Steyer’s climate firm tops $1bn for debut venture fund

Galvanize Climate Solutions, co-founded by billionaire and former presidential candidate Tom Steyer, has raised more than $1 billion for its inaugural climate venture fund.

Galvanize did not disclose the names of LPs for the Innovation & Expansion Fund, but said they include endowments, foundations and family offices. The fund began fundraising in February 2022 and held a first close on $894 million from 70 investors as of February 2023, according to a regulatory filing. Galvanize had not filed an updated Form D as of press time on September 14.

Based in San Francisco, Galvanize invests across asset classes including venture capital and growth equity, public equities and real estate. The new VC fund will invest in “early- to growth-stage climate companies that drive timely decarbonization, providing both capital as well as interdisciplinary resources to help accelerate the path to commercial scale,” the firm said in a statement.

Galvanize was founded by Steyer and Katie Hall, who are co-chairs of the firm. Steyer previously founded and ran hedge fund Farallon Capital Management and was a partner at private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. Hall founded and is co-chair of Hall Capital Partners, a registered investment advisory firm that manages more than $40 billion in investment assets for foundations, endowments and family offices.

The Innovation & Expansion Fund is led by Veery Maxwell, Saloni Multani and Cliff Ryan. All three are listed as “executive officers” of the fund in the regulatory filing, along with Hall and Steyer.

“We are witnessing an inflection point in the transformation of the global economy,” said Multani. “The alignment of market forces – including corporate commitments, regulatory and policy progress, consumer expectations, workforce talent preferences, technological maturation and economic competitiveness – is driving substantial tailwinds behind the climate sector.”

Steyer said of the new fund: “Fully realizing the most significant investment opportunity of our time and succeeding in ushering in the climate transition will require more than capital alone. That’s why, based on years of investment experience and an understanding of the resources needed to accelerate critical climate solutions, we deliberately built Galvanize to forge a new model for climate investing, alongside constructing a world-class team built for this moment.”