Financing innovation for the green transition. CLIMFIN explores how crowdfunding and disintermediated finance can support startups engaged in climate change mitigation and facilitate their access to professional investors.
The transition to a low-emission economy requires not only innovation but also appropriate financial instruments. For startups engaged in climate mitigation, access to capital is often challenging due to emerging markets, uncertainty, and high initial investments. In this context, disintermediated finance can complement traditional channels and lower entry barriers.
In this scenario, CLIMFIN (Finance Disintermediation for Climate Change Mitigation) is a PRIN PNRR 2022 project, a funding line of the PNRR dedicated to scientific research, aimed at supporting projects that contribute to the Plan's objectives, with particular focus on innovation, sustainability, and inclusion. CLIMFIN analyzes the role of disintermediated finance – especially crowdfunding – in supporting climate startups and facilitating their access to professional investors such as business angels and venture capital.
Focused on the Italian ecosystem from an international perspective, the project has developed a dedicated data infrastructure on startups financed through crowdfunding and professional equity, monitoring their financial history, survival, and performance over time. At the Politecnico di Milano, the research was conducted by the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, coordinated by Prof. Vincenzo Butticè. The University of Eastern Piedmont is the Principal Investigator of the project, while the University of Milano-Bicocca is a project partner.
The data collected have already led to numerous publications and will serve as a basis for further analyses in the coming years. Among the most relevant findings is that extreme climate events can influence entrepreneurial behavior and capital-raising dynamics: analysis of equity crowdfunding campaigns in Italy shows that floods increase both the likelihood of launching climate-oriented initiatives and the amount of capital raised in affected areas compared to unaffected ones.
CLIMFIN has also explored the role of reward-based crowdfunding in Europe, highlighting that sustainable campaigns are less likely to succeed, particularly in countries with institutions more oriented toward sustainability, where alternative options reduce the perceived urgency of individual contributions.
Overall, CLIMFIN helps clarify the role of alternative finance in supporting climate initiatives, strengthening the resilience and capacity of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and providing useful tools for policymakers and stakeholders involved in mobilizing capital toward the green transition.