HYPOTHESIZE & SUBSTANTIATE

Prime launched a research inquiry in 2022 to characterize and substantiate the unmet needs of companies as they step beyond the earliest stages. Prime conducted over 140 interviews guided by the following questions:

• What is the magnitude of the capital gap(s) facing early climate infrastructure? 

• Which early climate infrastructure projects experience those gaps most acutely and why? 

• Could catalytic capital help address any of these gaps?

This research revealed that early climate infrastructure — alongside many other asset-heavy solutions that require testing and iteration — are likely to confront several financing gaps related to their stage, risk and cost dynamics. As a result, they may fail to achieve commercial scale with the speed demanded by global climate change. This research also suggested that catalytic capital may have a role to play in supporting the solutions most likely to fall into this gap. The full research findings, including the four capital gaps identified can be found in Prime’s report Barriers to the Timely Deployment of Climate Infrastructure.

Following publication of the Barriers Report, Lara Pierpoint (then CEO of Actuate Climate) and Sarah Kearney (ED of Prime Coalition) rediscovered their organizations’ shared vision for scaling climate solutions. In 2023, Actuate Climate and Prime joined forces, and Actuate Climate became Trellis Climate (formerly Prime’s “Early Climate Infrastructure” program). The Trellis (formerly Actuate) team brings deep technical expertise and a vision for solving climate systems problems, and Prime brings its strong nonprofit infrastructure and mission governance to the Trellis team.

DESIGN & CONSTRUCT

Beginning in early 2023, Trellis focused on further characterizing and evaluating the financial gaps facing climate startups as they moved from technology proof point to commercial scale. First, Trellis launched its learning-by-doing cohort of over a dozen philanthropic partners to better understand their perspective on using philanthropic capital to bridge the commercialization capital gap. Then with the cohort’s support and guidance, the Trellis team launched a deep dive on the development capital gap–one of the four commercialization capital gaps identified in Prime’s Barriers Report.

Trellis syndicated two catalytic investments to Ample Carbon and Ebb Carbon, each using the funding to begin critical pre-construction development activities, including early engineering and feasibility studies, toward their goal of building first commercial facilities.

IMPLEMENT

In early 2024, Trellis Climate commenced its work to accelerate deployment of first-of-a-kind (FOAK) climate projects with significant impact potential, a clear path to scale, and a need for catalytic capital. Trellis Climate addressed both financial and systemic barriers by offering risk-tolerant capital and sector transformation programming. During this phase, Trellis is targeting proof-of-concept interventions to demonstrate high-leverage, repeatable opportunities for philanthropy to crowd in commercial capital.