The inception of Cliamte Capital Stack was prompted by my curiosity about why startups were raising equity from venture capitalists for the wrong reasons—usually in place of equipment finance. I asked myself the question, why?

During my path to breaking into climate VC, I also started exploring this question. I realized that raising equity is not always the best option for hardware startups, but early-stage startups have limited access to non-dilutive options. Additionally, businesses that may be eligible for non-dilutive options are unaware they can pursue them. As a result, I started investigating how startups can receive funding to deploy and scale (lab-scale to commercial-scale).

Meanwhile, I started Climate Capital Stack to educate founders, it has become a passion of mine to demystify the capital stack, map the ecosystem, and help bridge connections.

I’ve learned about lots of solutions, but many important questions remain: 

• How can we finance higher-risk emerging technologies? 

• How can we help middle-stage companies that are often overlooked?

• How can we mainstream climate financing?

I’ll explore these questions and more in this newsletter. My goal is to foster conversations and share up-to-date information that reflects the dynamism of this sector.