New fund aims to back "revolutionary," climate-friendly tech

The prominent climate tech-focused VC firm Energy Impact Partners has raised $200 million — and is aiming for more — for a new fund to support "early-stage, revolutionary technologies" across several industries.

Driving the news: EIP announced the launch of the Deep Decarbonization Frontier Fund yesterday with a target of $350 million.

Backers include a suite of corporate heavyweights like Microsoft, Duke Energy and several other big power companies, the big engineering firm Burns & McDonnell and others.

Why it matters: While faster deployment of existing tech can yield big emissions cuts, wringing CO2 almost fully out of the economy will require advances and scale in areas like steel, cement, battery storage, clean hydrogen, agriculture and more.

• EIP said, "an unprecedented wave of innovation is coming to help solve the biggest, most challenging problems in deep decarbonization."
• Demand for zero-carbon energy and products will "drive enormous commercial outcomes for the winners," the firm said.

How it works: The fund is looking to invest in technologies before they're fully mature and commercialized, targeting seed to Series C rounds, EIP's Shayle Kann, a partner in the fund, tells Axios via email.

Fund investments to date include the multiday storage company Form Energy, hydrogen startup Electric Hydrogen, nuclear fusion startup Zap Energy, and firms focused on cleaner fertilizer, cement and steel production and more.