Melinda French Gates Pledges $1B to Women and Climate-Tech

By: Women Entrepreneurs Review Team | Tuesday, 15 September 2026

Melinda French Gates is committing $1 billion through 2026 to strengthen women’s power and influence globally, with part of the broader effort supporting women-led investment funds and climate-focused ventures. Through Pivotal Ventures, Melinda has invested in Planeteer Capital, a climate-tech fund led by Sophie Purdom that backs early-stage companies developing solutions to climate change.

The investment comes as women remain significantly underrepresented in climate-tech financing. According to PwC, solo female founders accounted for just 5.28 per cent of climate-tech deals and received only 1.14 per cent of the funding during the first nine months of 2024. Melinda’ approach focuses not only on increasing capital available to women entrepreneurs but also on supporting women who influence investment decisions.

Melinda announced the additional $1 billion commitment in May 2024 as part of her philanthropic work focused on advancing women’s power and influence. The funding, which will be deployed through 2026, aims to support organizations working to remove barriers for women in the workplace, advance women’s rights and power, improve women’s health and strengthen the broader funding ecosystem.

Key Highlights:

• Melinda commits $1 billion through 2026 to advance women’s power and influence
• Pivotal Ventures invests in Planeteer Capital, a women-led climate-tech fund backing early-stage climate solutions
• Women remain underrepresented in climate-tech funding, receiving only 1.14 per cent of funding in the first nine months of 2024

The commitment also aims to provide women with more decision-making power, ownership of resources and policy influence. Pivotal Ventures, the investment business of Pivotal, complements this work with investments that aim to deliver financial return and benefit the founders and fund managers that have traditionally been underrepresented in traditional capital.

Planeteer Capital is just one instance of this approach. The fund, led by Sophie Purdom, has a thematic focus on the early-stage climate tech companies developing solutions in food and land use, manufacturing, buildings and climate risk mitigation and adaptation. In 2025, Planeteer rounded up its first round of funding at $54 million, which included Pivotal Ventures as an investor.

The fund not only gives access to capital to early-stage climate businesses, but also puts a women-led investment firm in the driver's seat for deciding which new technologies to invest in. This is in line with Pivotal's broader effort to shift the paradigm on who invests in investment capital and who funds ideas.

Women entrepreneurs still are under-represented in climate-tech funding. The first nine months of 2024 saw only male founders receive 91.56 per cent of all funding for climate-tech startups, according to PwC's analysis of over 12,000 startups. Among the female-led organizations, there was an increased emphasis on climate adaptation, as over one-third of deals were climate adaptation and almost half of funding raised by solo female founders was in the field of adaptation and resilience solutions.

The gap also manifests itself in the investment leadership. According to the International Finance Corporation, women occupy just 11 per cent of senior roles in emerging markets private equity and venture capital companies. Since 2018, Pivotal Ventures has worked to resolve the disparity by supporting women-led funds.

It says it has helped 20 women-led companies to manage $5 billion in assets in 2024. Planeteer Capital is one of these investments, bringing women's leadership in finance together with climate solutions.

Melinda and Pivotal Ventures are looking to boost women's role in investment decision-making and as entrepreneurs by supporting them. The strategy emphasizes increased access to funding, as well as the increased involvement of women in directing investments towards climate innovation and sustainable solutions.