New tools for a complex capital stack
September 15, 2025
What do a milestone-based development note and a $210m credit facility for nature-based carbon have in common? They’re both signals that the capital stack is getting more creative — and more pragmatic — to get deals to bankability.
This week, we’re spotlighting two recent financing structures helping projects cross their respective valleys. First, Elemental Impact’s D-SAFE: a flexible, milestone-tied instrument that’s already catalyzed an estimated over $70m in follow-on capital and helped unlock a $50m Series B for organic fertilizer startup Nitricity last week. Second, Chestnut Carbon’s landmark credit facility: a first-of-its-kind $210m deal led by J.P. Morgan and others, structured like traditional project finance, but for a nature-based carbon project. Different ends of the stack, same goal: making novel projects underwritable.