Exclusive: Blue Bear nears $200M with third fund

Climate tech venture investor Blue Bear Capital is nearing $200 million for a third fund, a person familiar with the raise tells Axios.

Why it matters: The fund is broadly focused on energy and climate but is especially interested in "capital light" startups working in software or machine intelligence.

Driving the news: Blue Bear in October disclosed that it had raised $118.5 million for its third fund, per an SEC filing.

• That amount has now surpassed $150 million, the person familiar tells Axios. "It's getting closer to $200 million," the person says.
• The Jackson, Wyoming-based firm expects a final close on the fund by the end of Q1.

Zoom in: The fund will make initial investments of $2 million to $6 million, typically as lead investor.

• It will focus on "early revenue-stage" startups, largely between seed and Series A.

The latest: The fund has invested in four startups: EV charger repair provider ChargerHelp, government funding startup Pioneer, energy rental marketplace Skoon, and wildfire insurance provider Delos.

Between the lines: Those four startups aren't exclusively in software.

• "The value, the intellectual property, is in the software engineering and systems integration — the machine intelligence that allows it to work and is differentiating," the person familiar says.