EIP launches climate tech fund
Energy Impact Partners launched its latest fund with an aim of backing technologies to help the world reach net-zero emissions.
The Deep Decarbonization Frontier Fund has already received commitments for more than $200 million and has a target of $350 million. The launch follows EIP’s close of its flagship fund last November with over $1 billion in assets.
EIP recently expanded its dedicated Frontier Fund team by adding Ashwin Shashindranath as investment partner (previously at Macquarie), Dr. Gregory Thiel, director of technology (previously at ARPA-E), and Dr. Michael E. Webber as chief technology officer (Previously CTO and CSO at Engie).
“We are looking for audacious entrepreneurs taking big swings at big problems in climate tech,” said Shayle Kann, partner in the EIP Frontier Fund. “Over the last six years we have built an ecosystem and process to drive innovation in massive, mature and technically complex industries; nowhere is this skillset needed more than the drive toward deep decarbonization.”
The Frontier Fund focuses on innovation to solve the problems in deep decarbonization and secondly on the demand for zero-carbon energy as well as for the products and goods that will accelerate market adoption of these new technologies.
Existing investments in the Frontier Fund include: Form Energy; Electric Hydrogen, Nitricity; Carbon America; Zap Energy; Boston Metal and Sublime Systems. The companies are pioneers in everything from decarbonizing power generation to fertilizer production.
“EIP is a known leader in the climate tech investment space, “said Mateo Jaramillo, CEO and co-founder of Form Energy, in a statement. “The launch of the Frontier Fund exemplifies their bold commitment and innovative approach to enable tomorrow’s zero carbon electricity system. Form Energy is extremely pleased to be supported by EIP and to have the ability to join forces with their incredible partner coalition as we work to reshape the global electric system to enable a clean energy future.”
The EIP focus is also on how to drive enormous commercial outcomes for the winners in the decarbonization space. With over $2 billion in assets under management, EIP invests globally across venture, growth, credit, and infrastructure — and has a team of nearly 60 professionals based in its offices in New York, San Francisco, Palm Beach, London, Cologne, and Oslo.
The firm’s investment team collaborates with a base of strategic investors. This unique collaborative model is particularly suited to the deeptech investment challenge, officials said, where the collective insights of EIP’s ecosystem help navigate complex technical pathways and can significantly accelerate market adoption. They say this is evidenced by more than 200 pilots and partnerships between EIP’s 70-plus portfolio companies and its strategic investor coalition.
