Tom Steyer Closes $1B Climate Fund | Chief Investment Officer

Tom Steyer, founder and former managing partner at Farallon Capital and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, has raised a $1 billion climate investment fund.

The Innovation + Expansion Fund, from Steyer’s new firm, Galvanize Climate Solutions, will provide venture and growth equity funding to early and growth stage climate startups. Specifically, the fund will target companies that are able to provide near-term decarbonization.

Funding was raised from institutional investors, endowments, foundations and family offices. The fund identifies itself as one of the largest funds dedicated to climate tech, rivaling the $235 million Green Climate Fund and Bill Gates’ $1 billion Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, among the largest climate funds, according to Bloomberg.

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“Fully realizing the most significant investment opportunity of our time and succeeding in ushering in the climate transition will require more than capital alone,” Steyer said in a statement. “That’s why, based on years of investment experience and an understanding of the resources needed to accelerate critical climate solutions, we deliberately built Galvanize to forge a new model for climate investing, alongside constructing a world-class team built for this moment. We are thrilled to have the support of our partners in pursuit of this opportunity.”

The Innovation + Expansion fund will be led by former Ajax Strategies partner Veery Maxwell; former Joe Biden presidential campaign CFO, Blackstone director and Congruent Ventures partner Saloni Multani; and former Riverstone managing director and Credit Suisse banker Cliff Ryan. All three will serve as co-heads of growth.

“We are witnessing an inflection point in the transformation of the global economy,” Multani said in a statement. “The alignment of market forces—including corporate commitments, regulatory and policy progress, consumer expectations, workforce talent preferences, technological maturation and economic competitiveness—is driving substantial tailwinds behind the climate sector. We believe immense value will accrue to the technologies and solutions that can drive meaningful decarbonization over the next decade.”

Galvanize has allocated funds from the Innovation + Expansion Fund to 11 companies within the energy, transportation, real estate, agriculture and carbon removal sectors. These companies include Alcemy, Arable, Lydian, Plotlogic, Pulsora, Regrow, The Routing Co., Veir, Watershed, Worldy and Zhero.

Tags: Cliff Ryan, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Innovation + Expansion Fund, Saloni Multani, Tom Steyer, Veery Maxwell

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System announced the departure of Nicole Musicco, the fund’s CIO, effective September 29. Musicco cited attending to the “immediate needs of family” in Toronto as her reason for leaving CalPERS.

Deputy CIO Dan Bienvenue, who has been with CalPERS since 2004 and has held several leadership roles with the office, will serve as interim CIO until a replacement is found.

“Leading the CalPERS investment office has been an honor, and I am proud of the work my team has done to fulfill the retirement promises made to the 2 million Californians who have spent their lives in public service,” Musicco said in a statement. “However, at this time I need to prioritize those who need me the most, my family and children.”

Musicco often traveled between Toronto and Sacramento for family reasons, according to the statement.

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“Nicole has brought to her work the vision and the values that we needed, the kind of approach that added real clarity and strength to our investing,” CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost said in the statement. “While it will be hard to see her go, we know it’s the right decision to put her family first and we applaud the strength it took to do so.”

Musicco, the second woman to ever lead the investment division, took the role in March 2022, more than a year after the departure of Ben Meng, who was embroiled in controversy after he approved a $1 billion investment into a Blackstone private equity fund while personally holding $100,000 in Blackstone shares in 2021.

Prior to her role as CalPERS CIO, Musicco was a partner at private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners and spent more than 16 years at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, where she held the titles of head of public equities and head of Asia Pacific.

Tags: Ben Meng, California Public Employees’ Retirement System, CalPERS, Marcie Frost, Nicole Musicco