ImpactAlpha, October 13 — Somerville, Mass.-based Raise Green manages an online marketplace that helps small-scale solar developers and green ventures get financing for hard-to-finance community scale projects. Retail investors can place as little as $100 in debt or equity.
Companies raising capital via Raise Green include Applied Bioplastics, which makes sustainable plant-based plastic; Green Island EV Corp., an electric vehicle equipment manufacturer; and BlocPower, which is decarbonizing and electrifying buildings in low-income communities. The Connecticut Green Bank is offering “Liberty Notes” to finance zero-interest energy efficiency loans to small businesses.
The platform has helped small-scale developers raise $5 million from accredited, non-accredited, institutional and corporate investors. More than half of the developers women and/or minorities.
Spreading the word
Raise Green has recruited climate and clean energy leaders, influencers and youth ambassadors to promote its platform. Raise Green’s Franz Hochstrasser declined to disclose names of investors, but told ImpactAlpha the seed round includes “a collection of many different angel investors, a private family trust, a former founder of a community solar company and many more.”
Community solar
Separately, MyPower, an affiliate of Mitsui & Co., acquired Cambridge, Mass.-based clean energy provider Solstice to expand community solar access for U.S. households.
