Singapore’s Clime Capital, SEACEF launch world’s first high-risk philanthropic fund

Asia Asset Management Singapore fund manager Clime Capital Management and a group of global climate change foundations have launched the world’s first high-risk philanthropic fund to invest in clean energy projects across Southeast Asia. The fund has secured an initial US$10 million from global investors and targets to have over $2.5 billion of assets when it begins investing later this year, Clime Capital and the South East Asia Clean Energy Facility (SEACEF) say in a statement on June 30. Singapore-based SEACEF is a collaboration between international climate foundations, including Bermuda-based Sea Change Foundation International, US-based Wellspring Climate Initiative, and the UK’s High Tide Foundation. The fund will provide early stage capital-type financing for projects to transform from traditional to clean energy such as solar and wind, and energy storage. The statement says the fund’s launch comes at a “critical moment” when the coronavirus crisis is shrinking traditional sources of financing. According to Clime Capital Managing Director Mason Wallick, the first 1%-2% of financing to develop clean energy projects is the toughest to find even when times are good because it carries the highest risk. He says in the statement that “the high-risk fund can catalyse the significant funding required to turn proposals into major clean energy projects”.