Generation Investment Management, the fund co-founded by former US Vice President Al Gore, is joining forces with Silicon Valley’s leading venture capital investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) in a global collaboration to support companies that can contribute to solving climate change.
The partnership will provide funding and business expertise to public and private companies, and to entrepreneurs. Gore, who is chairman of Generation Investment, will join KPCB as a partner, while KPCB will share Generation's offices in London and John Doerr, Partner at KPCB, will join Generation's advisory board.
Gore said, “This alliance brings together world-class business talent to focus on solving the climate crisis. Together, we have a working understanding of this urgent, multi-dimensional challenge and are resolved to help business and government leaders accelerate the development of sustainable solutions.”
The KPCB and Generation alliance combines the research expertise of two organisations with a track record of successful investments in public and private companies, from early stage to large capitalisation business. It aligns Gore, the KPCB Greentech Innovation Network and the Generation Advisory Board towards a common goal.
In addition, KPCB's presence in Asia and the US, combined with Generation's presence in the US, Europe and Australia, will support global scale solutions.
Doerr said the move “marks a turning point for climate entrepreneurs around the world. Generation and our new partner Al Gore will help innovators and entrepreneurs accelerate their business, technology and policy solutions for the most critical problem of our time.”
The collaboration is looking for opportunities spanning sectors such as renewable energy technologies, building efficiency, cleaner fossil energy, sustainable agriculture and carbon markets.
Generation co-founder and Managing Partner David Blood said, “There is a significant gap between the capital needed and the capital currently deployed to create enduring solutions to the climate crisis. To address this financing gap will require the efforts of many players, including entrepreneurial ventures, multinational businesses, governments, multilaterals and investors.”
Gore announced also that as part of the agreement between the two firms, his salary as a Partner at KPCB will be donated directly to the Alliance for Climate Protection, the non-partisan foundation he chairs that focuses on accelerating policy solutions to the climate crisis.
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