Anti-Trump Billionaire Tom Steyer hosts a town hall meeting on December 4, 2018 in Charleston, South Carolina. Steyer, founder of NextGen America and Need to Impeach, is testing the waters for a 2020 presidential run.
Sean Rayford | Getty Images
Billionaire financier and 2020 presidential candidate Tom Steyer announced Thursday he is launching a climate investment fund, called Galvanize Climate Solutions.
It will invest “in the billions” of dollars in various decarbonization efforts, ranging from seed-stage start-ups to major investments in business expansions, a spokesperson for Steyer told CNBC.
The fund will focus on what Steyer called “Movement Capitalism,” or using capitalism to make change.
“Movement Capitalism is an economic philosophy that employs the foundations of
capitalism – innovation, entrepreneurship, competition – and merges those with the power of global activism, in support of a higher public purpose,” said Steyer in a written statement. “The practice of Movement Capitalism involves not only generating profit, but also successfully addressing global challenges, such as the climate crisis.”
Steyer is co-founded the fund with Kathryn Hall, the founder and co-chair of Hall Capital Partners, an investment advisory firm which has $40 billion in assets under management for foundations, endowments and family funds.
Prior to his 2020 presidential bid as a Democrat and public advocacy for President Donald Trump’s impeachment, Steyer spent more than two decades running the a global investment business, Farallon Capital Management.
Salesforce billionaire Marc Benioff‘s investment fund Time Ventures will be one of the strategic investors of Galvanize Climate Solutions.
“Ecopreneurs, and the technology they’re inventing to slow climate change, give me hope as we fight to save our planet,” Benioff said in a written statement announcing the launch of the fund. “Galvanize will show us what’s possible when you bring finance, business and the public and private sectors together to fuel ecopreneurs, accelerate the transition to clean energy and decarbonize our planet. We need everyone involved in this fight.”
