A new collation of 14 venture capital and growth equity investment firms announced the launch of a new collaborative fund to back clean energy and decarbonization technology companies, aimed at enabling them to reach commercial scale.
Spearheaded by TED Conferences curator Chris Anderson, the new “All Aboard Coalition” is designed to help clean tech companies to avoid the “valley of death” in which early-stage companies struggle to raise funding rounds to finance commercial scale projects, seen as too large for early-stage VCs, but too risky for late-stage investors.
Anderson said:
“One of the biggest threats to the world’s future is that the companies capable of building a healthy low-emissions global economy are simply not getting the funding they urgently need. The only way to fix that is through collective action. By acting as a community, we can help propel these exciting vanguard companies to true global scale.”
Participant in the new All Aboard Coalition include Ara Partners, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Clean Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, DCVC, Energy Impact Partners, Future Ventures, Gigascale Capital, Khosla Ventures, NGP Energy Capital Management, Obvious Ventures, Prelude Ventures, and Spring Lane Capital. The firms collectively manage more than $60 billion in assets.
By bridging the middle-stage funding gap for clean tech startups through the new collaborative fund, the coalition said that it aims to “create the next Microsofts and Nvidias of the climate era.”
Stan Miranda, Founder Partners Capital and All Aboard Co-founder said:
“The All Aboard Coalition’s commitment—together with co-investment from the All Aboard Fund—sends a strong signal to the wider climate-tech investment community: these are the companies that will define the future.”
According to the group, the new All Aboard Fund being raised will invest alongside coalition members through a semi-automatic matching mechanism, in order to strengthen the ability to finance growth stage companies. The coalition aims to raise $300 million for its initial fund by October, according to a Bloomberg report.
Vinod Khosla, Founder and CEO of Khosla Ventures, said:
“The idea is simple: more collaborative investing, fewer fragmented bets. Together, we can help more energy technologies make it through the valley of death.”
The fund will focus on technology areas that can meet surging demand as well as cut greenhouse gas emissions, including long-duration energy storage, geothermal, nuclear, carbon capture, clean hydrogen and marine decarbonization.
