Nearly two dozen of the world’s most successful business leaders and venture capitalists have formed a new venture firm, Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), which will invest up to $1 billion via a fund led by Bill Gates. The fund will finance emerging energy breakthroughs to deliver affordable and reliable energy, with the ultimate goal of the reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to nearly zero, according to the firm's official website.

The Breakthrough Energy Ventures Fund includes Jack Ma, founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba; Pan Shiyi, chairman of SOHO China, the largest office real estate developer in China; Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and 14 other high-profile investors.

Ma believes that with the effort of BEV, which will combine technological and scientific innovation with investment expertise, entrepreneurs can make money while also supporting the environment.

"Together, we'll remind the world that visionary ideas make wonderful realities,” Ma said.

BEV is a formal initiative of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group announced at the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference. The group, composed of tech and finance all-stars, pledged to invest in early-stage start-ups in nations that are ramping up their R&D funding for clean tech, to reach a collective $30 billion by 2020.