The Climate Solutions Fund, the cleantech investment vehicle Al Gore launched in 2004, has raised $683 million for its second fund, following an initial $2.2 billion fund. Gore's partner at Climate Solutions, David Blood, told the Financial Times that despite rising economic uncertainy raising money "has not been a problem."
"A fear expressed by some is that the first thing to go in a downturn is the nice-to-have sort of investment." said Blood, who prior to teaming up with Gore headed Goldman Sachs Asset Management. "Some people put green investments in that category but we think that is nonsense. This is not nice-to-have--it is fundamental finance."
Gore, a long-time environmental activist who last year became a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, plans to focus this latest fund on renewable energy, energy efficient technologies, energy from biofuels, and biomass and the carbon trading markets. -- Andrea Orr
See April 29 story on Al Gore's new venture fund from FT.com
See Nov 2007 story from Tech Confidential
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