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Today at a glance:

• Introducing Climatize

• Detailing their business model, tech, traction and team

• Why do we need this now?

• How you can help them!

-  Angelica 💜

Featured Startup: Climatize

⚡️ How Was Climatize Born?

On September 29th, 2019, Fridays For Future led by Greta Thunberg staged a global climate strike in which millions of people in hundreds of cities took to the streets to protest for climate action. The Co-founders joined the strikes where over 100,000 people had amassed.

That strike catalyzed an “Ah ha” moment. Will (CEO) thought there had to be a better way, how could we transform this motivation into tangible carbon reduction? This started a journey, & ultimately a company, to figure out how can we turn the people’s motivation for action into real decarbonization.

They interviewed over 250 people from those strikes & from those insights they were able to pull out a common thread: Climate change feels like an urgent problem, but people feel powerless to make a difference. When we asked “What is something that everyone could contribute?” out came a common denominator, money.

They started by making a GoFundMe to crowdfund $2,500 for Will’s 25th birthday, which they’d use to fund a small solar array in Africa. To their surprise they exceeded the goal and the Co-Founder of GoFundMe reached out to make the first investment into what is now Climatize.

📍 Headquarters

Santa Cruz, California

⚙️ Technology

Climatize is a SEC registered Funding Portal enabling the issuance of debt securities for the financing of climate infrastructure projects, with a focus on community solar.

Using this regulatory framework, Climatize expands access to the asset class to retail & accredited investors. These investors enable the platform to build a track record while the long term goal is to aggregate ≥ $50 million of distributed energy resources bridging the gap between mid-market project developers & institutional capital.

By aggregating all bridge loans, Climatize can aid the developers refinance the portfolio to permanent debt; thereby providing liquidity to earlier investors & securing a lower cost of capital for developers which boost the yield of the project's equity owners.

💲 Business Model

• Revenue: $27,775 per month

• Business Model: 5% of funds raised, 0.5% of funds raised Issuance Servicing Fee.

• Customers:

  • American men

  • 30-55 years old

  • Earning +$100,000/yr

  • Has a foundation in climate or finance

  • Nature oriented

  • Seeking transparency with their investments and impact focused

  • Bonus: has children

🚀 Traction

• Total raised $1,255,000

• Investors:

  • Techstars 

  • OM Fund 

  • Responsibly Ventures 

  • Stone Mountain Ventures 

• Climatize funded over $1,000,000 of solar projects funded

• Climatize co-founders were awarded Forbes 30 Under 30 for Social Impact

• Climatize funded over $500,000 of community solar in the first month of operations

• Participated in Techstars Boulder & Venture for ClimateTech by NYSERDA

• Grant Funding by NYSERDA & Village Capital.

• Currently participating in New Energy Nexus' Climate Fintech accelerator

• Advisors: Bryan Birsic, Co-Founder of Wunder Capital 

🙏 Founders

Will Wiseman - Co-founder, CEO

• Forbes 30 Under 30

• 2022 Young Global Changer

• Mechanical Engineer

• Electrical Project Engineer, Energy Market Analyst & Solar EP&C

• Holds 2 Master’s degrees in Renewable Energy & Sustainable Energy Technologies from KTH, The Royal Institute of Technology

Alba Forns - Co-founder, COO

• Forbes 30 Under 30

• 2022 Young Global Changer

• Industrial Engineer

• Former energy consultant, key player in Spanish zero-emissions policy

• Holds 2 Master’s degrees in Renewable Energy &Sustainable Energy Technologies from KTH, The Royal Institute of Technology

📱 Socials

💁🏻‍♀️ Why Now?

Problem Statement

• Supply (renewable energy project developers): Renewable energy projects below $5 million struggle to attract project finance from commercial lenders.

• Demand (retail & accredited investors): People feel like climate change is an urgent, but feel powerless to make a difference.

Solution

Climatize is a SEC registered Funding Portal enabling the issuance of debt securities for the financing of climate infrastructure projects, with a focus on community solar.

Using this regulatory framework, Climatize expands access to the asset class to retail & accredited investors. These investors enable the platform to build a track record while the long term goal is to aggregate ≥ $100 million of distributed energy resources bridging the gap between mid-market project developers & institutional capital.

Why now?

• 64% of Americans are now "Worried or Very Worried" about climate change, up from 52% 10 years ago representing +40 million new potential customers

• Demand for sustainable investments are at all time highs, 99% among Millennials according to Morgan Stanley

• Crowdfunding cap was increased from $5 million from $1 million in April, '21

• Climate is going mainstream - ex. EV commercials in the Super Bowl

• Fintech has matured enabling new services, portfolio transparency & user management with better margins

How Can the Community Help?

💸 Fundraising

Climatize is seeking investors with backgrounds in fintech, project finance or asset-backed securitizations. They have $750K remaining in their $2M round, closing end of September.

👷🏻‍♀️ Customers

Climatize is seeking solar project developers looking for development financing for community solar or C&I projects in CA, OR & WA. Developers should own a portfolio of operating assets.

💼 Hiring

Climatize is looking to add a new member to the team. They’re searching for a Senior Mobile Engineer.

👩🏻‍💻 Fractional Talent

Climatize is searching for Fractional Design help for a landing page redesign. Request an intro if you or someone you know might be interested!

✍️ Feedback

Climatize is seeking feedback on their product.

• What did you like?

• Where did you hit friction?

• What features would you like to see launched next?

Test out their app and share your feedback in our Request Intro form below!

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