Summa Equity becomes first impact fund ever in top five — and youngest firm in Private Equity Performance Ranking by HEC Paris in partnership with Dow Jones

– The inclusion of a dedicated impact fund in the top five is a watershed moment. It demonstrates that impact-focused strategies are now delivering returns that rival the most established names in private equity, says Oliver Gottschalg, Professor at HEC Paris and author of the study

It is the first time a dedicated impact investment firm has entered the global top five – and Summa is also the youngest firm in the ranking, founded in 2016. The HEC Paris-Dow Jones ranking is one of the most established academic benchmarks in private equity, designed to answer a simple but demanding question: which firms deliver the strongest performance based on real fund data, not marketing.

This year, Summa ranked #4 globally across buyout funds raised between 2012 and 2021, competing with firms that have been operating for decades.

– Summa was founded on a simple but radical idea: solving global challenges can generate superior returns. Today one of the most credible academic institutions in private equity has just validated a structural shift – and we are the proof of it, says Reynir Indahl, Founder and Managing Partner in Summa Equity.

Summa invests in companies addressing structural challenges within Circularity, Sustainable Food, Energy Transition, and Tech-Enabled Resilience – areas where long-term demand is driven by global constraints rather than short-term cycles.

–This is not about a ranking. It reflects a shift in where returns come from. The world is becoming more constrained, and capital that solves real problems will outperform in the decades ahead, closes Indahl.