EQT Foundation grants €500,000 to Elemental Impact, accelerating first-of-a-kind climate infrastructure through catalytic financing innovation

The partnership will support Elemental Impact in scaling a new catalytic financing model to unlock first-of-a-kind (FOAK) climate infrastructure projects

• Elemental addresses the climate “missing middle” by providing flexible, early-stage capital that bridges the gap between venture funding and project finance
• The grant advances EQT Foundation’s Scale program, backing models that make high-impact climate technologies investable at commercial scale

EQT Foundation has awarded a €500,000 grant to Elemental Impact, a nonprofit investor with 15 years of experience advancing innovative technologies with deep environmental and local impact. The support will enable Elemental to design and scale its FOAK financing program, addressing the critical capital and expertise gap that prevents promising climate solutions from reaching commercial deployment.

While an estimated 85% of the technologies needed to achieve net zero already exist, many fail to scale due to a structural financing gap between venture capital and infrastructure finance. FOAK projects typically require $2–5 million in development-stage capital for permitting, engineering, and site preparation, too risky for traditional project finance and too project-specific for venture investors.

Elemental Impact addresses this bottleneck through catalytic capital and innovative financial instruments such as the Development SAFE (D-SAFE), an investment tool Elemental created in partnership with Wilson Sonsini to unlock early funding and reduce risk for FOAK and early commercial projects. Elemental’s catalytic investments via the D-SAFE have already mobilized a 10x multiple in additional funding from utilities, government, and strategic investors. By combining innovative financing with hands-on project support, Elemental helps scale early-stage projects into bankable infrastructure opportunities.

EQT Foundation’s grant and in-kind support will strengthen Elemental’s capacity to deploy catalytic capital, including building the infrastructure for program-related investments and advancing larger FOAK projects.

Elemental brings a strong track record, having invested over $105 million since 2009 and catalyzed approximately $11.5 billion in follow-on capital, enabling portfolio companies to reach commercial scale.

Through structured investments, Elemental has supported FOAK projects across sectors such as clean energy, materials, agriculture and industrial decarbonization, unlocking private and public capital while accelerating deployment. Beyond financing, Elemental also supports project development by providing critical expertise and mobilizing the investor ecosystem, helping bring more climate technologies to commercial scale.

Cilia Holmes Indahl, CEO EQT Foundation: “Elemental Impact is demonstrating how catalytic capital can unlock climate infrastructure. By supporting the development of tools like the Development SAFE and bringing an infrastructure perspective, we aim to help more first-of-a-kind projects reach commercial scale.”

Dawn Lippert, Founder and CEO of Elemental Impact: “We’re excited to partner with EQT Foundation to help close one of the biggest gaps in climate—deployment. The challenge isn’t inventing new technologies, it’s getting them built. First-of-a-kind projects often stall because the capital markets aren’t designed for early-stage infrastructure. This grant enables us to further expand catalytic financing models that move projects to bankability and help entrepreneurs scale critical climate solutions.”