The Schmidt Family Foundation

"There is a perception that clean-energy projects serving historically underinvested communities are inherently riskier..." says Aner Ben-Ami of Candide Group. "Our experience suggests something different." Today, Candide Group announced the $71.5M final close of its Afterglow Climate Justice Fund. Launched in 2023, the fund aims to enable clean energy and climate resilience projects in communities with some of the highest energy costs, greatest climate risks, and most severe barriers to conventional financing. So far, the fund has deployed $35 million across 12 U.S. borrowers, financing projects from distributed solar to battery storage to clean transportation and more, all while reducing energy costs and adding green jobs. We're excited to be an investor in this fund, and we look forward to seeing the effect it continues to have on climate justice. https://lnkd.in/gQGMZVNs #climatejustice #impactinvestment

From new outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases to devastating funding cuts, public health is in crisis. That’s why we’re announcing Schmidt Global Health, a nonprofit philanthropic organization working toward a healthy world for all. Although it’s not a replacement for government funding, we believe philanthropy has a role to play in supporting health, especially in a time of need. Schmidt Global Health is working to improve public health by strengthening the systems and advancing the technology used to monitor, identify and respond to emerging disease threats worldwide. We’ve already begun our work, focusing on changing the systems rather than on particular diseases, regions, treatments or vaccines. So far we’ve funded: -The World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme to scale up outbreak response, including addressing Ebola -WHO’s Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence to build capacity for early threat detection -The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists to support outbreak monitoring in the U.S. and to prepare for global events, including this summer’s World Cup -Sierra Leone Ebola Database to preserve and manage data that help prepare for future outbreaks of the devastating disease -Pacific Public Health Surveillance Network to increase coordination, detection and response to public health emergencies across 22 Pacific Island countries and territories In a world as deeply interconnected as ours, in which challenges respect no borders, solutions need to be as swift, responsive and far-reaching as the problems themselves. Schmidt Global Health is embracing the challenge of answering an urgent international need in a rapid yet systemic way, working toward our philanthropic vision of a healthy, resilient and secure world for all.

Congratulations to EA Foods on raising $40M to expand its food supply chain and strengthen its infrastructure. 👏 Backed by investors including the Schmidt Family Foundation, the Tanzania-based agritech sources directly from 28,000+ farmers, then grades, processes, and distributes produce to 10,000+ urban retailers to eliminate food waste. Read more in Africa Private Equity News: https://lnkd.in/gTisweNf #Agritech #AgriBusiness #FoodSecurity #ImpactInvesting

Congratulations to the winners! “The better we can understand and price risk, the faster we can deploy the new technologies we know we need to achieve our climate goals," says Kyle McEneaney, Climate Tech Program Director at the Schmidt Family Foundation. "But markets don’t incent risk management innovation, especially in sectors like novel climate technology, which aren’t yet operating at scale. This year's winners are using new tools to help investors underwrite with more confidence, so that new technologies can scale faster.”

We’re excited to announce LabStart’s work to make climate intellectual property easier to find, understand, and evaluate. LabStart was founded to address the fact that there’s so much promising climate technology sitting in universities and labs that never makes it into the world. In partnership with TEA Commons, and with support from The Schmidt Family Foundation, we’re developing a publicly available tool that will: 🔍 Increase the amount of IP evaluated ⏱️ Reduce the time needed to find and vet IP 🔤 Translate jargon Learn more about the tool and this initiative: https://lnkd.in/gV2p5SQ6

🌁 How can philanthropy bridge the gap between scientific discovery and impact? In a new essay co-authored by our own Kyle McEneaney alongside Orin Herskowitz and Kumar Garg, the trio argues that philanthropy is uniquely suited to help innovations cross this "Innovation-to-Impact Bridge," not just by funding basic research or early-stage startups, but by addressing failure points along the way. Our Climate Tech program is focused on helping necessary new technologies reach scale. That also means making the most of investments already made, so we're exploring ways to recapture value from prior investments by repurposing stranded-but-useful IP, essentially creating a "drip tray" for the leaky innovation pipeline. Read the full piece on Renaissance Philanthropy: https://lnkd.in/gUMEyVAS

Just got back from The Drop, a climate-tech gathering in Malmö bringing together startups and investors working on decarbonization. It was a great opportunity to catch up with founders, funders, and philanthropists from across Europe and beyond, working on everything from biochar and palm oil replacements to AI forecasting climate tipping points and PFAS remediation. The main takeaway: high-impact climate-tech companies are growing and deploying. Committed founders are finding real traction for their low-emission, high-performance products. One highlight of the week was a FOAK-focused event hosted by Devcapita, Developer U, The Schmidt Family Foundation, and TAH Foundation. We heard from founders who've successfully pieced together offtake contracts, co-location agreements, in-kind services, and government grants to begin construction on their first commercial projects and getting real decarbonizing products out into the world. After a great week in Malmö, I'm heading to New York Climate Week to continue the conversation stateside. More soon.