Al Gore invests £7m in online supermarket Ocado

Former US vice-president and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore has invested £7m in online grocer Ocado. His investment is part of a £50m fundraising exercise by the brand ahead of a possible stockmarket flotation.

Gore, whose financial acumen is well documented, has taken a 1 per cent share in the business through the investment firm Generation that he co-founded and now chairs.

He joins an impressive rollcall of shareholders in the online supermarket including Tetra Pak billionaire Jorn Rausing, one of Britain's richest man, and the John Lewis Partnership (JLP), the owners of Waitrose and one of the brand's original investors.

Aside from Gore, other investors to come on board in the latest round of fundraising include fund management company Fidelity International, which, like Gore, ploughed money into Google before its stock market launch.

Despite its high profile and lofty ambitions to challenge the big four supermarkets Ocado, founded in 2002, has yet to make a profit despite a turnover of £450m a year. The company's co-founder Jason Gissing said the latest injection of capital would help the business improve its customer service - it recently launched an iPhone application allowing customers to order their shopping by phone.

Although it is independent of Waitrose, which now has its own delivery arm, Ocado is associated with the upmarket supermarket and sells its products, along with branded goods, thanks to a deal with shareholder JLP. However the two companies have rarely seen eye-to-eye and Ocado now claims to sell Waitrose products for less than the shop itself.

Gore has a history of investing in growth industries, particularly those with environmental credentials. He has invested in organic retailer Whole foods, which owns Fresh & Wild and has ploughed cash into companies including solar energy developer Ausra and various companies in the UK and overseas that develop new green technologies and products. ·