Elemental Excelerator is a nonprofit investor focused on scaling climate technologies with deep community impact. They bring more than a decade of experience across the climate sector, with an active and maturing portfolio of more than 150+ companies. Elemental fills two gaps fundamental to addressing climate change: funding projects for climate technologies in communities, and embedding equity and access into climate solutions. They invest in transformative technologies to create a system change for a more resilient, equitable future.
Amir Chireh Mehr is the Senior Investment Director at Elemental Excelerator. He is responsible for managing all aspects of transactions over the investment lifecycle at Elemental, from investment strategy formulation and origination to execution and asset management. His expertise and responsibilities extends to fundraising and building partnerships with investors, leveraging these relationships to enhance outcomes for climate-focused companies with the potential to catalyze meaningful decarbonization pathways across communities.
In this episode, Amir shares the company’s investment approach and the impact of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. He also discusses promising trends as well as advice and common pitfalls of entrepreneurs seeking financing.
Show Notes:
[1:56] - Amir shares his background and what motivated him to join Elemental.
[4:30] - Elemental began with an interest in applying for a grant with the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and it caught Amir’s eye.
[6:42] - Amir explains some of the investment criteria they look into when deciding on what projects to invest in.
[9:08] - They have to evaluate the quality of the cash flow relative to the investment type.
[12:09] - The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is $27 billion that was set aside to capitalize not-for-profit institutions to provide low cost capital.
[14:35] - It’s been a challenging process for Elemental Excelerator to apply and navigate the application for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
[17:12] - The idea was to use government dollars but to marry that with the efficiency of private sector approaches and methods.
[19:17] - For entrepreneurs, the program requirements are pretty straightforward, but certain things can seem a little complicated.
[21:57] - Amir shares some of the challenges in applying and some of the ways projects receive financing.
[23:23] - If an entrepreneur would like access to these types of dollars, they need to have an eye for reframing things through the lens of structured finance.
[26:50] - Amir describes some of the promising trends in the industry and some of the areas that are seeing a lot of forward momentum and advances.
[28:21] - Follow where the opportunity is. We need new business models and solutions.
[30:53] - You have to dutifully manage your scarce cash, but also have a line of sight in building your business in such a way that you’re meeting the needs of stakeholders.
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