When Jay Koh two years ago raised $186 million for a venture fund dedicated to climate adaptation and resilience, it was one of the few such funds anywhere. Today, more entrepreneurs and investors are seeing the “unavoidable opportunity” in climate resilience.
To keep up with the growing field, Koh’s Lightsmith Group is building a strategy to deliver equity, credit and technical assistance through what Koh calls a ‘one stop shop’ or ‘virtual green bank’ for adaptation finance. Services including origination, impact measurement, risk management and government engagement would be shared across the asset classes.
“There’s over $600 million of investments we can do in credit right now,” Koh told ImpactAlpha.
The new program, called Systemic Capital for Adaptation Localization and Expansion, or SCALE, is supported by a $500,000 grant from the US AID’s Climate Finance for Development Accelerator.
“Scaling up climate adaptation and resilience investment in developing countries requires new thinking and new strategies,” said USAID’s Gillian Caldwell. She said the partnership will help “accelerate innovative private investment strategies for climate adaptation in developing countries.”
Lightsmith’s Climate Resilience Fund has invested in five companies to date, including solar-powered drinking water company Source Global and precision agriculture company Solinftec. Koh said he expects to close up to two more deals by year end.
