SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Nearly two dozen of the world’s most successful business leaders, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists will invest up to $1 billion in a fund led by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
The fund aims to to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero by financing emerging clean energy technology.
Named Breakthrough Energy Ventures Fund, funders include John Doerr, chairman of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla, Laura and John Arnold Foundation co-chair and former energy hedge fund manager John Arnold, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, and SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner.
“I am honored to work along with these investors to build on the powerful foundation of public investment in basic research,” Bill Gates said in a statement Sunday. “Our goal is to build companies that will help deliver the next generation of reliable, affordable, and emissions-free energy to the world.”
The new fund stems from the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, which Gates launched in December 2015. It was launched alongside Mission Innovation, a multi-billion clean energy research and development initiative on the opening day of the U.N. climate change summit in Paris. The countries participating in the initiative committed to doubling their clean energy technology research and development budgets by 2020 and private investors will boost their own investments in the sector.
The new fund will have a 20-year lifespan, and is designed to be both broad and scientific in its investment approach. The fund will consider investments across a broad number of energy sectors, including electricity generation and storage, transportation, industrial system use, agriculture, and energy system efficiency.
Cleantech was a rising venture star a decade ago with funds, including those started by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Khosla Ventures investing in startups such as Bloom Energy and geothermal company AltaRock Energy.
