In brief: Tom Steyer rides climate fund momentum with Galvanize launch

American billionaire investor Tom Steyer has entered the fundraising fray for climate-focused investment vehicles with the launch of a new platform called Galvanize Climate Solutions.

Steyer is the founder of multi-strategy asset manager Farallon Capital and a former presidential candidate who made fighting climate change a core theme of his campaign. The investment initiative comes off a red-hot fundraising summer for firms collecting capital to invest in climate-related opportunities. Private markets investors including Brookfield, TPG and Goldman Sachs are in the process of raising billions to invest in this burgeoning corner of the market.

Three things to note:

1. Steyer described the Galvanize initiative as “investment with activism” in an interview with Axios. He plans to combine his business acumen with policy insiders to find deals and grow promising companies.
2. Katie Hall, co-founder and co-chair of Hall Capital Partners, is partnering with Steyer to lead Galvanize. Other senior team members include Veery Maxwell from Ajax Investment Strategies, Saloni Multani, previously at the law firm Hellman & Friedman and the chief financial officer of President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, Cliff Ryan of the private equity firm Riverstone Holdings and Christian Artmann of Deutsche Bank.
3. An initial fundraising target hasn’t been set for Galvanize but the platform is expected to raise billions of dollars. Initial investment commitments have come from Time Ventures and Emerson Collective. The early plan is to invest in areas including carbon sequestration and agricultural technologies.