Venture Capital Firm Raises $175M for Climate Investment Fund

(Bloomberg) -- Venture firm Congruent Ventures has raised $175 million for a fund that focuses on investments in early stage climate-technology companies.

Participating investors include the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund and affiliates of Prelude Ventures, according to a statement. Congruent had targeted $125 million for the fund.

“If you brought up the word clean-tech to any institutional investor allocating to venture 10 years ago, they would do their best to avoid the meeting,” Abe Yokell, managing partner and co-founder of Congruent, said in an interview. “But now, there’s a fundamental belief there will be significant financial returns investing broadly in climate tech over time.”

The new fund has already made seven initial investments, including in Parallel Systems, which focuses on electrified autonomous rail cars. Congruent has supported 36 companies over the past four years, and runs another, similar climate-focused fund.

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