Cannon-Brookes taps new investment talent as Grok zeroes in on decarbonisation

The investment fund backed by billionaire clean tech investor Mike Cannon-Brookes will exclusively commit all its future investments to projects and technologies tackling climate change and supporting “decarbonisation of the planet”.

Announcing a “refined” investment strategy, Grok Ventures said on Friday that it would seek to focus its funds on opportunities “right across the climate capital stack”, spanning investments in early-stage climate tech start-ups through to major renewable energy infrastructure investments.

To help guide Grok’s exclusive focus on decarbonisation and climate-related investments, former Macquarie and BlackRock Asia investment banker Tan Kueh has been appointed as the fund’s new Chief Executive Officer.

“Grok has been a first mover and made real world impacts via their climate investing. I am excited by the opportunity of supporting Grok’s own ambitions to deploy more capital here in Australia and internationally,” Kueh said following the appointment.

Cannon-Brookes said the appointment of Kueh would inject new ideas and passion into the fund as it increases its focus on climate.

“Tan brings an incredible knowledge of global markets and climate tech, but most importantly, she is a visionary. She brings big ideas and big passion to solve the biggest challenge of our time – decarbonising our planet, quickly,” Cannon-Brookes said.
 
“We have huge goals, so Grok will be committing more capital to grow our portfolio and over time we’ll be looking to partner with others to scale our climate investment opportunities.”

Having built a multi-billion-dollar fortune as a co-founder of software company Atlassian, Cannon-Brookes has sought to deploy his wealth to back the development of new decarbonisation technologies. Since its formation, Grok has made more than $1.5 billion worth of investments.

These efforts have included the high-profile intervention at AGL Energy to oppose a proposed demerger of the gentailer – in an effort to accelerate the AGL’s shift away from coal.

Cannon-Brookes clashed with the previous leadership of AGL Energy, which had proposed a demerger that effectively lumped its fossil fuel assets into a spin-off entity, arguing that the move would slow down the phase-out of the coal projects.

After a falling out with co-investor Andrew Forrest, Grok Ventures has taken full control of the massive, 20GW SunCable project that is proposing to build a major renewable energy link between Australia and Singapore. Grok has also backed a range of clean tech start-ups that includes SunDrive, Goterra, Brighte and Solar Bay.

Grok announced late last year that it would offload earlier investments that were not aligned with its new climate-focused investment goal.

Grok’s Chief Investment Officer, Jeremy Kwong-Law, said the fund would look to fill a gap in climate technology finance, saying hesitancy from more established investors represented a major opportunity for growth.

“Seeding and scaling climate tech into climate infrastructure is going to require trillions of dollars in private capital. However, larger investors won’t fund these companies until the tech is proven at scale,” Kwong-Law said.

“This is the gap we are trying to fill, by investing early, de-risking the investments and working with founders to establish milestones that unlock additional forms of financing.”