Congruent starts raising fresh $250M early-stage climate tech fund - TechCrunch
Congruent starts raising fresh $250M early-stage climate tech fund | TechCrunch
Venture capital as a whole might be in a bit of a funk, but that’s not true for every investor or sector.
Take Congruent, a climate tech-focused VC: last week, the firm filed paperwork with the SEC to start raising for a $250 million fund, TechCrunch+ has exclusively learned.
Congruent typically focuses on early-stage investments, so it’s likely that the new fund, the firm’s third, will follow suit. If the team can meet its target, it would be a healthy step up from its most recent early-stage fund, which draws from a $175 million pool.
If the new fund is also targeted at early-stage startups, it suggests that the firm’s partners see potential for a fresh crop of promising climate tech companies to come up in the coming years. It also suggests that LPs are still bullish about the sector and see strong prospects for growth in the coming decade.
Abe Yokell, one of the firm’s managing partners, declined to comment.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”