Energy & Science

Bill Gates-Led Clean Tech Fund Adds New Billionaire Investors

Breakthrough Energy Ventures added six new investors when it raised another $1 billion for investments in startups cutting emissions

Abigail Johnson
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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By Akshat Rathi and Dina Bass

February 23, 2021 at 4:12 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Abigail Johnson, chief executive officer of Fidelity Investments, and Shopify Inc. founder Tobias Lütke have joined as new investors in Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the clean-tech fund led by Bill Gates.

Launched in 2016, BEV is one of the largest financiers of companies working on technologies to cut emissions. The fund’s first round raised $1 billion and backed 45 startups, which work on everything from batteries to low-emissions fertilizers. Its investors featured billionaires including Jeff Bezos of Amazon Inc., Jack Ma of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP.