Breakthrough Energy Ventures

Quick read

Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) is a climate-focused VC founded in 2016 by Bill Gates and a coalition of billionaire investors, headquartered in Kirkland, WA. The firm has deployed $2B+ across 130+ startups targeting deep decarbonization in electricity, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, and buildings. In 2025, BEV suspended new investments from its Catalyst fund and cut staff, though the core venture fund remains active.

Key facts

Founded

2016

Founders

Bill Gates

Employees

184

Sectors

climate

Website

www.breakthroughenergy.org

Investment thesis

BEV targets early-stage companies with the potential to cut at least half a gigaton of greenhouse gas emissions annually, investing patiently—on a 20-year horizon—across electricity, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, and buildings where commercial capital won't go alone.

Recent activity

• Jun 2026investment
  Breakthrough Energy participated in the $8M Seed round of Arcturus Technologies, which is developing metals using carbon nanomaterials. tracxn.com
• 2025press
  Breakthrough Energy shifted strategy away from public policy, concentrating efforts on supporting clean energy companies through the Breakthrough Energy Catalyst program and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. en.wikipedia.org
• 2024fundraise
  Breakthrough Energy Ventures closed Fund III at $839M+, now actively deploying that capital. f4.fund
• 2024investment
  Windfall Bio, a BEV portfolio company, secured $28M in Series A funding to scale methane-emissions reduction across agriculture, oil and gas, and waste management sectors. linkedin.com
• May 2026investment
  Mantle8, a natural hydrogen exploration company based in Grenoble, France, closed a €31M Series A round with BEV participating alongside lead investor Sandwater, Bpifrance's Ecotechnologies 2 fund, IP Group, Wind Capital, and Calderion. mantle8.com
• Apr 2026investment
  Kingdom Holding Company acquired Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's personal stake in BEV for SAR 255 million ($68 million) — a roughly 30% discount to the stake's audited fair value of $98 million. The deal, signed April 1, 2026, was a related-party transaction funded from Kingdom Holding's internal cash. pulse2.com
• Feb 2026investment
  Heron Power closed a $140M Series B co-led by BEV and Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism Fund. The Scotts Valley, CA company makes solid-state transformers for renewable energy, storage, and AI data center grid connections, and plans a 40-gigawatt U.S. manufacturing facility. agrigateglobal.com
• ongoingfundraise
  BEV is listed as investment manager for a new Sustainable Aviation Fuel fund launched with the oneworld airline alliance, bringing technical due diligence and early-stage climate-tech experience to one of aviation's hardest decarbonization problems. BEV has raised more than $3.5 billion in committed capital and backed over 110 companies to date. news.alaskaair.com
• Feb 2026investment
  BEV participated in Heron Power's $140 million Series B funding round alongside Tesla and Gigascale Capital. tracxn.com
• Jan 2026investment
  BEV backed Mangrove Lithium's US$85 million round led by the Canada Growth Fund. tracxn.com
• Jan 2026investment
  BEV joined Type One Energy's $87 million Series B, backing the fusion energy startup alongside TDK Ventures and Doral Energy-Tech Ventures. tracxn.com
• 2025press
  BEV suspended new investments from its Breakthrough Energy Catalyst fund and laid off staff; Gates noted in an October 2025 interview that roughly 30–40 of the ~150 portfolio companies had failed. timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Notable investments

• Arcturus TechnologiesSeedJun 2026tracxn.com
• Windfall BioSeries A2024linkedin.com
• Commonwealth Fusion SystemsSeries B2021fusionenergybase.com
• Mantle8Series AMay 2026mantle8.com
• Heron PowerSeries BFeb 2026agrigateglobal.com
• Baseload CapitalStrategicunknownstartupintros.com
• Mangrove LithiumSeries BJan 2026tracxn.com
• Type One EnergySeries BJan 2026tracxn.com
• KoBold Metalsgeekwire.com
• Heirloombevjobs.breakthroughenergy.org
• Brimstonebevjobs.breakthroughenergy.org
• Kolomaenergy.media

Key people

Named individuals at the firm. We don't expose direct email or phone — use their LinkedIn for outreach.

• Carmichael Roberts · Partner
  LinkedIn
• Christina Karapataki · Investor
  LinkedIn
• David T. Danielson · Partner
  LinkedIn
• Stefan Zlatev · Investor
  LinkedIn
• Libby Wayman · Investor
  LinkedIn
• Vinod Khosla · Coalition Member / Backer
• Bill Gates · Founder
• Eric Toone · Investment Committee Co-Lead
• Rodi Guidero · Executive Director
• Jonah Goldman · Managing Director

Sources

• Breakthrough Energy – Wikipedia
• Breakthrough Energy Ventures – Crunchbase
• Breakthrough Energy – Tracxn 2026 Profile
• Kingdom Holding: $68M Investment in BEV
• BEV Suspends New Investment, Lays Off Staff – Times of India
• BEV Client Overview – Caldwell Partners
• BEV Europe – European Investment Bank
• Kingdom Holding Acquires BEV Stake at 30% Discount – fwdstart
• https://mantle8.com/mantle8-raises-e31m-in-series-a-funding-to-prove-commercial-viability-of-natural-hydrogen-production
• https://agrigateglobal.com/press-release/heron-power-raises-140-million-to-build-a-next-generation-power-grid-in-series-b-co-led-by-andreessen-horowitz-breakthrough-energy-ventures/
• https://news.alaskaair.com/sustainability/oneworld-alliance-member-airlines-and-breakthrough-energy-ventures-launch-investment-fund/
• https://tracxn.com/d/venture-capital/breakthrough-energy/__WApicdE7mL916-jiCpeXtDFq0YIpwYVjpFYgI3SOEl0
• https://f4.fund/firms/breakthrough-energy-ventures
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/breakthrough-energy

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