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The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator is launching a green-loan program for Black, brown and female early-stage startup founders.

Why it matters: The program is funded through a $6 million pool of capital and is a step toward increasing funding to this group of founders, where VC money is in short supply. 

Startups with a founder who identified as Latino received 2% of startup venture funding last year, according to Crunchbase. That was the same amount that went to female founders, Bloomberg reported. 

Venture funding for Black-led startups was 3% of the 2020 total, according to Reuters.

What's happening: The LACI Cleantech Debt Fund will offer loans of $25,000 to $250,000.

It will aim to back about 100 early-stage startups over five years.

Unlike traditional bank loans, the fund won't require personal collateral or credit scores in underwriting.

Of note: Sobrato Philanthropies and Homecoming Capital are anchor investors.

The Wells Fargo Foundation provided a grant to cover initial operating costs and loan loss reserves.

1 big thing: Climate fund for underrepresented founders

Illustration of a Black woman stepping up stairs made of stacks of cash. 

H&M Group and Lululemon are among the lead investors in a Fashion Climate Fund being raised by the nonprofit Apparel Impact Institute.

Why it's the BFD: The $250 million fund carries some big names and an ESG-focused approach to greening a part of the retail industry that is increasingly under the microscope: the supply chain. 

Details: AII said in a release that it plans to offer grants to early-stage startups seeking to decarbonize the fashion supply chain. 

What's happening: So far the fund has attracted $40 million from the two fashion companies, plus the H&M Foundation and the Schmidt Family Foundation, an AII spokesperson tells Alan.

Further lead partners are expected to each invest a minimum of $10 million over the next eight years.

State of play: The fashion industry has a less-than-stellar record on sustainability and transparency more broadly. It alone generates about 10% of global carbon emissions.

96% of those emissions come from third-party farms and factories, AII says, citing the World Resources Institute. 

Grants will range from $5,000 to "several hundred thousand dollars," AII president Lewis Perkins tells Alan.

2. The BFD: Climate fund for fashion

Illustration of a shirt button in the shape of the earth

Satellites for flood insights: The flood insurance system is a mess, at least in the U.S. This week, though, the startup Cloud to Street announced a partnership with insurers Raincoat and Munich Re Group.

The idea: harness satellites and other tech to more accurately assess flood risks.

They're rolling out the program in Colombia, where farmers especially tend to be uninsured or underinsured against extreme-weather-related losses.

The key term here: "parametric insurance," where a policyholder is paid a set amount based on an event's magnitude rather than physical damage it caused. Hmm. 

Batteries take to the skies: Volocopter announced that its electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft completed its first flight in May. 

The six-rotor aircraft "performed a few maneuvers" for 2 minutes and 14 seconds, Volocopter says.

Meanwhile, electric aviation startup MagniX announced that Tier 1 Engineering, an electric aircraft developer, conducted its first flight of an all-electric Robinson 44 helicopter, which flew for three minutes on Saturday morning at Los Alamitos Army Airfield in California.

3. Temperature check

Illustration of an earth in space covered in red and blue meteorological color lines.

Agilitas Energy, which develops energy storage and PV systems, said it raised $350 million in a two-tiered investment from funds managed by CarVal Investors L.P. http://axios.link/DTr4

Ion Storage Systems, a manufacturer of solid state lithium metal batteries, closed a $30m Series A with investments from Toyota Ventures, Tenaska and Bangchak Corporation. http://axios.link/mIpx

Datia, a Sweden-based sustainability calculation fintech company, raised $3.4m in seed funding led by Nauta Capital. http://axios.link/tQRd

Atlas Holdings bought Foster Farms, a Livingston, California-based provider of poultry products with around $3b in annual revenue. http://axios.link/qLdC

Nucor (NYSE: NUE) has agreed to acquire Summit Utility Structures and Sovereign Steel Manufacturing, which produce steel structures for electric utility infrastructure. http://axios.link/vEhb

Uber Freight and Waymo Via announced a long-term strategic partnership to deploy autonomous trucks at scale on the Uber Freight network. http://axios.link/eH8G

Vistra (NYSE: VST) announced that its 108 MW Emerald Grove Solar Facility in Crane County, Texas, is now online. http://axios.link/vqQX

4. Hot deals

The law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati announced that Elise Zoli has joined its energy and climate solutions practice as a partner. Zoli was previously a partner at Jones Day. http://axios.link/2E1r

5. It's personnel

🐪 Welcome to Wednesday! Let's dive right in.

👨‍👧 Alan's wife just headed to Florida for a four-day trip with friends, so it'll be Alan and baby through Sunday. Good news: His folks arrive today to help. On the itinerary: "Top Gun: Maverick." (For Alan and his dad, not the baby.) 

Thanks for reading Climate Deals! Please share with your friends, family and the folks on your group text who debate the merits of ethical denim brands.

June 08, 2022

1 big thing: Climate fund for underrepresented founders