a conviction. That bamboo cultivation could simultaneously regenerate soils, sequester carbon and produce quality biomass for industry. We worked to prove it, and today, 460 hectares planted later, we are convinced of it. This is what allowed us to raise €10 million with the SWEN Terra fund, from SWEN Capital Partners." He added that the money will allow the company to accelerate a trio of research projects.

Pipeline Prep

SWEN Capital Partners says the pipeline behind these two deals runs to about 10 opportunities at various stages of due diligence across France, Spain and Italy, spanning orchards, market gardening, perennial crops and processing infrastructure.

For Simon, the fundraise itself is the proof point. "Reaching €125 million in commitments in one year of fundraising is a strong endorsement of our investment thesis. Investors increasingly recognise that regenerative agriculture is not only essential for restoring natural capital and strengthening food systems but can also deliver attractive long-term financial returns,” he said. 

Whether those returns show up is the €200 million question. With the pipeline stocked and the target within reach, SWEN Terra has moved from defending the thesis to funding it.