Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management Closes $1 Billion Sustainable Solutions Fund

By Amit Chowdhry • May 21, 2019
  • Generation Investment Management closes $1 billion for its Sustainable Solutions Fund for growth and late-stage investments.
  • Investments will range between $50 million and $150 million
  • This fund — which is co-headed by Lilly Wollman and Lila Preston — has already backed Andela and Sophia Genetics

Generation Investment Management, a sustainable investment management company founded by Chairman Al Gore (former United States Vice President), Miguel Nogales (partner and co-CIO), Mark Ferguson (partner and co-CIO), Peter Harris (partner and COO), David Blood (senior partner), and Colin le Duc (founding partner), announced it has closed a $1 billion Sustainable Solutions Fund for growth investments. This brings Generation Investment Management closer to $25 billion assets under management.

“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 in a statement.

Investments will go towards later-stage startups that are focused on sustainability in environmental solutions, healthcare, and financial inclusion. And the investments will range somewhere between $50 million to $150 million.

“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,” added Growth Equity partner and co-head Lilly Wollman.

This fund has already backed a couple of startups including Andela (pairs companies needing engineering talent to work with developers based in Africa on projects) and Sophia Genetics (applies AI to DNA sequencing for developing medical treatments). Sophia raised $77 million led by Generation and Sophia raised a $100 million round.

Some of the other companies that Generation invested in include Asana, DocuSign, gogoro, CiBO, M-Kopa, Ocado, Optoro, and Seventh Generation.

Sustainability is about both what a company does (the products and services it sells) and how a company operates,” explained 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.”