Climate investor Bay Bridge Ventures is raising a new $200 million fund, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
Bay Bridge filed paperwork for the new climate fund with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The increase comes at a time when venture capitalists are increasingly optimistic about climate technologies.
Although recent years have seen a slowdown in the general venture capital market, a number of companies have raised staggering sums of money to back climate technology founders. SOSV announced on Tuesday a $306 million deep tech fund that will be 70% focused on climate. New Summit Investments raises $100 million impact fund. And Congruent Ventures raised a $275 million fund in 2023, turning down $325 million in additional LP interest.
The difference, however, is that these are all relatively established companies. Bay Bridge Ventures is new, having been founded in 2022 with a broader focus on ESG and sustainability in particular. Although the company participated in a $10 million funding round for SailPlan in 2022, according to PitchBook, it does not appear to have any other investments or funds of record, based on a search of filings with SEC and PitchBook data.
That doesn’t mean Bay Bridge lacks experience, however. General partner Andrew Karsh left pension fund CalPERS to co-found the firm. Its co-founders Joe Blair and Kim Kolt aren’t new to the scene either. Blair previously worked at Cota Capital and Obvious Ventures and currently hosts the Epic Human podcast. Kolt founded For Good Ventures and previously worked at Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.
The company did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
The team’s previous investments span a range of industries, including sustainable footwear company Allbirds, power grid software startup Arcadia, electric vehicle fleet charging company Amply, and launch startup space Astra.
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