Gore Puts Venture Money Where His Mouth Is

Posted on Nov 12, 2007

guardian.co.uk

Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management has teamed up with venture capital heavyweight Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to try to close the “significant gap between the capital needed and the capital currently deployed to create enduring solutions to the climate crisis.” The alliance will have a global focus and will seek to multiply by “many times” the $200 million already invested by KPCB in green projects.

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Guardian America:

Gore’s Generation Investment Management company and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers aim to use their combination of financial firepower and expertise to help speed up the development of technologies and policies needed for a low carbon economy.

“There is a great need to accelerate the discovery of the best technologies; a great need for them to be more quickly developed. We are determined to play our part,” Gore said. “The 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 to accelerate the development of sustainable solutions.”

As part of the alliance, Gore, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize this year for his work on tackling climate change, will join KPCB, which has an investment record that includes companies such as AOL, Amazon.com, Google, Compaq Computer, Netscape and Sun Microsystems. The US venture capital company has already invested $200m in green technology products and services but one of its partners, John Doerr, said yesterday he expected input would be “many times that over the duration of this collaboration which we expect to be very long-lived”. The alliance with Generation Investment Management marked “a turning point for climate entrepreneurs around the world”.

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