Company type | Public |
---|---|
Industry | Venture Capital |
Founded | 2020 |
Founder | Amazon |
Headquarters | Seattle, WA |
Products | Corporate venture capital |
Total assets | $2 billion |
Number of employees | 10+ |
The Climate Pledge Fund is a division of Amazon, set up to develop and manage investments in the climate technology space, as part of its Climate Pledge initiative. It is a corporate venture capital fund.
The Climate Pledge Fund makes investments into early-stage companies focused on decarbonizing or sustainable technologies and services. The fund is part of Amazon's Climate Pledge initiative with climate advocacy group Global Optimism. It was funded with an initial $2 billion in June 2020.
This corporate venture capital fund is distinct from the following sustainability-related organizations affiliated with Amazon:
As of December 2021, Matt Peterson, director, corporate new initiatives, and Kara Hurst, vice president and head of sustainability, lead the fund. [2]
Vinod Khosla is an Indian-American billionaire businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments in areas such as networking, software, and alternative energy technologies. He is considered one of the most successful and influential venture capitalists.
L. John Doerr is an American investor and venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins in Menlo Park, California. In February 2009, Doerr was appointed a member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide the President and his administration with advice and counsel in trying to fix America's economic downturn. Forbes ranked Doerr as the 40th richest person in tech in 2017, and as of August 1, 2023, as the 146th richest person in the world, with a net worth of US$11.9 billion. Doerr is the author of Measure What Matters, a book about goal-setting, and Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now.
Clean technology, also called cleantech or climatetech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities. Clean technology includes a broad range of technology related to recycling, renewable energy, information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, grey water, and more. Environmental finance is a method by which new clean technology projects can obtain financing through the generation of carbon credits. A project that is developed with concern for climate change mitigation is also known as a carbon project.
Silicon Wadi is a region in Israel that serves as one of the global centres for advanced technology. It spans the Israeli coastal plain, and is cited as among the reasons why the country has become known as the world's "start-up nation". The highest concentrations of high-tech industry in the region can be found around Tel Aviv, including small clusters around the cities of Raʽanana, Petah Tikva, Herzliya, Netanya, Rehovot, and Ness Ziona. Additional clusters of high-tech industry can be found in Haifa and Caesarea. More recent high-tech establishments have been raised in cities such as Jerusalem and Beersheba, in towns such as Yokneam Illit, and in Airport City. Israel has the third highest number of startups by region and the highest rate of startups per capita in the world.
Jeffrey Brian Straubel is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He spent 15 years at Tesla, as chief technical officer until moving to an advisory role in July 2019. In 2023, he was elected to the company's board of directors.
Form Energy is an American energy storage company focused on developing a new class of cost-effective, multi-day energy storage systems that will attempt to enable a reliable and fully-renewable electric grid year-round. Form Energy's commercial product is a rechargeable iron-air battery capable of storing electricity for 100 hours at system costs competitive with legacy power plants.
Stripe, Inc. is an Irish-American multinational financial services and software as a service (SaaS) company dual-headquartered in South San Francisco, California, United States, and Dublin, Ireland. The company primarily offers payment-processing software and application programming interfaces for e-commerce websites and mobile applications.
HAX is a pre-seed, startup development program specializing in hard tech startups and headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. The 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) facility houses machine shops and mechanical, chemical, and electronics labs to support founders working on sustainability tech across climate, industrial automation, and human health. Operated by the U.S. venture fund SOSV, HAX also has offices in Pune, Shenzhen, San Francisco, and Tokyo.
Softeq Development Corporation is a privately held, full-stack development company focusing on low-level programming hardware,, and software apps for web, desktop, and mobile. Softeq builds end-to-end IoT and cloud infrastructure solutions, and provides technology business consulting services, and is an ISO 13485:2016 company with certified partnerships with Amazon, Microsoft, and Xamarin. Softeq serves Fortune Global 500 companies: Verizon, Epson, Purple Innovations, Microsoft, Lenovo, AMD, Disney, Intel, NVIDIA, and Halo by PAWS. From 2018 to 2021, Softeq appeared in Inc. 5000, the annual rankings of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in the United States. Softeq is headquartered in Houston, TX, with development centers in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Monterrey, Mexico with offices in Munich, Germany, and London, United Kingdom. Softeq has over 500 employees globally.
Pluralsight, LLC is an American privately held online education company that offers a variety of video training courses for software developers, IT administrators, and creative professionals through its website. Founded in 2004 by Aaron Skonnard, Keith Brown, Fritz Onion, and Bill Williams, the company has its headquarters in Draper, Utah. As of July 2018, it uses more than 1,400 subject-matter experts as authors, and offers more than 7,000 courses in its catalog. Since first moving its courses online in 2007, the company has expanded, developing a full enterprise platform, and adding skills assessment modules.
Breakthrough Energy is the umbrella name of several organizations, founded by Bill Gates in 2015, that aim to accelerate innovation in sustainable energy and in other technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It invests in a variety of startup companies that are attempting to commercialize new concepts such as nuclear fusion, large-capacity batteries to store renewable energy, and microbe-generated biofuels.
Qualcomm Ventures is the investment arm of Qualcomm Incorporated. Founded in 2000, Qualcomm Ventures is a corporate venture capital fund with 140+ active portfolio companies. Investing in startups targeting the wireless ecosystem, the group focuses on investments in the sectors of automotive, data center and enterprise, digital health, Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile.
Glovo is a Spain-based, delivery app founded in 2014 by Oscar Pierre, and launched in 2015 by himself and Sacha Michaud following an initial round of funding. Since mid-2022, Glovo has been a part of the Delivery Hero Group, a publicly traded German company.
Bird Global, Inc. is a micromobility company based in Miami, Florida. Founded in September 2017, Bird has distributed electric scooters designed for short-term rental to over 400 cities. In April 2024, it was acquired by Third Lane Mobility to avoid bankruptcy.
Young Sohn (Korean: 손영권) is a Korean-American business executive and investor. He was the president and chief strategy officer of Samsung Electronics. Sohn is also the chairman of the board of Harman International Industries, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, and currently serves as Senior Advisor to Samsung.
Turntide Technologies (Turntide) is a U.S.-based business designs and manufactures best-in-class electric motors, power electronics, energy storage, and thermal equipment for anything that moves–on the road, off the road, on rails, and on the water. With breakthrough innovations like its axial flux motors, the company is setting a new standard for electric vehicles and equipment of all sizes. Turntide's systems-level approach delivers electric power solutions across a wide range of industries. Leading the practical shift toward global electrification, the team helps original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) deliver top- and bottom-line value by expanding their product lines to include electric vehicles. Turntide's technology is ideal for construction, agriculture, commercial vehicles, industrial, premium automotive, light vehicles, rail, and marine. It maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and India.
ZeroAvia is a British/American hydrogen-electric aircraft developer. The company was founded in 2017 by Valery Miftakhov, who currently serves as the company CEO. ZeroAvia is developing hydrogen-fueled powertrain technology aiming to compete with conventional engines in propeller aircraft, with an aim of zero-emission and lower noise. ZeroAvia expects to sell products by 2023 and demonstrate flights up to 500 miles (800 km) in aircraft of up to 20 seats. According to the company, by 2026, ZeroAvia intends to fly an aircraft over 500 miles range in aircraft with up to 80 seats.
The Samsung Catalyst Fund (SCF) is the evergreen venture capital fund of Samsung Electronics. The fund invests in deep technology, artificial intelligence and big data startups. The fund's headquarters are located in San Jose, California, with offices in Seoul, Tel Aviv, and Paris.
Redwood Materials, Inc. is an American company headquartered in Carson City, Nevada. The company aims to recycle lithium-ion batteries and produce battery materials for electromobility and electrical storage systems. Founded in 2017 by J. B. Straubel, Redwood Materials was reported to have a valuation of about $3.7 billion as of July 2021.
CarbonCure Technologies Inc. is a manufacturer of carbon removal or carbon utilization technologies that inject captured carbon dioxide into concrete where it is permanently stored. The company was founded in 2012 by Robert Niven, and the company headquarters are in Halifax, Nova Scotia.