Enduring Planet, a fintech company with Pacific Northwest roots, on Wednesday announced it has closed its second fund at more than $12 million — more than twice the size of its first.
Launched in 2021, Enduring Planet provides loans to early-stage climate startups, with a focus on those that have been awarded government grants and contracts. The company also offers part-time chief financial officer services.
“We’re really proud of this outcome, despite the challenging market environment that climate tech is facing in the US,” said Dimitry Gershenson, the startup’s Portland, Ore.-based co-founder and CEO.
Enduring Planet has issued nearly $40 million in loans to more than 70 climate startups and other businesses, including Tacoma, Wash.-based Aquagga and Portland’s Photon Marine.
The company provides financing of $100,000 to $2 million and, unlike venture capital investors, does not take equity in the startups it backs. The cash still comes at a price: annual interest rates run up to 15% to 17%, though additional fees are limited to a 1.5% origination fee.
The new fund arrives at a difficult moment for the sector. U.S. government support for climate initiatives hasn’t disappeared under the Trump administration, but it has become less broad, less predictable and less friendly to early-stage ventures.
Meanwhile, Sightline Climate reports that roughly $90 billion remains in climate investors’ coffers, but that capital is being deployed faster than new funds are being raised. Investors are also pulling back from riskier early-stage startups in favor of more established companies and infrastructure projects.
The fund was backed by Blue Haven Initiative, Cisco Foundation, ImpactAssets, DF Impact Capital, Green Spark Ventures, Montcalm TCR, SK2 Fund, The Arthur B. Schultz Foundation, Rebecca Buyers and Nils Johnson, Viridian Works, Brighter Investing, clients of Figure 8 Investment Strategies, 1994 LLC, Realize Impact (with support from The Schmidt Family Foundation), and others.
