https://reasonstobecheerful.world/climate-first-bank/
"America’s fastest-growing new bank doesn’t specialize in AI or crypto-currency
or some exotic investment strategy with little real world value. It specializes
in environmental sustainability.
Based in St. Petersburg, Florida, Climate First Bank was chartered in 2021 with
a mission to finance environmental sustainability. Five years later, it’s
already pushing $1.8 billion in assets. The bank — which describes itself as
the nation’s first climate-focused bank — nearly doubled in size over the
course of 2025 alone.
While Climate First is financing solar arrays of all sizes, including community
solar and utility-scale battery storage systems, its rapid growth is powered
mainly by the oldest force in banking: relationships.
The bank raised its startup capital through its founder’s existing network. It
hired people who had prior experience lending in its initial target markets in
Central Florida. It invested time and resources getting to know the people
behind the solar industry and how their projects work, from the simplest
residential solar deals to the most complex utility-scale projects. It built
technology to support relationship-building instead of trying to replace it.
All that starts to snowball. People talk. When one solar project developer has
a good experience with a bank, they tell every other solar developer they know.
Business cards and emails start flying around. Director of Project Finance Hana
Freymiller can’t even keep up.
“I wish there were five of me that could be doing this work,” Freymiller says.
“There’s just a tremendous need and also a tremendous opportunity right now in
this country to do these types of projects.”
From its residential solar platform to its energy project financing, Climate
First Bank’s growth has put it ahead of schedule to meet its goal of reaching
$10 billion in assets over its first 10 years.
Much of its success has been in places with green banks — public or
quasi-public institutions that provide loan guarantees or use other tools to
make green lending less risky for private lenders. “Blue cities in red states
happen to be a very interesting growth base for us,” too, says Chief
Sustainability Officer Chris Castro.
Now, it’s looking for partners to help it scale up its work beyond the reach of
any one institution."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
