Candide Group Closes $71.5 Million Climate Justice Fund for Clean Energy Access

Candide Group has closed its Afterglow Climate Justice Fund at $71.5 million, creating a catalytic debt vehicle focused on clean energy and climate resilience projects in historically underinvested communities across the United States. Launched in 2023, the fund has already deployed more than $35 million across 12 borrowers financing distributed solar, battery storage, clean transportation and other climate infrastructure. Its strategy is designed to address projects that struggle to access conventional debt despite having viable underlying economics.

The fund has attracted investors including Builders Vision, Ceniarth, ImpactAssets, the Grove Action Fund, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation, the Sobrato Philanthropies, McKnight Foundation and the Social Finance Impact First Fund.

 

Flexible Debt Is Being Used to Close a Financing Gap

 

Afterglow provides financing across pre-construction, construction and permanent stages, giving projects access to capital before they are able to qualify for more conventional lending. The model is aimed at communities that often face higher energy costs, greater climate exposure and limited access to traditional project finance.

"There is a perception that clean-energy projects serving historically underinvested communities are inherently riskier or less financeable," said Aner Ben-Ami, Managing Director of Afterglow Climate Justice Fund. "In many cases, the issue isn't the underlying viability of the project; it's that conventional financing often applies strict credit boxes or does not have the interest or capacity to co-design solutions for communities that have been left out of the climate transition."

 

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RE-volv Shows How Catalytic Capital Can Unlock Follow-On Investment

 

One of Afterglow’s borrowers is RE-volv, a nonprofit solar finance organisation working with community-serving nonprofits. Afterglow provided $3.2 million in debt financing to expand RE-volv’s zero-down solar model in places including Compton and East Oakland.

"Thanks to Afterglow’s investments, RE-volv has doubled and tripled our volume of projects financed in the last three years, and we’ve been able to attract multiple follow-on investors following Afterglow’s lead," said Andreas Karelas, Executive Director of RE-volv. The collaboration has supported 1.3 MW of clean energy and nearly $18 million in projected lifetime electricity savings across 30 nonprofits in four states.

 

Community Representatives Have a Direct Role in Credit Decisions

 

Afterglow has also built community participation into its investment process. Members of its Community Advisory Board participate directly in credit decisions, with two board members joining the Credit Committee for each transaction and no loan approved without the consent of the full board.

"This level of engagement brings authentic perspectives to the credit process that extend well beyond traditional measures such as debt service coverage and financial ratios," said Community Advisory Board member Christina Sims-Hamilton. The model is intended to ensure that community need, local outcomes and lived experience are considered alongside conventional underwriting criteria.

 

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The Fund Is Trying to Prove These Projects Can Become Mainstream Finance

 

The broader objective is not only to finance individual projects but to demonstrate that community-focused clean energy can become investable for a wider range of lenders. By absorbing early-stage risk and developing financing structures around overlooked projects, Afterglow is trying to create a pathway towards more conventional sources of capital.

"Success is funding projects that otherwise wouldn't happen, proving working with low-income communities isn’t inherently risky, and building an on-ramp for these projects to access more traditional sources of capital," said Afterglow Investment Manager James Pippim.

 

The Next Test Is Whether Catalytic Finance Can Crowd In Larger Lenders

 

With the final close complete, Afterglow plans to continue deploying capital into projects that reduce energy costs, expand clean-energy access and strengthen climate resilience. The fund’s existing deployment across 12 borrowers provides an early track record, but its longer-term significance will depend on whether those projects can attract follow-on capital from mainstream lenders.

If that happens, the fund could demonstrate how catalytic debt can do more than fill financing gaps temporarily. It could help establish a more durable market for distributed clean energy and climate infrastructure in communities that conventional finance has historically overlooked.