FintekNews had the pleasure of recently catching up with CEO Thomas Byrne, who together with Jon Powers, Kevin Johnson & Marc Garrett co-founded New York-based CleanCapital. The firm's online platform currently offers investments exclusively in solar, but intends to offer wind, energy efficiency, storage and other clean energy sectors as they grow and expand.
Thomas explained that solar deals are often much smaller than conventional energy projects (including wind), for instance, and are thus more challenging to both fund and subsequently exit for their owners, because many of the deals are in the smaller $1M+ range.
Hence, the CleanCapital platform is helpful because once a solar deal has been vetted with their proprietary 18-point algorithm, CleanCapital can then purchase the project. This provides smaller solar companies far more liquidity for exits and reinvestment than they have previously had access to in the past. To date
, the majority of CleanCapital's listed solar deals have been in California, Colorado, Arizona and New Jersey, where there has historically been strong policy support.
Their investors in prior listings have been primarily institutional with extended long term institutional outlooks. By offering a platform that enables institutional investors the ability to park capital in aggregated portfolios, CleanCapital is able to make the clean energy sector more appealing to institutional capital, who also like the fact that these deals have already been carefully vetted in advance.
Also, on 6/21, the firm announced they closed on a Series A round with an A list of investors including Prosper's Ron Suber, Jon Barlow, Founder of Eaglewood Capital Management, and Bradley Pattelli, Former Chief Investment Officer of LendingClub. They will also offer a small round to individual investors on the SeedInvest platform.
Our hats off to this firm. We love their clean energy directive and we see nothing but a bright future for this company.
(Cindy Taylor/Publisher)
"WASHINGTON, DC--- CleanCapital, an innovative online marketplace for clean energy investing, announced today (6/21) the closing of the first round in Series A funding, as part of an ongoing capital raise. The new capital will allow CleanCapital to implement their technology roadmap and continue scaling operations, growing its team, and expanding opportunities for clean energy investing. CleanCapital’s proprietary platform has benefits that are two-fold, by creating opportunity for investment and increasing ease for project owners to exit their current portfolios. By reducing barriers both for the flow of capital and access to investments, CleanCapital is accelerating clean energy deployment.
This capital raise follows an exceptional first year for CleanCapital. To date, the team has financed over $40M of solar projects and more than 20 MW in operating solar assets. They have also received funding from industry leader John Hancock Life Insurance to finance numerous assets. CleanCapital has created a unique algorithm to efficiently scrub and value projects so that only the best investment opportunities are included in investment portfolios.
Investors include FinTech leaders and pioneers such as Ron Suber, President of Prosper Marketplace, Jon Barlow, Founder of Eaglewood Capital Management, and Bradley Pattelli, Former Chief Investment Officer of LendingClub. In addition, the company was recently selected to be featured on leading startup fundraising platform SeedInvest which historically has accepted just 1% of startups applicants.
“To accelerate clean energy we need a marketplace that provides all investors with access to this asset class. Our team is honored to be working with numerous FinTech pioneers to grow CleanCapital and clean energy more broadly,” said Thomas Byrne, Co-founder and CEO of CleanCapital. “CleanCapital is committed to attracting more investors to the space by providing a simple, understandable way to invest in clean energy.”
Ron Suber is at the center of San Francisco’s flourishing FinTech community. As of today, he’s invested in 16 FinTech companies, including high-profile players like DocuSign and SoFi, and serves as an official advisor to a half dozen companies.
“Clean energy is more important than ever before. I am excited to support CleanCapital as it provides retail and institutional investors with a simpler way to invest in clean energy. They have a strong team that can execute and a unique strategy to accelerate growth in the industry,” said Ron Suber, President of Prosper Marketplace.
Jon Barlow is the founder and former CEO of Eaglewood Capital Management, a leading P2P asset-management firm with approximately $2 billion of assets under management. He currently serves as a director and advisor to several FinTech companies, including Money360, eOriginal, VeriComply and Marketlend.
“I was initially attracted to CleanCapital because they are on the cutting edge of an emerging and highly scalable asset class, with an innovative platform that I believe helps create an attractive risk adjusted return profile for investors and accelerates clean energy at the same time,” Mr. Barlow said. “Furthermore, they have validated their market and I believe the company is poised to grow substantially as both institutional and retail investors discover the compelling merits of this platform.” Mr. Barlow’s investment was consummated following a multi-month due diligence process, and he will join CleanCapital as a board advisor.
Bradley Pattelli, the Founder of Troodon Advisors, is the former Chief Investment Officer of LendingClub. Prior to joining LendingClub, Pattelli was a partner at Angelo, Gordon & Co., a $26 billion alternative investments advisor, where he managed CDO portfolios and multiple non-investment grade portfolios while leading significant growth in assets and delivering solid returns. Pattelli, a Chartered Financial Analyst, holds a Bachelor's of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and received an MBA from Columbia Business School, where he was most notably trained by Jim Rogers, Chairman of Rogers Holdings. CleanCapital is excited to welcome Mr. Pattelli to the Board of Directors.
“CleanCapital has the potential to profoundly transform clean energy by leveraging its proprietary technology to create a lower cost, more transparent flow of capital between projects and investors," said Pattelli. "By streamlining the acquisition of high quality, clean energy projects, CleanCapital is able to pass through the benefits to its investors. I look forward to working with this talented team to help make CleanCapital a reliable provider of unique, tax efficient, impact investments to alternative fixed income investors.”
CleanCapital will be making a small portion of its Series A available to individual investors who are interested in clean energy through SeedInvest. For more information, potential investors may visit www.seedinvest.com/
CleanCapital is a financial technology company that makes it easy to invest in clean energy. CleanCapital allows accredited investors—including institutional investors, family offices, and investment funds—to invest in secure and diversified clean energy projects. Investors can monitor investments in real-time using our seamless online platform. We were founded in 2015 and are headquartered in New York, NY. Stay up to date on the evolving market of clean energy finance by signing up on our website, following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook or connecting via LinkedIn."
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