New Venture Firm to Catalyze Global Clean Energy Economy

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA – December 13, 2016) Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, John Doerr, and other global business leaders are investing more than $1 billion to fund the delivery of next generation clean energy, agriculture, and goods to people around the world. Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) will invest in technologies over the next 20 years that have the ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least half a gigaton and demonstrate “existing scientific proof of concept” as well as the potential to attract capital from other sources besides BEV. 

“Momentum toward clean energy is building in nations all over the world. In the United States alone, the clean energy market was worth $200 billion in 2015 – that’s bigger than the U.S. airline industry and the pharmaceutical business. The great technology and business leaders of Breakthrough Energy will help usher in a step change in the global clean energy economy, and hasten our move to a clean, low-carbon future that will grow jobs and save millions of lives. We wish them every success.”

• Diane Regas, Executive Director, Environmental Defense Fund