Thorgate, CleanCapital partnership is accelerating clean energy investment through technology
CleanCapital is an industry leading clean energy investment platform based in New York City, U.S.A. Launched in 2015, the company’s mission is to accelerate investment in renewable energy to combat climate change. From the beginning, the company’s founders knew that their vision could only be achieved by putting technology at the core of their strategy. Marc Garrett, co-founder and CTO of CleanCapital, envisioned a platform that would enable process flow and organize the enormous amount of information that accompanies each renewable energy portfolio. Today, the platform serves the Clean Capital team along with investors, project owners, and the myriad consultants and attorneys involved in acquisitions to enable CleanCapital to close deals with speed and accuracy.
Why it was created?
The solar industry is set to reach over 100 GW of capacity by 2023. Despite the projected growth in the space and the increasing importance of renewables to America’s energy mix, investment in the space remained largely stagnant. CleanCapital’s unique approach and partnerships of allows it to bring much-needed liquidity to the clean energy marketplace. To date, CleanCapital has invested more than $300M to acquire 108 solar sites across the U.S. with a combined capacity of more than 100 megawatts.
How does the platform work?
All of the information needed to diligence and close an acquisition lives on the platform. Within the same ecosystem, different parties can view, add, remove and edit all the necessary information. Additionally, a project checklist helps to organize process flow and keep all parties abreast of the status of the deal and any outstanding items needed. Post-closing, investors can access reporting on the performance of their renewable energy portfolios. The organization of documents also makes it simple for CleanCapital to refinance any of its existing portfolios without repeating work.
How was it developed?
A decision was made early on to get an external team on board to speed up the development of the platform and ensure that the core CleanCapital team could maintain focus where it was needed most. Said Marc Garrett, CTO of CleanCapital:
Looking at the scale of goals and the tight timeline for delivery we came to the conclusion that partnering on the development of our investment and diligence platform was the most time-efficient and cost-effective route to take.
CleanCapital assessed possible vendors and made the decision to partner with Estonian development firm Thorgate. The whole development process was managed online via Slack and daily development discussions. Because of the time difference between the two companies, most development was done while the CleanCapital team was off working hours, meaning that the two parties could spend development meetings speaking to progress and next steps.
The CleanCapital team has the know-how to professionally manage the acquisition of operating and soon-to-be developed solar assets. These deals can have a complex diligence process, that is why we were happy to take on the challenge of simplifying that. – Ivar, COO of Thorgate
Why was it necessary?
The custom-developed platform enables CleanCapital and its partners to assess the value of potential investments with speed and accuracy; conduct diligence and close deals in 60 days or less; and manage assets into the future, including ongoing communication with investors. Thanks to the technology, CleanCapital has become an industry leader in renewable energy investment and is giving investors access to the substantial untapped opportunities in the space.
Learn more about ThorGate from their webpage: https://thorgate.eu/