LONDON-based venture capital firm Transition Ventures has closed a $150m fund targeting power infrastructure, artificial intelligence, robotics as well as critical materials, said Bloomberg News.
The startup marks a significant pivot from the clean technology focus that defined Transition Ventures at its founding five years ago. It also reflects a broader reorientation among climate-focused investors towards companies that can meet the surging electricity demands of data centres driven by AI adoption, the newswire said.
Climate technology investment reached $128bn in 2022 at the peak of the green startup wave, according to BloombergNEF, but is forecast to reach $89bn in 2026, with an increasing share flowing to firms supporting AI infrastructure rather than emissions reduction.
Transition partner David Helgason, a co-founder of game software developer Unity Technologies, said the data centre buildout had become a defining investment theme. The firm has backed Olix Computing, which is developing faster AI chips, and Invisix, a semiconductor metrology startup, among others targeting bottlenecks in the AI buildout.
Not all of Transition’s earlier bets have paid off. Running Tide, an ocean-based carbon removal company in which the firm held a stake, collapsed in 2024 after failing to generate sufficient demand in the voluntary carbon market. Helgason described the experience as deeply difficult.
The new fund’s critical materials focus is likely to be of interest to mining sector observers, given the centrality of minerals supply to both the energy transition and AI hardware manufacturing, areas where investment appetite has proved more resilient than in direct carbon removal or green consumer technology.
