Businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates, who has figured in the top 5 richest people around the world almost since money was invented, has announced a brand new fund that will seek to encourage green technologies in Europe. He has also backed his words with some serious moolah, adding $116 million to the fund to give it a running start.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures is a startup fund founded by billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates. It has now opened up a $116 million investment fund, that will help European companies develop clean technologies. Just in case you are wondering about the odd figure, its actually Euro 100 million. With the current exchange rates, it equates to somewhere around $116 million.
Gates announced the new fund in Brussels, where he was meeting with the European Commission president Jean Claude Juckner. Speaking about his motives behind this fund, Gates said:
We need new technologies to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Scientists and entrepreneurs who are developing innovations to address climate change need capital to build companies that can deliver those innovations to the global market.
Climate change has always been a cause close to Bill Gates heart. And by creating companies that can develop and implement technologies that will be able to combat climate change, he is trying to create sustainable business opportunities on the back of a sorely needed green model. With leaders like Trump outright denying the existence of global warming, Bill Gates’s attempt is praiseworthy.
