San Francisco, 25 February 2026 – The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance (the Lab) announced today its second cohort of grantees through the Pre-Seed Capital Facility. Five financial instruments incubated by the Lab will receive a combined USD 1.25 million in conditional grants. This funding will accelerate their path to reaching first close.
The selected instruments provide a diverse range of innovative climate finance solutions across Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Together, they support initiatives such as forest and bioeconomy investments in the Amazon, expanded access to carbon markets, community-owned infrastructure financing, agricultural price risk management, and resilience financing for climate-vulnerable regions.
“This facility is designed to accelerate impact by giving Lab-endorsed instruments the early working capital they need to move from concept to implementation. By providing milestone-based funding, we are helping turn innovative climate finance ideas into real, investable solutions,” said the Lab Global Manager, Amanda Brasil-Leigh.
Launched in 2024, the Lab Pre-Seed Capital Facility provides conditional, milestone-based grants of USD 150,000–250,000 to Lab-endorsed climate finance instruments to bridge the gap between design and market implementation in emerging markets. It complements the Lab’s ongoing implementation support package and is exclusively available to a subset of instruments from each graduating Lab cohort.
Reflecting on progress from the facility’s first cohort, awarded in 2025, Amanda Brasil-Leigh highlighted early results from the program:
“From the five instruments awarded pre-seed funding last year, one has already completed the program and unlocked all available funding eight months ahead of schedule. Another team is on track to finish within the next month, well ahead of the 18-month timeline,” said Brasil-Leigh. “These early results show how targeted, milestone-based support can meaningfully accelerate the path from design to market implementation.”
Introducing the instruments:
Amazon Food&Forest Financing Initiative (Impact Bank) is a blended finance debt fund that aims to enhance the bankability of regenerative businesses in the Brazilian Amazon.
Carbon Neobank (Melanin Kapital) is a USD 100 million digital green banking fintech providing asset and micro-finance to climate mitigation Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), facilitating both debt and carbon transactions with a presale of carbon credits to buy down interest rates.
Community Equity Opportunity Fund (Meliquina Partners) is a blended-finance facility that helps local communities invest in renewable energy projects across Latin America.
Price Risk Facility (Agtuall) is a price insurance vehicle designed to protect agricultural borrowers and lenders from price volatility. It partners with insurers and banks to underwrite input and post-harvest loans for smallholders.
Tropical Resilience Fund (Impact Earth) is a debt fund investing in early and growth-stage projects and ventures in Latin America and Southeast Asia that conserve, restore, and protect nature, while enhancing the resilience of investments.
About the Lab:
Each year, the Lab, a public-private initiative, identifies, develops, and launches innovative financial vehicles that can drive billions in private investment to climate action and sustainable development. It brings together over 100 institutions from government, development finance, philanthropy, and the private sector to incubate promising ideas.
Contact:
Júlio Lubianco
julio.lubianco@cpiglobal.org
Daniela Alvarez
daniela.alvarez@cpiglobal.org
