Plenty of startups hit a wall after their first few rounds of funding, having grown too big for venture funds but still in need of cash. For startups specializing in industrial-scale hardware, which includes many climate tech companies, the problem is especially acute because the capital requirements are so large.
Infrastructure funds have long filled that gap, but many have been hesitant to dive into climate tech.
One firm thinks that spells opportunity, though. Ara Partners recently raised an $800 million infrastructure fund focused on reducing carbon emissions in industrial sectors, which historically have been hard to decarbonize.
Ara had initially targeted $500 million, the firm told TechCrunch, but saw strong support from new and existing investors, including pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, foundations, and sovereign wealth funds from around the world.
The new fund has already made three investments, including in an Ireland-based household organic waste recycler and a biofuels terminal developer. The fund’s decarbonization strategy focuses on repurposing existing assets for new low-carbon developments.
This significant fundraise arrives at a time of political uncertainty over decarbonization in the U.S. but increasing clarity around its economics. Many companies have been able to drive down costs of low- and zero-carbon technologies in recent years, making them cost competitive with existing approaches.
Ara, for example, previously invested in Divert through one of its private equity funds. The company donates food that’s still good and, for food that isn’t edible, turns the waste into biogas that can be sold or used to generate electricity and heat on-site. Compared with the alternative — sending the waste to a landfill where it generates methane pollution — Divert’s approach makes a lot of sense environmentally and financially.
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The investment firm said it will announce its fourth investment under the strategy “shortly.”
Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor. De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.
