A year after the launch, the third fund of Bill Gates dedicated to climate technology is only $200 million away from its $1 billion funding goal. Breakthrough Energy Venturesthe venture capital firm created by the founder of Microsofthave been collected so far 839 million dollars for the bottom Bev III.
Breakthrough Energy’s main objective is to invest in startups technologies that help fight climate change. It currently has around 113 portfolio companies, 70% of which are in the energy sector. In its first two funds, inaugurated in 2016 and 2021, the company managed to raise 1 billion and 1.25 billion of dollars, respectively. An additional “select” fund, which closed in January 2024, received and reinvested financing for a total of 555 million.
The big names of Silicon Valley and finance
Among the first investors in the initial iteration of Breakthrough energy in 2016 were big names from Silicon Valley and finance such as the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezosthe media mogul and former mayor of New York Michael Bloombergthe investor George Soros and the CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg. In a blog post launching the first fund in December 2016, Gates wrote that “we are willing to wait longer for returns than other funds. We have a higher tolerance for technical riskbecause we know that it is difficult to determine which technologies will succeed in a complex energy market.”
Investors, however, do not appear to be deterred by this long-term timeline. Second Pitchbookin the first half of 2024, funds dedicated to investments towards climate technology they almost attracted the 5% of all limited partner capital commitments worldwide. Climate funds have raised about $3.4 billion this year, approaching an annual total of $3.9 billion raised by 2023.
Where does Gates venture invest?
The companies in which Breakthough funds invest are primarily engaged decarbonization of some key sectors: energy, construction, manufacturing, transportation and food.
Among the most successful businesses in which the fund has invested is the lithium battery company Materials Redwood, where Breaktrthough led a Series B funding round of $217 million and is now valued at $5.25 billion. So is the sustainable fertilizer company Pivot Bio it received a whopping $200 million in funding led by Breakthrough and currently has an estimated value of $2 billion.
Funding for European startups
While Breakthrough’s main fund is dedicated to American startups, the venture capital has also launched a fund dedicated to investing in European companies – mainly in the UK, Sweden and Denmark, as well as two French and one Spanish company . The European fund, launched in 2019, manages a total of 100 million euros, half of which is committed by the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Among the startups that have raised the most since the creation of the European fund is the Swedish electric airplane company Heart Aerospacewhich received 107 million from Breakthrough in early 2024. Among other ventures, there Blue World Technologiesa Danish company that produces methanol fuel cells for the automotive industry and has raised 37 million euros in its Series B funding round in 2022, the Parisian Dioxycleswhich secured a $17 million Series A for carbon dioxide conversion technologies, and Spain’s H2site, which produces hydrogen fuel on site for businesses and has raised nearly $14 million to date.
Gates’ other investments
Bill Gates is a great investor even outside of his venture capital firm. Through Bill and Melinda Gates Foundationthe founder of Microsoft has supported several other technology initiatives in Europe, especially in the healthcare sector.
In 2020, Italian biotech Achilles Vaccines, based in Siena and renamed In contrast to Biotech last June, it received funding from the European Malaria Fund 10.8 million euros for the vaccine line and immunotherapy projects against infectious diseases. The investment, which includes 46 million over five years, was financed not only by the Gates Foundation, but also by the European Commission, the EIB and the Monte dei Paschi of Siena. (All rights reserved)