Climate investor Bay Bridge Ventures is raising a new $200 million fund, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
Bay Bridge filed paperwork Monday for the new climate fund with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The raise comes at a time when venture investors are increasingly bullish on climate tech.
Though the last few years have been marked by a downturn in the general venture market, a number of firms have raised eye-popping sums to back climate tech founders. SOSV announced on Tuesday a $306 million deep tech fund that will be 70% focused on climate. New Summit Investments is raising a $100 million impact fund. And Congruent Ventures raised a $275 million fund in 2023, turning down $325 million in additional LP interest.
The difference, though, is that those are all relatively established firms. Bay Bridge Ventures is new, having been founded in 2022 with a focus on ESG more broadly and sustainability in particular. Though the firm participated in a $10 million round for SailPlan in 2022, according to PitchBook, it doesn’t appear to have any other investments or funds on record, based on a search of SEC filings and PitchBook data.
Still, that doesn’t mean Bay Bridge lacks experience. General partner Andrew Karsh left pension fund CalPERS to co-found the firm. His co-founders Joe Blair and Kim Kolt aren’t new to the scene, either. Blair previously worked at Cota Capital and Obvious Ventures and currently hosts the Epic Human Podcast. Kolt founded For Good Ventures and previously worked at Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.
The firm did not reply to a request for comment prior to publication.
The team’s previous investments span a range of industries, including sustainable shoe company Allbirds, electric grid software startup Arcadia, fleet EV charging company Amply and space launch startup Astra.
