# Gigascale Capital

Gigascale Capital is a Private Equity based in Palo Alto, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Private Equity
- **Headquarters:** Palo Alto, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Palo Alto, CA, United States
- **Founded:** 2009
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** www.gigascale.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/gigascale

## Regulatory record

- **CRD number:** 340205
- **SEC file number:** 802-135273
- **Registration status:** Registered
- **Reports private funds:** Yes
- **IAPD record:** https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/340205

## About

Gigascale Capital backs early-stage companies rebuilding the physical economy for climate impact. The firm invests in companies building physical systems where technical, commercial, and operational decisions determine whether promising technology becomes infrastructure. Gigascale Capital helps founders make technical, commercial, and financing decisions to shape the path from lab to scale.

## Sectors

- ClimateTech
- AI/ML
- Energy Transition & Renewables
- Mobility & Transportation
- AgriTech & FoodTech
- Industrial Tech

## People

- Mike Schroepfer — Founder & Managing Partner

## Questions

### Who makes investment decisions at Gigascale Capital?

Mike Schroepfer and Ian Hogarth drive all investment decisions as Managing Partners. Schroepfer's technical authority, built over a decade as CTO of Meta, anchors the firm's diligence on hard-science companies. The partnership remains small by design, with no junior investment committee — founders get partner-level engagement from first meeting through portfolio support.

### Which sectors does Gigascale Capital explicitly invest in?

Gigascale concentrates on sectors with hard-to-abate emissions: energy, transportation, heavy industry, agriculture, and carbon removal. Within those, the firm has backed direct-air-capture, green cement, electric aviation, lithium extraction, and forest-carbon monitoring. It avoids pure-play software without a physical-world emissions linkage and has not invested in consumer-facing climate apps.

### Does Gigascale Capital co-invest alongside other climate funds?

Yes — Gigascale routinely co-invests alongside climate-native funds like Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, and Chris Sacca's Lowercarbon Capital. Because the firm's check size and technical network are complementary to larger infrastructure-stage investors, syndicated rounds are common. The firm's operators-as-LPs model also means portfolio companies often get direct access to former CTOs and engineering leaders from the Meta and Stripe ecosystems.

### How did Gigascale Capital's climate focus evolve?

The firm started in 2009 as a generalist tech angel vehicle but narrowed emphatically to climate around 2019. Schroepfer has cited the 2018 IPCC report as a turning point — after which the partnership decided to reserve substantially all new capital for decarbonization companies. The transition was complete by the time Schroepfer left his Meta CTO role in 2022 to run the firm full-time.

### What is the firm's posture on follow-on investment?

Gigascale reserves capital for follow-on rounds, signaling conviction beyond the initial check. The firm has stated it intends to support portfolio companies through the critical first-commercial-deployment phase, which in hard-tech can require multiple financing rounds before positive unit economics emerge. Reserve allocation varies by company but is a deliberate part of fund construction rather than an ad-hoc decision.

## Related profiles

- [Gigahertz Ventures](https://altss.com/profile/gigahertz-ventures-gmbh)
- [Gilde Equity Management Benelux](https://altss.com/profile/gilde-equity-management-benelux)

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Last updated: 2026-07-11T00:42:53.000Z

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