Al Gore’s Generation closes $1bn Sustainable Solutions Fund

22 May 2019

Al Gore speaking on stage in front of blue background with sign that says Slush.

New fund will invest in companies aiming towards a sustainable economy.

Generation Investment Management, the venture capital fund co-founded and chaired by Al Gore, has closed its $1bn Sustainable Solutions Fund III.

This fund builds on the firm’s 15-year commitment to investing globally in companies that are accelerating the transition to a sustainable economy.

‘We believe that we are at the early stages of a technology-led sustainability revolution, which has the scale of the industrial revolution and the pace of the digital revolution’
^{– AL GORE}

The new fund, Generation’s third and largest in its growth equity strategy, sits alongside its established public equity strategy. It enables Generation to make meaningful minority investments of $50m to $150m in innovative companies with high-growth potential.

Generational shift

Group of people sitting on a cream-coloured couch.

Members of the Generation team. Image: Generation

“We believe that we are at the early stages of a technology-led sustainability revolution, which has the scale of the industrial revolution and the pace of the digital revolution,” said Gore.

Generation will focus on three main areas: planetary health in terms of low-carbon solutions that transform transport, food, energy and enterprise; people health in terms of lower-cost, accessible healthcare; and financial inclusion in terms of access to finance and an equitable future of work.

Generation is also a major investor in well-known, high-growth companies including Asana and DocuSign.

“Globally, we see the rapid adoption of sustainable solutions at an important inflection point. By taking advantage of technology cost-down curves, companies can drive sustainable transition through profitable growth and innovative business models,” said Lilly Wollman, partner and co-head of the Growth Equity platform.

The first two investments in Generation’s Sustainable Solutions Fund have been Sophia Genetics, a company leveraging its deep expertise in life sciences and computing to democratise data-driven medicine, and Andela, an engineering-as-a-service business enabling fast-growing global enterprises to access Africa’s top software engineering talent.

“Sustainability is about both what a company does – the products and services it sells – and how a company operates,” said Lila Preston, partner and co-head of the Growth Equity platform. “A hallmark of our investment approach is that we take a systems-level view and leverage our long-term horizon and deep industry insights.”