Loading people...
Carmichael Roberts is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at Material Impact and Co-lead of the Investment Committee at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, based in Boston, Massachusetts. He holds a PhD in Chemistry and a BS from Duke University, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, and earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to launching Material Impact in 2016, he served as a General Partner at North Bridge Venture Partners and Threshold Ventures, backing life sciences companies including Ginkgo Bioworks and Recursion Pharmaceuticals. In 2017, he joined the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures, where he helps manage multibillion-dollar climate funds and was recognized on the Forbes Midas List in 2023 and 2024. His current investment strategy focuses on commercializing deep technology and materials science innovations to address global sustainability challenges.
Carmichael Roberts, a distinguished Managing Partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), stands at the forefront of climate technology investment. His pivotal role at BEV is dedicated to identifying, nurturing, and funding the next generation of companies poised to achieve net-zero emissions globally. Roberts brings a unique and powerful combination of deep scientific expertise, entrepreneurial drive, and extensive venture capital experience to tackle the urgent challenges of the climate crisis.
As a Managing Partner, Carmichael Roberts is instrumental in shaping BEV's overarching investment strategy and meticulously curating its diverse portfolio. Breakthrough Energy Ventures, founded by Bill Gates, is specifically designed to back deep tech and hard science innovations that possess the potential to dramatically decarbonize five critical sectors: electricity, agriculture, manufacturing, buildings, and transport. Roberts and his expert team rigorously seek out companies developing breakthrough technologies that offer significant potential for substantial emissions reduction, coupled with a clear and viable path to widespread market adoption and scalable impact. This encompasses a broad range of areas, including advanced energy storage solutions, sustainable materials, precision agriculture techniques, and innovative industrial decarbonization processes. His investment approach emphasizes rigorous scientific due diligence and a strategic, long-term view on achieving profound environmental and economic impact.
Before co-founding Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Roberts established a distinguished and impactful career in both venture capital and entrepreneurship. He served as a General Partner at North Bridge Venture Partners, where his investment focus spanned life sciences and cutting-edge technology. His innate entrepreneurial spirit led him to successfully co-found several innovative companies, including Surface Logix, a pharmaceutical company, and Arsenal Medical, a pioneering medical device firm. Roberts holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Duke University and further honed his scientific acumen through a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. This robust scientific foundation underpins his exceptional ability to evaluate complex technologies, discern their true disruptive potential, and guide them through the intricate challenges of commercialization.
While at BEV, Carmichael Roberts has been actively involved in backing numerous transformative companies that are reshaping industries. These include pioneers in sustainable food like Impossible Foods, which revolutionized the plant-based meat market; Form Energy, developing novel long-duration energy storage solutions critical for grid stability; Boston Metal, focused on groundbreaking green steel production; and Lilac Solutions, innovating lithium extraction processes essential for electric vehicle batteries. These notable investments exemplify BEV's unwavering commitment to supporting companies that bravely tackle the toughest climate challenges with scalable, impactful, and scientifically sound solutions. Roberts' visionary leadership ensures that BEV continues to be a critical catalyst in the global transition to a sustainable, low-carbon future.
Carmichael Roberts invests in groundbreaking climate technology companies through Breakthrough Energy Ventures. His focus areas span electricity, agriculture, manufacturing, buildings, and transport, targeting scientific breakthroughs and hard tech innovations that can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Carmichael Roberts works as a Managing Partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV). BEV is a venture capital fund founded by Bill Gates, dedicated to investing in companies that are developing technologies to combat climate change.
