Investment opportunities

Learn about the types of investments and impact you will find on Raise Green's investor marketplace.

Projects by the community, for the community

We specialize in Climate Action projects. When you invest with Raise Green, you invest directly in community-driven climate solutions that lead the clean energy transition.

While we can’t promise a return on every investment, projects listed on our platform undergo strict due diligence to give investors access to secure long-term contractual cash flows.

Our projects are often new companies, which comes with investment risk. Every project listed on Raise Green’s marketplace has passed our due diligence process, which includes a review of the company and project financial models, so that you can be more confident that every investment opportunity on our investor marketplace fits our R.A.I.S.E model. Check out our “how investing works” page below for more detail.

How Investing Works

Types of projects on Raise Green

Investing with Raise Green isn’t just about making money. It’s about getting money directly into the hands of clean energy and climate action companies to benefit local communities. And it’s about making projects happen through collective action that otherwise might not exist!

Types of projects

Solar Power

You can now own a piece of a solar project powering your local business or community. Our projects are focused on community scale solar projects i.e. larger than residential solar but smaller than 5 megawatts). Solar energy costs continue to decrease (approximately 74% in the last 10 years), which is helping to accelerate installation as communities make the shift to renewables.

The funding of community solar projects is a big part of the ongoing transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, providing clean power and reduced cost of energy. Plus, using clean energy has global benefits through reducing carbon dioxide emissions and improving the quality of the air we all breathe.

Earning potential: You may receive annual or quarterly dividends from the cash flows generated by the project. These cash flows are generated from the sale of electricity under a Purchase Power Agreements (PPAs) signed by the off-taker who buys the power. Once a PPA is signed, the cash flows are guaranteed for the duration of the project as long as the contract is in place. We only list solar projects that aim for financial projections at or above 5% IRR.

Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

It’s not just about powering your neighbor’s Tesla - Electric vehicles (E.V.’s) are an exciting, growing industry that’s decarbonizing our communities and cutting air pollution. Thousands of E.V. charging stations are being constructed across the U.S., and funding E.V. infrastructure with Raise Green is a way for you to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels to help reduce our collective transportation footprint.

E.V.’s application can even go beyond car charging to help with community resilience. Some charging stations can be used as bi-directional batteries to strengthen the electric grid and make other renewables (e.g. solar and wind) more efficient and reliable.

Earning potential: You receive an annual or quarterly dividend from a company that makes its money by selling electricity to each car that pays for charging. As a part owner of the charging station, you will know exactly how many kilowatt hours you helped produce. We only list EV/Storage projects that aim for financial projections at or above 5% IRR.

Company Debt and Equity

The next generation of venture capital, angel investing and local green bonds is here, and it’s community-led! Raise Green hosts a variety of climate action companies that are looking for capital to expand their impact and reach. You can invest or lend money to a company and receive interest! Many of our debt and equity climate action project offerings are structured around secure timely payments and are focused on energy efficiency, community resilience.

Why energy efficiency?

Making homes and buildings more energy efficient leads to less electricity and other forms of power needed to keep them running, resulting in overall reductions in local pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that accompany any form of energy production (e.g. coal plants, natural gas plants, you name it). Making a home or business more resilient to extreme weather makes the property more protected from damage from climate impacts and disasters that are already hitting communities across the country. These improvements also save money for homeowners and business owners, and provide jobs for the businesses conducting the energy efficiency and resiliency improvements themselves!

Investment into energy efficiency programs enables the project companies to invest into an expansion of their business as well as provides crucial funds for research and development - clearing the path for cleaner and more efficient energy systems.

Earning potential: Debt and equity investment opportunities are structured around an initial investment that has a structured rate of return (in the form of interest) that will be delivered to you over the course of your investments life cycle.

Development Capital

Originating projects requires time and dedication, and sometimes cash upfront. Clean energy entrepreneurs and developers need backers who believe in them. Not every originator has the flexibility and funding to bring their project to Notice to Proceed or Commercial Operations Date before raising capital on our marketplace. They may need to pay expenses for various services to plan the project e.g., engineering or interconnection studies. They may even need to pay themselves for the time they put in to bring a project to the point where it is ready to sell. Whether it's a first time Originator, or an experienced solar developer, getting a development capital loan to kick-start their solar business or next project makes all the difference.

According to the Department of Energy’s Berkeley Labs, breaking down these barriers to move projects forward is catalytic, especially for accelerating solar adoption for the underserved. That’s why we offer development capital - a way to invest directly in an Originator during the Create phase of their project journey to bring it to life and help them get to the actual Build and Run phases of their project. These funds could be used to help cover the costs of scoping project sites or preparing the documents to form a company and secure site control. Development capital investments can help historically disadvantaged communities by making the project creation phase more accessible and, in turn, increasing the probability of projects being implemented on the ground for communities in need.

Earning potential: Development capital investments are usually structured as shorter maturity debt investments (e.g., 1-2 yrs), a fixed interest coupon paid along with your initial investment amount back when the project gets constructed, or at maturity.