Raise Green closes Seed Round to grow its climate investment platform driving local and
inclusive impact investing with verifiable and demonstrable environmental benefits.
New Haven, CT - Raise Green — the award-winning climate investment platform dedicated to
financing green infrastructure, clean energy and climatetech solutions — today announced the
closing of its Seed Round financing with participation from the Connecticut Innovations Climate
Tech Fund and Skyview Ventures, among others. To date, the Company has raised more than
$3.5M in private investment and leveraged that into nearly $7M of crowdfunded capital for
climate solutions on its marketplace, thereby mobilizing more than $10M for climate finance. For
a limited time, the Company is still allowing retail investors to invest directly in Raise Green
through its own community financing round.
The company also announced that it will take up residence in a new headquarters as the first
company to join Climate Haven, the newly established climate tech community in New Haven,
Connecticut focused on scaling the most promising climate solutions.
“The decarbonization effort is so massive that access to capital remains a bottleneck to
deploying many clean energy projects and financing climate solutions,” said Ryan Dings,
Partner at the Climate Tech Fund and Chief Executive Officer of ClimateHaven. “We’re
delighted to support Raise Green’s efforts to dramatically expand the number of investors
working to decarbonize our planet. The fact that building community is so central to Raise
Green’s mission makes them the perfect addition to ClimateHaven. We are proud to have them
join us and are excited for the work we will do together.”
Raise Green, which has won numerous awards including the 2022 Environmental Finance
Impact Investing Platform of the Year, will utilize its new funding to build on its category-defining
business model to expand access to capital for underserved and disadvantaged climate
entrepreneurs and communities. Raise Green is the first company to offer equity crowdfunding
focused on investments for climate solutions nationwide since the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission’s (SEC) finalization of equity crowdfunding regulations.
“We all have an important role to play in taking climate action, the solutions are ready to deploy
but it’s not always clear what you can do to help. We built Raise Green to make it easy for
everyone to invest in climate solutions and raise capital for climate projects” said Franz
Hochstrasser, CEO and Co-Founder of Raise Green. “This is the critical decade, the climate
crisis is only getting more intense, and we’ve mobilized millions of dollars from thousands of
members but we need everybody to step up and get involved in investing in and deploying
climate solutions now. If we’re intentional about it, we can scale climate solutions that cut
carbon pollution, make our communities more resilient to climate impacts, and drive financial,
health and environmental benefits to those that need them the most. We all can benefit from the
transition, but we all need to own and benefit from the infrastructure and companies we build
today. This new funding will help us deliver that benefit, create more jobs and open up access to
capital for more Americans.”
The company has now financed 26 climate deals through its marketplace since launching in
2020. This has included the first Green-bond Certified crowdfunding offering in the U.S., through
a total of six successful offerings by the Connecticut Green Bank raising well over $1M from
hundreds of investors to finance energy efficiency upgrades for small businesses through the
Small Business Energy Advantage program. Raise Green has already financed reductions of an
estimated 55,000 metric tons of carbon pollution, the equivalent of taking 12,000 cars off the
road; as every $100 invested in Raise Green projects is estimated to reduce harmful carbon
emissions by more than 1100 lbs. In addition, more than half of the companies that have raised
capital on Raise Green are led by black, women or minority climate entrepreneurs, which is
more than 10 times the rate that traditional venture capitalists fund these underserved founders.
Raise Green’s marketplace has created an estimated 88 direct, indirect or induced jobs since its
founding in 2018, and has grown its project pipeline to more than $100 million over the last year.
9 out of 10 Americans have historically been unable to invest in private climate solutions
because they aren’t accredited investors. The Raise Green marketplace enables more retail,
accredited and institutional investors to invest in clean energy and climate solutions across the
United States. Raise Green uses Reg CF to raise money for pre-screened clean energy projects
and climate companies for $50k up to $5M per company per year. US climate companies can
raise non-dilutive debt, equity, convertible notes or SAFEs. This includes projects and
companies across many industries and sectors: energy and energy efficiency, food, water and
land use, materials and industry, climate intelligence and carbon management, and buildings.
With the bulk of the climate investment from the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure
Law and CHIPS and Science Act expected to catalyze more than a trillion dollars in climate
investing over the next ten years, Raise Green anticipates 2023 being the best year yet for
climate investing. Opening up access to capital for climate companies and investment
opportunities to all is core to Raise Green’s mission, and this community round will enable us to
further that work. To learn about the terms and make an investment, visit:
https://wefunder.com/raisegreen.
About Raise Green, Inc.
Raise Green is the climate investment platform on a mission to democratize sustainable
investing. As an SEC and FINRA registered marketplace, Raise Green is a rapidly growing
community of thousands of members and investors (accredited/ non-accredited/ institutions)
investing into clean energy and climate projects with demonstrable ESG impact. The Company
has built channel partnerships with industry-leading companies, and was awarded
Environmental Finance’s Impact Investing Platform of the Year Award for 2022.
About ClimateHaven Inc.
ClimateHaven is a community of climatetech entrepreneurs and the passionate people that
support them. Based in New Haven, Connecticut, ClimateHaven provides incubation space,
accelerator programming and valuable partners for startups that will deliver the solutions we
need to propel us towards carbon neutrality and create a healthy planet for all. For more
information, visit https://www.climatehaven.tech.
About Connecticut Innovations
Connecticut Innovations (CI) is Connecticut’s strategic venture capital arm and the leading
source of financing and ongoing support for Connecticut’s innovative, growing companies.
CI provides venture capital and strategic support for early-stage technology companies,
financial support for innovation and collaboration, and connections to its well-established
network of partners and professionals. For more information, please visit
http://www.ctinnovations.com.
About Skyview Ventures
Skyview Ventures transacts, advises, and invests in renewable energy and carbon
reduction markets and companies across North America and operates businesses in
environment commodities, solar and battery storage development, and electric vehicle
infrastructure. Founded in 2008, the company has successfully completed over $2B+ in
structured environmental attribute financing, 100 MW of solar development and 500+
electric vehicle charging ports. Skyview Ventures has invested in over 20 technology
companies providing solutions to the energy decarbonization transformation, and is
uniquely positioned to identify, invest in, and grow the companies that will lead the energy
decarbonization transformation. To learn more, visit www.skyviewventures.com.