Ep. 202: Gabriel Kra, Managing Director and Co-founder at Prelude Ventures

Today's guest is Gabriel Kra, Managing Director and Co-founder at Prelude Ventures. Prelude Ventures is a venture capital firm partnering with entrepreneurs to address climate change. The firm has invested in over 60 companies across advanced energy, food and agriculture, transportation and logistics, advanced materials and manufacturing, and advanced computing. Prelude has a long-term commitment to the sector, accept informed risks, and couples a fundamental emphasis on venture-level returns with an understanding of deep-tech and hardware development timelines. Prelude manages capital exclusively for Simons family philanthropic entities and is a founding member of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition. Gabriel co-founded Prelude Ventures in 2013, after almost 25 years as an investor, entrepreneur, scientist, activist, and ski-bum. Before launching Prelude Ventures, Gabriel spent four years as an investment banker with Deutsche Bank in its solar and semiconductor groups. He also was an early employee at venture-backed telecommunications and semiconductor start-ups, where he was instrumental in raising money, launching products, developing technology, and getting acquired. Gabriel's early experience working a summer at Yellowstone National Park and for Greenpeace sparked his lifelong commitment to fighting climate change. In this episode, Gabriel walks me through Prelude Ventures' founding, Gabriel's career path leading to climate investing, and why a generalist mindset to climate investing is important. We also discuss Prelude's single LP model, why venture investing translates well to helping solve climate change, and the role fossil fuels play in the clean future. Gabriel is a great guest, and this is a fantastic episode. Enjoy the show! You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests. Episode recorded March 10th, 2022