GreenieRE Coalition and Trellis Climate launch surety bonds for climate startups

GreenieRE Coalition , a reinsurer focused on energy transition, and Trellis Climate, a catalytic capital program, have introduced Vensurety, an insurance platform designed for climate companies. The initiative is backed by the Schmidt Family Foundation and Builders Vision.

Vensurety offers a new category of impact-first surety bonds to provide liquidity for early-stage climate infrastructure projects and technology demonstrations. Traditional surety providers typically require long operating histories and performance data, which most climate startups lack, forcing them to tie up capital in escrow. Vensurety aims to address this gap by using risk-tolerant philanthropic funding to guarantee obligations, free up capital, and reduce insurance costs.

The structure combines elements of green bonds, insurance-linked securities, and blended finance, with the goal of accelerating the deployment of clean energy infrastructure. Over time, the platform seeks to create a risk knowledge base that attracts commercial insurers and scales beyond philanthropy.

“There is a lot of capital available for the energy transition, but many technologies we know we need aren’t getting deployed because of risks that typical market actors can’t price or bear. Having examined this problem for several years in collaboration with the GreenieRE and Trellis teams, we think insurance is a promising tool that allows philanthropy to efficiently mitigate the minimum marginal risk layer preventing these technologies from otherwise getting to scale. We’re thrilled to support this pioneering structure and look forward to others joining this important cause.” – Kyle McEneaney, director of the climate tech program at the Schmidt Family Foundation.