Climate VC is positioning itself as an impact-first VC, seeking to fund specialist climate tech with oversight from an Impact Advisory Board including Ed Gillespie (pictured) a member of Greenpeace’s board of directors.

Operating a rolling fundraising model, Climate VC expects to double the funds raised every quarter, eventually having raised upwards of £35m by 2025.

The Climate VC’s Impact Advisory Board reviews prospective investments before they are presented to the investor’s investment committee and uses its collective expertise to advise on the likely long-term impact each start-up may have on the environment. The Board also includes a senior Google executive and environmental and climate change advisors to the Ministry of Defence.

Ed Gillespie commented: “The climate crisis is the greatest threat mankind has ever faced, but also the greatest opportunity to reshape our civilisation. The world is currently emitting around 50Gt of CO2 annually. By investing in some of the most inventive and creative ways the human brain can imagine to reduce that figure by 2 per cent through VC investments - either by removing emissions from the atmosphere or preventing them from being emitted in the first place, Climate VC stands to exert a gigatonne scale impact.”

Climate VC’s initial investments include Global OTEC, an affordable, clean, baseload power for tropical island nations harnessing the temperature difference between warm surface water and cold deep water at sea to produce electricity. It is also investing in Tierra Foods, which is scaling agroforestry in Latin America, producing sustainable and scalable ingredients while restoring lost rainforest.

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