According to IREI’s FundTracker database, infrastructure fundraising in fourth quarter lagged third quarter. By the end of the quarter, 12 funds had raised more than $15.7 billion in equity capital.

Technological advances are making their way into every corner of the economy and society, from remote-working and distance-learning to software and hardware that streamlines and improves business processes.

Earlier this month, something happened in Europe. It didn’t get as much media attention as the EU’s massive funding plans for its energy transition, but it was arguably as important, if not more. A fault occurred at a substation in Croatia and caused an overload in parts of the grid, which spread beyond the country’s borders.

Across the United States, countless states and municipalities have made great progress toward achieving aggressive renewable energy goals. Between 2015 and the first quarter of 2020, U.S. cities signed 335 renewable energy agreements totaling 8.28 gigawatts (GW) of power.

In April 2020, in order to adjust to what was thought to be a short-term “stay at home” order for the world to flatten the curve of COVID-19, we began hosting small/virtual group discussions to keep up communications between LPs, consultants and GPs.

We cannot overstate our enthusiasm for the promise of this new year. It is not only because of what we are positioned to leave behind — an uncontrolled global pandemic, an unparalleled recession, and a volatile and uneven recovery — but also because of what is ahead, for both the globe and (more parochially) our asset class.

Social infrastructure has endured a long period of neglect in most developed and emerging countries, with chronic underinvestment exposed by the coronavirus crisis 2020. Schools, hospitals and all sorts of public facilities are at the center of our lives.