Non-Dilutive by Design: Backing Your Portfolio to Win Grants from Seed to FOAK

Public grants are usually left to founders to chase on their own, but they're one of the most direct levers an investor has to shape portfolio value, from seed through large-scale deployment.

This session is about putting that to work: how investors can help portfolio companies prepare for and win non-dilutive public funding across the full company lifecycle, from early stage grants up to the FOAK demonstration and deployment funding that bridges the gap to commercial scale.

You'll see that much of this is simply good company building, done a particular way that also wins large-scale public capital. We will keep it concrete and EU-specific, though the approach applies wherever your companies pursue public funding.

Speakers:

Joel Armin-Hoiland, Founder and CEO, Climate Finance Solutions

Laura Fox, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Streetlife Ventures

Alun Jones, Europe Lead for Project Development, Climate Finance Solutions

And more!

On the agenda:

Why FOAK and deployment grants are won years before the deadline, and what an investor's early support does to position a company for them

How the major EU programmes for demonstration and deployment are structured, and where in a company's trajectory each one becomes winnable

The investor's concrete levers: consortium and value-chain introductions, project structuring, blended and co-financing, and grant-ready governance

How to tell genuine grant-readiness from grant-chasing when you diligence a company's public funding trajectory

Venue to be announced.

This is a side event to The Drop conference, hosted by Climate Finance Solutions, a climate funding advisory firm with $1.6B+ in public funding secured globally and €500M+ supported across European programmes.