Climate Pledge Fund

Climate Pledge Fund

Company type	Public
Industry	Venture Capital
Founded	2020
Founder	Amazon
Headquarters	Seattle, Washington, U.S.
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.

History

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:

• the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund, which provides philanthropic grants to environmental organizations globally
• the $100 million Right Now Climate Fund, which provides philanthropic contributions to local and regional non-governmental organizations in Europe
• the $1B corporate venture capital fund, Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, which will invest in the industrial sector[1]

Amazon used the fund as the naming rights sponsor of Climate Pledge Arena, a sports and entertainment venue in Seattle that opened in 2021.[2] The venue was designed with environmentally-friendly features and aimed to have net-zero emissions.[3]

People

As of December 2021, Matt Peterson, director, corporate new initiatives, and Kara Hurst, vice president and head of sustainability, lead the fund.[4]

Notable investments

2020 investments

• Redwood Materials - process & technologies for recycling lithium-ion batteries and producing battery materials from recovered elements[5]
• Rivian - electric vehicle automaker[5]
• Turntide Technologies - optimal efficiency motor technologies for building controls (e.g. ventilation, lighting)[5]
• CarbonCure Technologies - Lower carbon concrete manufacturer[5]
• Pachama - carbon offset verification technology[5]
• ZeroAvia - share-haul hydrogen-electric aircraft[6]

2021 investments

• BETA Technologies - Electric vertical aircraft manufacturer[7]
• ION Energy - smart battery management platform for automotive[8]
• CMC Machinery - design and manufacture of custom-sized boxes[9]
• Resilient Power - electric vehicle recharging infrastructure[9]
• Infinium - Ultra low carbon fuels for global transport[9]
• Hippo Harvest - controlled environment agriculture[10]
• Amogy - zero-emissions ammonia-based fuel for heavy-duty transportation, starting with marine shipping[10]

2022 investments

• Ambient Photonics - high power density solar cells for smart home devices and consumer electronics.[11]

Other climate tech investors

• Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund[12]
• Breakthrough Energy Ventures
• Elemental Excelerator's Earthshot Ventures Fund[13]
• VertueLab's Climate Impact Fund[14]
• Decarbon8-US[15]

References

1. "Meet the first 5 startups in Amazon's new $1B industrial innovation fund". TechCrunch. 21 April 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
2. Belson, Ken (October 29, 2021). "An Arena Where the Goal Is 'Net Zero' Carbon Emissions, Even From Fans". The New York Times. Retrieved January 5, 2025.
3. Stiffler, Lisa (October 16, 2023). "Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena is the first arena in the world to land Zero Carbon certification". GeekWire. Retrieved January 5, 2025.
4. "Update: Amazon announces $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
5. "Amazon Announces First Recipients of Investments from $2 Billion Climate Pledge Fund". www.businesswire.com. 2020-09-17. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
6. Osborne, Charlie. "Amazon invests in zero carbon footprint aviation startup ZeroAvia". ZDNet. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
7. Black, Thomas. "Fidelity, Amazon Back E-Plane Startup in $368 Million Funding". BloombergQuint. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
8. "ION Energy Raises $3.6 Million with the Participation of Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund". www.businesswire.com. 2021-07-01. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
9. "Amazon taps $2B climate fund to invest in three more startups". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
10. "Amazon funds two climate tech firms as a third gains ground". Axios. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
11. "Ambient $31 Million Series A led by Amazon Climate Pledge Fund & EIF". Ambient Photonics. 2022-05-10. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
12. "Climate Innovation Fund | Microsoft CSR". www.microsoft.com.
13. "We spun out a $60M fund. 5 things you didn't read in the press". Elemental Excelerator. September 8, 2021.
14. "Climate Impact Fund". VertueLab. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
15. "DECARBON8 - US". E8 Cleantech Angels.

External links

• The Climate Pledge's Website