Climate Tech
John Doerr gives $1.1B to climate school as Kleiner Perkins sits out cleantech resurgence
May 4, 2022
Kleiner Perkins chair John Doerr and his wife Ann Doerr are donating $1.1 billion to Stanford University to fund the creation of a new school focused on sustainability and climate change.
Doerr's private actions reflect venture capital's surging interest in climate tech. But they also contrast the actions of Kleiner Perkins, which retreated from cleantech in the early 2010s and has yet to re-enter the sector in a meaningful way.
"This is the decisive decade, and we must act with full speed and scale," the Doerrs said in an announcement on Stanford's website.
In an earlier wave of enthusiasm for sustainable technologies, Kleiner Perkins was a leader in the sector. Between 2007 and 2011, the VC firm invested in 77 cleantech deals. Since 2017, it has participated in just 13 such deals, according to PitchBook data.
Rather than re-entering the cleantech space, in 2018 Kleiner Perkins spun out a separate firm called G2VP that specializes in sustainable investments. G2VP is part of a new generation of climate tech VCs that plowed $43.5 billion into the sector last year, up from $22.9 billion in 2020.
In interviews, Doerr frequently credits his sustainability awakening to "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore's climate film, and a call to action from his daughter. Gore has been a partner with Kleiner Perkins since 2007.
The earlier cleantech wave saw several notable failures within Kleiner Perkins' portfolio, part of a broader rout in cleantech companies that was worsened by declining natural gas prices.
Solar cell maker MiaSolé reportedly raised nearly $500 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, only to be acquired in 2013 for $30 million. Another photovoltaic bet, Beamreach Solar, raised more than $250 million before it went bankrupt in 2017.
Still, Kleiner Perkins' cleantech track record has notable bright spots. The firm was an early backer of next-generation lithium-metal battery maker QuantumScape, EV maker Proterra and other startups that achieved public exits.
Doerr's private actions reflect venture capital's surging interest in climate tech. But they also contrast the actions of Kleiner Perkins, which retreated from cleantech in the early 2010s and has yet to re-enter the sector in a meaningful way.
"This is the decisive decade, and we must act with full speed and scale," the Doerrs said in an announcement on Stanford's website.
In an earlier wave of enthusiasm for sustainable technologies, Kleiner Perkins was a leader in the sector. Between 2007 and 2011, the VC firm invested in 77 cleantech deals. Since 2017, it has participated in just 13 such deals, according to PitchBook data.
Rather than re-entering the cleantech space, in 2018 Kleiner Perkins spun out a separate firm called G2VP that specializes in sustainable investments. G2VP is part of a new generation of climate tech VCs that plowed $43.5 billion into the sector last year, up from $22.9 billion in 2020.
In interviews, Doerr frequently credits his sustainability awakening to "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore's climate film, and a call to action from his daughter. Gore has been a partner with Kleiner Perkins since 2007.
The earlier cleantech wave saw several notable failures within Kleiner Perkins' portfolio, part of a broader rout in cleantech companies that was worsened by declining natural gas prices.
Solar cell maker MiaSolé reportedly raised nearly $500 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, only to be acquired in 2013 for $30 million. Another photovoltaic bet, Beamreach Solar, raised more than $250 million before it went bankrupt in 2017.
Still, Kleiner Perkins' cleantech track record has notable bright spots. The firm was an early backer of next-generation lithium-metal battery maker QuantumScape, EV maker Proterra and other startups that achieved public exits.
Related read: VCs are betting on these startups to combat carbon emissions
Featured image by Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images
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