Latitude Media Says Trellis Climate Offers a Leg Up For FOAK Cleantech Projects
Phoebe Skoke of Latitude Media wrote about Prime’s catalytic capital program, Trellis Climate, which aims to reduce financial obstacles and break systemic barriers for climate tech’s first-of-a-kind infrastructure solutions that are critical to reaching net zero targets by 2050. Phoebe writes:
Financing first-of-a-kind climate tech projects is notoriously challenging. Given that the technology can take decades to scale, infrastructure finance is often too averse to risk, while venture capital is too pricey.
With this gap in the market in mind, the climate finance nonprofit Prime Coalition announced today the launch of a new catalytic capital financing program, geared specifically at taking on that challenge.
The top line: Prime Coalition is launching Trellis Climate, a program designed to close the funding gap for FOAK climate infrastructure projects. The impact-oriented program centers on mobilizing private capital for projects with a clear path to scale, and that rely heavily on risk-tolerant funding.
The market grounding: In today’s difficult funding environment, FOAK and early climate infrastructure projects struggle to attract investors. And when projects do secure funding, they’re often forced to shrink or change significantly to help mitigate risks.
The current take: Trellis Climate managing director Lara Pierpoint told Latitude Media that many potential climate solutions “struggle to reach commercial scale,” because leaping from pilot-scale to full deployment represents a formidable “valley of death” where it’s easy for projects to get stuck. “Securing substantial venture funding for significant growth is challenging, and infrastructure financiers are hesitant to take on the risks linked to a first-of-a-kind plant,” she added.
Trellis relies on catalytic funding, defined as an investment in a financially risky but environmentally or socially impactful project designed to improve its overall viability and attract new investment. Trellis aims to use catalytic funding to scale emerging technologies and infrastructure projects that might not otherwise attract enough investment to make it off the ground.
To read the full article, please visit Latitude Media.
