Prime Coalition is looking to help meet the financing needs of climate tech startups on the brink of commercialization. Government funding cutbacks and a slowdown in climate tech investment have hampered companies building their first commercial plants, known as first-of-a-kind projects, or FOAKs, that don’t fit the venture capital funding model and are often deemed too risky for commercial infrastructure and debt investors.
Trellis Climate, launched last year by the Boston-based nonprofit climate investor Prime Coalition, is stepping in with catalytic capital to help advance promising high-impact technologies. Prime says the impact-first, catalytic capital investment program has raised philanthropic capital from nearly two-dozen private foundations, donor-advised funds, family offices and other donors.
Donors have the option to structure their contributions as recoverable grants or program-related investments extending philanthropic dollars by recycling capital when projects generate financial returns.
Made in California
Trellis has inked two deals this year, backing San Francisco-based Nitricity, which is developing a plant-based, climate-smart alternative to expensive and energy-intensive synthetic nitrogen fertilizer; and San Jose-based Tandem PV’s solar panels, which combine conventional silicon solar cells with thin-film perovskite layers for higher efficiency.
Trellis backed Tandem’s $50 million Series A equity and debt round to finance a Silicon Valley demonstration plant. Trellis invested in Nitricity’s $10 million project financing round, also backed by Elemental Impact, for its California manufacturing facility that will produce organic nitrogen fertilizer using recycled almond shells and renewable energy.
