Al Gore raises $683 million

Al Gore’s baby, the Climate Solutions Fund, has managed to raise a whopping $683 million in funding through Generation Investment Management, and that is just the initial funding round, of shaking its tin cup.

The soft closure of the Al Gore chaired, Global Equity Strategy fund has left it with $2.2 billion in the bank.

They also intend to grab up to $5 billion by 2010, and this makes it easily the biggest ‘green’ fund raising venture ever attempted.

They aim to use the available cash to invest in small tech companies that are focused on what the fund believes to be key environmental areas.

The conversion of energy from biomass and biofuels, energy efficient technologies, the emerging carbon trading markets and finally renewable energy, each investment is expected to be around the $25 to $30 million mark, which would obviously be a huge boost to many of these companies.

Of the $683 assigned to Al Gore’s fund it is expected that somewhere around $100 million will be earmarked for a new subsidiary fund, whose details are due to be made public today.

Investors are expecting to see their cash back in five to ten years, but they could also see substantial profits, should even a couple of the ventures turn out to be real ‘green’ winners.