(25 July 2024 – United Kingdom) Barclays is firmly focused on the crippling sustainable funding challenge facing corporates operating in low-carbon industry sector verticals.
Barclays has published its recommendations in a new paper for how newly installed British Prime Minister Kier Starmer can address a severe “funding challenge” that is “hindering the ability of growth-stage climate-tech firms to scale at pace.”
Find a solution, and the United Kingdom (UK) can “leapfrog international markets and become a destination of choice for innovative climate technologies,” the London-based bank said in a statement.
Often too asset-heavy and requiring too much capital for venture capitalist (VC) funding, many climate tech companies are relegated to a funding “no-man’s land” referred to as “the missing middle.” Barclays has zeroed in on the “£10 million to £25 million gap,” and called for the British Business Bank or the UK Infrastructure Bank to launch a specific fund focused on climate-tech transactions requiring debt or equity investment in this price range.
“The UK is renowned for its innovation, but there is a missing middle of capital holding back successfully scaling viable real economy ideas that can support the transition to net zero” commented Barclays Global Head of Sustainable Finance, Daniel Hanna.
“The climate-tech companies that need the funding will play a pivotal role in directly reducing or removing greenhouse gas emissions and improving resilience or adaptation to the physical impact of climate change. It’s not about lots of new money – it’s about how we put that money together” Hanna added.