References to catalytic capital pop up with greater regularity across our community of impact investors. An emerging definition describes Catalytic capital as investment capital that is patient, risk-tolerant, concessionary, and flexible. One use of catalytic capital is to support the scaling of impactful ventures in blended financing structures, allowing the mobilization of private capital that is needed to meet the SDGs.
The ways catalytic capital can be used to mobilization are many and include, amongst others, concessional terms, patient risk financing, or early mover and demonstration support. There has been substantial writing on the ways and tools, however, the path to a successful blended deal is often long and hard. What are major challenges in blended deals along the transaction timeline and how could they be addressed more effectively?
During this session, we will hear from a fund manager with a Climate investment thesis and one or more investors, including a provider of catalytic and a provider of private/ institutional capital. We will unearth the catalytic elements of the deal, discuss the main challenges the fund faced along its journey from design to closing and deliberate on lessons learnt and possible future approaches that may make a process more effective.
