GreenieRE Coalition, a reinsurer focused on insurance innovation for the energy transition, and Trellis Climate, an impact-first, catalytic capital program investing in early climate infrastructure projects, have launched Vensurety, an impact-first, tech-expert insurance platform for climate companies.
Vensurety, short for “Venture Surety,” is supported by anchor funding from the Schmidt Family Foundation and Builders Vision.
It underwrites a new category of surety bonds, and aims to ensure climate tech startups have enough liquidity to support growth and commercialisation in order to build early demonstrations and projects.
The product combines concepts from green bonds, insurance-linked securities, and blended finance into a scalable financial instrument designed to accelerate clean energy infrastructure, explained the duo.
Vensurety aims to address the critical market gap created by the lack of accessibility to traditional surety by piloting a new category of surety bonds tailored for climate tech startups.
Backed by risk-tolerant, philanthropic capital, the bonds free up liquidity, reduce insurance costs, and provide a risk knowledge base to attract commercial insurers over time.
Schmidt Family Foundation and Builders Vision provided the capital for the launch. Vensurety will issue catalytic sureties that enable high-impact climate companies building early-stage infrastructure and products to get off the ground.
Essentially, the sureties act like a letter of credit, enabling the companies to meet contractual obligations without tying up large amounts of capital in collateral, explained the duo.
Jeff McAulay, Chief Executive Officer, GreenieRE Coalition, commented, “We are proud to work with such visionary organisations to develop novel solutions that help de-risk the energy transition. We’re excited to announce our first deals in the coming weeks and months. This is just the beginning of the product innovation and deployment GreenieRE has in our pipeline.”
Lara Pierpoint, Managing Director, Trellis Climate, added, “We’ve long believed in the potential of insurance as an impact vehicle. This initiative aligns with our mission to use catalytic capital to support project financing and the deployment of advanced technologies to decarbonise our planet. We’re proud to support the mission, governance, and impact evaluation of this important pilot.”
Kyle McEneaney, Director, Climate Tech Program, Schmidt Family Foundation, said, “There is a lot of capital available for the energy transition, but many technologies we know we need aren’t getting deployed because of risks that typical market actors can’t price or bear.
“Having examined this problem for several years in collaboration with the GreenieRE and Trellis teams, we think insurance is a promising tool that allows philanthropy to efficiently mitigate the minimum marginal risk layer, preventing these technologies from otherwise getting to scale. We’re thrilled to support this pioneering structure and look forward to others joining this important cause.”
Finally, Amanda Goldberger, Head of Strategy & Planning, Builders Vision, added, “At Builders Vision, we are committed to catalysing markets that accelerate the transition to a more resilient economy. Vensurety takes an insurance model proven in mature sectors like solar and wind and applies it to emerging solutions where risk is less understood. By reducing insurance barriers and strengthening innovators’ financial positions, this effort can help early-stage projects scale and drive broader adoption.”
