David Friedberg Net Worth

Net Worth	$ 1,200,000,000
Real name	David Albert Friedberg
Source of Wealth	Entrepreneurship and investment portfolio
Profession	Entrepreneur, businessman, angel investor
Spouse/Partner	Married to Allison Broude Friedberg
Date of Birth	Jun 1, 1980
Zodiac	Gemini
Age	43
Gender	Male
Pronoun	He/Him
Height	177 cm / 5 ft 9 inch
Nationality	South African-American
Siblings	Unknown

Biography

David Albert Friedberg is a serial entrepreneur, businessman, tycoon, and angel investor.^[1]He has founded and managed companies from various sectors, including investment banking and private equity, weather and auto insurance, food, agriculture, and life sciences.

But what he has gained popularity with on the business scene is his focus on environmental sustainability.

He was the founder and CEO of The Climate Corporation, a company dedicated to helping farmers increase their productivity with digital tools.^[2]The company was bought by Monsanto, an agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation, for $1.1 billion in 2013. This acquisition put Friedberg in the spotlight and put The Climate Corporation on the radar as the first unicorn startup (a startup valued at over $1 billion in the agricultural tech field.

Friedberg is currently the Founder and CEO of The Production Board (TPB), a business aimed at solving the fundamental challenges that affect our planet and humanity, such as climate change, sustainable food production, reduction of CO2, and sustainable use of resources.^[3]

Thanks to the sale of The Climate Corporation, Friedberg’s net worth is estimated at $1.2 billion.

Early life

David Friedberg was born in South Africa, but his family moved to Los Angeles, California, when he was six. He showed interest in environmental protection at a young age. He was the president of the environmental club “Students H.O.P.E.” (Students Healing Our Planet Earth) during high school.

He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2001 with a B.A. in Astrophysics.

Explore the net worth of Pete Kadens, Chairman of the Kadens Family Foundation.

Career - Journey from investment banking to Google to weather insurance and sustainability

After graduating, he worked in investment banking for 3 years. In March 2004, Friedberg joined Google, making him one of the first 1,000 in the company.

He held the position of Corporate Development and Business Product Manager at Google and managed the running of Google's online advertising platform, AdWords (now Google Ads). Friedberg also worked with Google’s co-founder Larry Page on acquisition negotiations.

His Google experience played a big part in modeling his business and entrepreneurial skills.

Venturing into weather insurance with WeatherBill and The Climate Corporation

While still working at Google, Friedberg got an idea about an online weather insurance company. He was living in San Francisco and regularly passing by Bike Hut. He noticed that bike sales dropped when it rained, and he began thinking about the weather's impact on the business.

This inspired Friedberg to come up with a solution. He left Google to create an online weather insurance company named WeatherBill in 2006.^[4]

He changed the name of the company to The Climate Corporation in 2011. The company was primarily focused on agriculture and offered farmers the ability to track and analyze the weather to make informed decisions to improve their crop yields with the help of data-science technology.

The Climate Corporation was acquired by the agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology Monsanto in 2013 for a whopping $1.1 billion, making it a unicorn startup (a startup valued at over $1 billion) in the agricultural technology field. Friedberg remained in the company executive team until 2015.

Creating The Production Board

Inspired by his passion for environmental sustainability, Friedberg started talking to Larry Page about ways to develop and financially support startups focused on sustainable food production, agricultural technology, decreasing CO2 emissions, and advancement of life sciences.

Page agreed to finance the enterprise that Friedberg would run through his parent company Alphabet. Friedberg launched The Production Board (TPB) in 2016.

The holding company collaborates with scientists, business experts, and entrepreneurs to find solutions for the gravest challenges humanity is facing – consumption, food production, CO2 emission, and their effect on climate change.

Their mission is to change the production system on Earth, so we can consume less energy, less land, and natural resources.

“I’m a big believer that sustainability in the 21st century doesn’t arise from convincing consumers to consume less. I think sustainability arises from building technology solutions that allow consumers to consume more and drop the environmental impact [at the same time],” stated Friedberg in the interview with Shaan Puri. (linked above)

TPB has created or financed multiple food, agriculture, biomanufacturing, and health businesses, including Culture, SuperGut, Triplebar, Every by Clara Foods, Tillable, Cana, Soylent, and NorQuin.^[5]

Other ventures

After getting experience in the insurance industry, Friedberg shifted to the auto insurance industry. He figured out that mileage is a deciding factor in risk and loss. So he created the pay-per-mile company Metromile.

Additionally, he is a Board member and executive chairman of several businesses supported by The Production Board, including Pattern Ag, Clara Foods, Soylent, Supergut, Cana Technologies, and Triplebar.

Friedberg also bought the Canadian quinoa supplier NorQuin in 2014, which got him the nickname “Queen of Quinoa.”

He’s also the co-host of the technology podcast “All-In,” which covers topics like economics, tech, politics, social, and poker.^[6]

Friedberg is a frequent speaker in various events, lectures, and webinars discussing innovation, entrepreneurship, and business.

In one of his most popular lectures, he stood before students at Stanford and talked about “Entrepreneurship Gives Life Meaning.”

Personal life

Friedberg hasn’t disclosed much about his personal life and family. It’s only known that he is married to Allison Broude Friedberg, and they have no children.

Conclusion

David Albert Friedberg is an American entrepreneur, businessman, and angel investor. He is popular for focusing on environmental sustainability and financially helping multiple food, agriculture, biomanufacturing, and health businesses.

He is currently the CEO of The Production Board (TPB), a company dedicated to solving humanity's most fundamental problems. He sold his first company, The Climate Corporation, for $1.1 billion. Friedberg’s net worth is estimated at $1.2 billion.

References