Billionaire-Backed Breakthrough Ventures’ Boston-Area Portfolio
Source: American Inno, Srividya Kalyanaraman
Photo: Getty Images
We can all agree that there need to be some breakthrough innovations to fight climate change. That, and money.
Who better than corporate tycoons, whose companies consume vast quantities of energy, to fund climate change-mitigating inventions?
In October 2016, an investor group made up of billionaire businessmen including Bill Gates, Jack Ma, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Michael Bloomberg, Mukesh Ambani and others launched Breakthrough Energy Ventures BEV. The fund’s strict and only funding criterion? Its portfolio companies should be developing technologies that have the potential to reduce “about 1 percent of projected 2050 global emissions.” In envisioning a carbonless future, BEV’s focus areas include electricity, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing and buildings.
In December 2016, the consortium launched a $1 billion investment fund to back the “next generation of energy technologies.” Since its inception, BEV has made 19 investments all over the world in companies working to fight climate change by creating alternative proteins, commercializing nuclear energy and more. As it happens, the Boston-Cambridge area houses five of BEV’s portfolio companies.
Find the list below:
Boston Metal
In January, BEV led the $20 million round in Boston Metal, a Woburn-based company that has developed a process to reduce carbon emissions in steel making. Spun-out of MIT in 2012, Boston Metal replaces pollution-heavy techniques to transform metals with electricity. Its molten oxide electrolysis process uses electricity to transform metals from their raw oxide form into molten metal products, creating a potential to decarbonize the massive steel manufacturing industry.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems
With $115 million in its pocket, Commonwealth Fusion Systems — which is one of BostInno’s startups to watch in 2019 — is building a compact power plant with the final goal of accelerating commercial fusion power. Founded in 2017, Cambridge-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems exited stealth mode last June with Breakthrough Ventures leading its inaugural round of funding with $64 million. The company promises to bring fusion power to market in 15 years.
Form Energy
Somerville-based MIT spinoff Form Energy is developing a new type of battery that can store renewable energy for months at a fraction of the current cost. The technology uses sulfur instead of lithium to develop batteries. The Form Energy team found that, a natural byproduct of gas and oil refining, sulfur is not only plentiful but also particularly good at storing energy long-term. BEV joined Form Energy’s Series A round.
Malta
Malta Inc, which started as ‘Project Malta’ at Alphabet’s under-the-radar research and development company X, The Moonshot Factory and later incorporated as Malta Inc secured $26 million in a Series A round in December last year, which was led by BEV. Malta Inc works on storing renewable energy in molten salts. This energy storage system can store electricity for long periods of time (think weeks) and release it back to the grid when demand is high.
Motif Food Works
Motif, a Ginkgo Bioworks spinoff that exited stealth in February with $90 million in Series A, led by BEV. The company uses the Ginkgo Bioworks platform to produce food protein through fermentation. To produce alternatives to animal protein, The technology understands the genetics or genome sequence of a particular protein, synthesizes that sequence and manufactures it, and places it in yeast or other microbes and grows them in a tank through fermentation. The startup raised a follow-on round worth $27 million last week and rebranded to Motif FoodWorks.