Gigascale Capital has closed a $250m fund to back early-stage founders rebuilding the physical economy, the Palo Alto-based firm announced today.
The vehicle is Gigascale's first institutional raise since Schroepfer launched the firm in 2023 alongside General Partners Victoria Beasley and Evaline Tsai. The fund's LPs were not disclosed.
The investment vehicle has already deployed into more than 25 companies across clean energy, advanced manufacturing, grid infrastructure, and physical AI.
Gigascale is one of many US-based climate investors looking across the Atlantic to back European startups, as Impact Loop has previously reported.
Gigascale has already invested in three European companies including Cocoon, a London materials startup upcycling steel by-products into low-carbon cement alternatives, and Paris-based Dioxycle, which recently signed a multi-year offtake agreement with L'Oréal to convert captured carbon emissions into ethylene for plastic packaging.
Schroepfer frames the investment thesis around performance rather than purpose.
"Solar went from 40 gigawatts a year to 600 in a decade because it got cheaper, not because it got more virtuous," he said in a press statement.
"The companies we back win because they're cheaper, faster, and more reliable. Climate impact is the result of better-performing systems."