Backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, Breakthrough Energy Ventures lists seven new investments
From GeekWire:
Breakthrough Energy Ventures,
the $1 billion energy innovation fund spearheaded by Microsoft
co-founder Bill Gates, has revealed seven more companies in which it’s
investing, including startups that aim to build fusion reactors, produce
biofuels with microbes, and pull drinking water out of the air
affordably.
In addition to Gates, contributors to the fund include Amazon’s Jeff
Bezos, the Virgin Group’s Richard Branson, Alibaba’s Jack Ma and
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son.
The first two companies in the fund’s portfolio — Form Energy and Quidnet Energy, both focusing on power storage — came to light in June in a report published by the Quartz news website. Today Quartz has the first word about the next seven companies. Here’s the list:
-
CarbonCure,
focusing on a technology to inject recycled carbon dioxide into concrete
to increase its strength (and reduce the concrete industry’s carbon
footprint).
-
Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinout that’s working on an unorthodox type of fusion reactor that makes use of high-temperature superconductors.
-
DMC Biotechnologies, which genetically tailors microbes to produce high-value chemicals, including biofuels.
-
Fervo Energy,
making use of modern computational models and horizontal-drilling
technology to develop low-cost approaches to geothermal power.
-
Pivot Bio,
offering a clean alternative to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer that can
reduce chemical runoff and help eliminate the production of nitrous
oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.
-
QuantumScape, which is developing an all-solid-state battery well-suited for use in electric vehicles.
-
Zero Mass Water, which sells solar-powered “hydropanel” devices that extract drinkable water from the atmosphere.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures says all seven companies satisfied its
eligibility requirement: to showcase a scientifically sound technology
that has the potential to bring about a reduction of 500 million metric
tons in annual global greenhouse-gas emissions, which currently amount
to about 40 billion metric tons....MORE
