GreenieRE Coalition and Trellis Climate Launch New Category of Surety Bonds for Climate Hardtech Startups
Introducing Vensurety: Derisking Early Climate Infrastructure with Impact-First Surety Bonds
Today, GreenieRE Coalition, a mission-driven reinsurer focused on unlocking insurance innovation for the energy transition, and Trellis Climate, an impact-first catalytic capital program that invests in early climate infrastructure projects, announced the launch of Vensurety, an impact-first, tech-expert insurance platform for climate companies. Vensurety is supported by anchor funding from the Schmidt Family Foundation and Builders Vision.
Vensurety, short for “Venture Surety,” underwrites a new category of surety bonds to guarantee climate tech startups have the liquidity to support their growth and commercialization while they build early demonstrations and projects. The product combines concepts from green bonds, insurance-linked securities, and blended finance into an innovative, scalable financial instrument designed to accelerate clean energy infrastructure.
"We are proud to work with such visionary organizations to develop novel solutions that help de-risk the energy transition,” said Jeff McAulay, CEO of GreenieRE Coalition. “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."
Surety bonds are widely used as a financial guarantee, but historically have not been accessible to emerging climate technology companies. This is largely because traditional surety providers require long operating histories and robust performance data, which most of these companies don’t have. As a result, startups are forced to lock up capital in escrow, slowing growth and deployment. Vensurety addresses this critical market gap 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.
"We’ve long believed in the potential of insurance as an impact vehicle,” said Lara Pierpoint, Managing Director of Trellis Climate. “This initiative aligns with our mission to use catalytic capital to support project financing and the deployment of advanced technologies to decarbonize our planet. We’re proud to support the mission, governance, and impact evaluation of this important pilot."
With risk-tolerant, philanthropic anchor capital from the Schmidt Family Foundation and Builders Vision, Vensurety will issue catalytic sureties that enable high-impact climate companies building early-stage infrastructure and products to get off the ground. The sureties act like a letter of credit, enabling the companies to meet contractual obligations without tying up large amounts of capital in collateral.
"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,” said Kyle McEneaney, director of the climate tech program at the Schmidt Family Foundation. “We’re thrilled to support this pioneering structure and look forward to others joining this important cause."
By providing this new philanthropically backed surety product, Vensurety aims to accelerate critical climate innovations as they scale towards commercial deployment. The platform seeks to unlock stalled projects by removing a financing bottleneck, enable capital efficiency for startups with high-impact technologies, and demonstrate a replicable model for surety underwriting in climate.
“At Builders Vision, we are committed to catalyzing markets that accelerate the transition to a more resilient economy,” said Amanda Goldberger, Head of Strategy & Planning for Builders Vision. “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.”
About the Partners
GreenieRE Coalition is an impact-focused reinsurance company with a mission to de-risk and unlock capital for clean energy projects. Built on the belief that insurance can be a force for good, GreenieRE is removing financing obstacles in the insurance market to reduce costs and accelerate the deployment of clean energy technologies at scale. Learn more at www.GreenieRE.org and follow on LinkedIn for updates at www.linkedin.com/company/greeniere.
Trellis Climate is an impact-first catalytic capital program, launched at Prime Coalition, enabling novel climate infrastructure solutions to achieve commercial scale at speed. Committed to accelerating the deployment of first-of-a-kind (FOAK) climate projects, Trellis Climate focuses on opportunities with significant climate impact potential, a clear path to scale, and an acute need for catalytic capital. Trellis Climate addresses both financial and systemic barriers by offering risk-tolerant investment capital and sector transformation nonprofit programming, including support for robust partnerships and inclusive decision-making with surrounding communities. By leveraging philanthropy to crowd in as much commercial capital as possible, Trellis Climate aims to expedite the scaling of climate technologies to achieve net-zero targets by 2050. For more information, visit trellisclimate.org.
If you’re a philanthropist or a company that wants to contribute to or participate in the Vensurety program, please reach out to Jeff McAulay, CEO of GreenieRE, at info@greeniere.org or Lara Pierpoint, Managing Director of Trellis Climate, at lara@primecoalition.org.