HSBC and Google Cloud announced a significant partnership recently, aiming to accelerate climate mitigation and resilience through financing and support for companies in the Google Cloud Ready-Sustainability (GCR-Sustainability) program. This initiative combines financial resources, cloud technology, and connections to a vast network, fostering the development and scaling of crucial climate tech solutions.
The GCR-Sustainability program validates companies offering solutions on Google Cloud that help customers achieve sustainability goals like emission reduction, improved value chain sustainability, and ESG data processing for identifying climate risks. Under the partnership, Google Cloud will introduce these promising ventures to HSBC’s dedicated climate tech finance team, enabling exploration of venture debt financing options.
Key goals of the collaboration include:
- Expanding the GCR-Sustainability program: Google Cloud will strive to increase the number of participating partners within the next two years.
- Scaling climate tech solutions: HSBC will actively seek financing opportunities for companies within the ecosystem, aligning with its commitment to deploy $1 billion in climate tech finance. Additionally, they will facilitate connections between these ventures and HSBC’s extensive customer base.
“This partnership fosters a step change in scaling up critical technologies for global decarbonization,” said Natalie Blyth, Global Head of Commercial Banking Sustainability at HSBC. She highlights the crucial role of collaboration and innovative financing, especially during times of declining investment in climate tech startups. By combining financial support, cloud technology, and connectivity, the initiative aims to empower climate tech vendors to accelerate their growth and develop impactful solutions at scale.
Justin Keeble, Managing Director for Global Sustainability at Google Cloud, underscores the importance of such collaboration: “The immense climate challenge demands a global ecosystem of technology providers delivering solutions with tangible impact. Our GCR-Sustainability ecosystem houses leading climate tech companies, many of whom require access to finance. Partnering with HSBC allows us to support these crucial players in climate action.”
The partnership launches with HSBC providing venture debt financing to LevelTen Energy, a GCR-Sustainability-validated company. LevelTen Energy facilitates renewable transaction infrastructure for various stakeholders in the clean energy sector. This initial collaboration underscores the partnership’s potential to empower innovative ventures driving the transition to a more sustainable future.
This initiative builds upon previous collaboration between HSBC and Google Cloud, including the launch of an HSBC credit risk advisory tool on the cloud platform. It aligns with HSBC’s commitment to deploy $1 billion in early-stage climate tech financing and launch of HSBC Innovation Banking, supporting innovative businesses and their investors.
By joining forces, HSBC and Google Cloud demonstrate their commitment to tackling the climate crisis through innovative collaboration and financial support for promising climate tech solutions. This initiative has the potential to significantly accelerate the development and adoption of technologies crucial for a sustainable future.
