CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Prime Coalition, a nonprofit on a mission to unlock catalytic capital and change the future of climate finance, today announced Trellis Climate (formerly called “Early Climate Infrastructure”), an impact-first catalytic capital program that invests in first-of-a-kind (FOAK) climate infrastructure projects. Trellis Climate is focused on projects with significant climate impact potential, a clear path to scale and a high dependence on catalytic capital for success.
Many climate solutions that are critical for addressing the climate crisis struggle to reach commercial scale due to financial barriers. Specifically, FOAK and early climate infrastructure projects are often viewed as too risky, too capital intensive, or both by commercial investors. As a result, many of these projects are struggling to find financing, and in some cases, developers are reducing project sizes or pivoting in ways that will dramatically slow the scaling journey. Trellis Climate will contribute to closing this funding gap by leveraging risk-tolerant, catalytic capital to expedite the scaling of climate technologies that are necessary to achieve net-zero targets by 2050.
“Climate technologies that are currently in demonstration and prototype stages will contribute 35% of emissions reductions in 2050, but many of them get stuck in the commercialization valley of death,” said Lara Pierpoint, Director of Trellis Climate. “In many cases, building a first commercial plant will cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. Trellis Climate addresses the challenge by adding catalytic funds to the capital stack for a FOAK project, enabling more projects to go forward, faster, than would otherwise be the case.”
In addition to reducing financial barriers through direct investment, Trellis Climate will provide complementary funding to address systemic barriers that impact project deployment. This could include helping companies navigate nascent markets, establish industry standards, and form partnerships with the communities where FOAK projects will be located. Trellis Climate will share replicable learnings from these initiatives with investors, communities, policymakers and other key stakeholders to increase impact.
“Trellis Climate is building on Prime’s unique track record in facilitating catalytic investing of charitable capital into for-profit companies and projects,” Sarah Kearney, Founder and Executive Director of Prime Coalition. “The program will play a critical role in scaling high-impact climate technology that is required to protect our planet and communities.”
Novel solutions that are looking to fundraise for their first commercial-scale project over the next few years range from green industrial heat and storage to carbon dioxide removal and sustainable aviation fuels.
Trellis Climate has made two initial investments in a highly related space, providing development capital for two companies to date. Early investments include Ample Carbon, a company that converts retired coal plants to bioenergy with carbon capture and storage while developing local biomass supply chains, and Ebb Carbon, a marine carbon dioxide removal company that is employing a novel electrochemical ocean alkalinity enhancement process to draw down atmospheric carbon. Funding will be used by Ebb Carbon to conduct engineering studies on a portfolio of sites and by Ample Carbon to support a feasibility study for its project.
About Trellis Climate
Trellis Climate is an impact-first catalytic capital program enabling novel climate infrastructure solutions to achieve commercial scale at speed. Committed to accelerating the deployment of first-of-a-kind (FOAK) climate projects, Trellis Climate focuses on opportunities with significant climate impact potential, a clear path to scale, and a need for catalytic capital. Trellis Climate addresses both financial and systemic barriers by offering risk-tolerant investment capital and sector transformation programming. By innovating new financial structures with diverse stakeholders, leveraging philanthropy to crowd in as much commercial capital as possible, Trellis Climate aims to expedite the scaling of climate technologies to achieve net-zero targets by 2050.
About Prime Coalition
Prime Coalition is a non-profit organization on a mission to unlock catalytic capital and change the future of climate finance. Since 2015, Prime has mobilized over $300MM in catalytic capital in partnership with over 270 philanthropic partners to back 32 early-stage ventures. Through its steering capital strategy, including Prime Impact Fund, Azolla Ventures and Trellis Climate, Prime builds and implements impact-first investing teams toward acute gaps in climate finance that commercial capital cannot fill. With its influencing capital strategy, Prime offers a range of field-building resources, including Project Frame, the open-source CRANE tool, and the Catalytic Capital Intermediation Resources Library. For more information, visit: www.primecoalition.org
