As billionaire Tom Steyer waited for the results of yesterday’s California gubernatorial primary, Galvanize, the investment firm he co-founded, committed to helping to electrify bus fleets, including in the state he hopes to run (Steyer has taken a leave of absence from the firm).
Galvanize pledged $75 million in preferred equity to Highland Electric Fleets. The Beverly, Mass.-based company is a one-stop shop for municipalities looking to electrify school bus and other vehicle fleets. The investment is the first for Galvanize’s Credit and Capital Solutions fund, which raised $1.3 billion last year to structure tailored financing for clean energy companies and projects.
Electrification-as-a-service
Highland has projects in 30 states, including Georgia, Washington and Illinois, and is contracted to supply 500 electric buses for the upcoming Los Angeles Olympic Games.
The company secured a $150 million equity investment from Aiga Capital Partners last December. The Coalition for Green Capital had greenlighted a $75 million loan to Highland in 2024 to finance the rollout of 1,300 electric buses, but the Trump administration’s freeze on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund scuttled the deal. And a Biden-era tax credit for green fleets was ended by the Trump administration.
“The underlying demand and the maturing operator models make this a compelling moment for capital providers to step in,” Highland’s Li Shi wrote in a recent guest post on ImpactAlpha.
