GFI Transition Finance Lab
The GFI Transition Finance Lab brings together public financial institutions, government, regulators and private capital to help unlock first-of-a-kind transactions for technology and, in due course, nature-based solutions critical to the transition.
Unlocking investment in transition-critical projects
Delivery of the transition is constrained by economics, project readiness and risk allocation. While capital is notionally available, it is not flowing at the pace or scale required into many parts of the system, particularly to newer and more complex to finance solutions.
Delivered in partnership with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and external partners, the GFI Transition Finance Lab’s (GFI Lab) mission is to accelerate first-of-a-kind (FOAK) transactions for transition-critical companies and projects facing persistent financing barriers, helping turn policy ambition into investable projects.
Collaborating around transactions
The GFI Lab brings together project sponsors and private capital, alongside policymakers, public finance institution and regulators to support the development of real-world transactions. By bringing together expertise, market insight and decision-makers around shared priorities, the GFI Lab helps align public and private actors behind a pipeline of opportunities, enabling faster execution, stronger collaboration and a more joined-up approach to delivering, in the first instance, the UK’s clean energy and industrial ambitions.
FAQs
1. How does GFI Lab work in practice?
The GFI Lab focuses on practical, transaction-oriented problem solving, working upstream of investment decisions to improve project origination, derisking, and structuring, rather than allocating capital or funding directly. It does this by providing advisory and sandbox-style support to design, test, and refine new financial structures, risk-sharing models, and market mechanisms as well as providing policy advice back to Government.
In practice, it:
- Acts as a collaborative public-private sandbox focused on solutions for real pathfinder deals, accelerating the passage to FID for PuFins and private capital.
- Supports project sponsors or companies seeking access to equity, debt or concessionary capital to build FOAK to reach full potential.
- Facilitates outcome-focused collaboration across PuFIns, DESNZ, wider HMG, catapults and private sector partners to identify gaps and catalyse investment solutions in priority sectors.
It is focused is on supporting delivery, rather than theory, using real economy projects to unlock capital flows and demonstrate what works.
It is important to note that in delivering these services neither the GFI Lab, the GFI itself nor any related institution will make decisions relating to funding of projects or carries on any regulated activities within the GFI Lab context. The GFI Lab does not arrange, or make arrangements with a view to, any transaction between project sponsors, companies and funders, nor does it endorse, recommend or advise on the merits of any investment, project or transaction. While the work of the GFI Lab may support the relevant stakeholders in evaluating opportunities and making decisions, any investment, funding or transaction decisions are made independently by those stakeholders and fall outside the scope of the GFI Lab’s activities. GFI Lab participants are responsible for conducting their own due diligence and making their own investment decisions.
2. What types of projects will the GFI Lab focus on?
The GFI Lab will initially target sectors critical to the energy and industrial transition that face persistent financing barriers.
Initial focus areas include:
- Heat networks
- Ports and offshore wind infrastructure
- Local and community energy
- Battery and hydrogen supply chains
These areas have been selected because they are strategically important priorities for the UK Government but currently struggle to attract investment at scale due to technology and business model risks.
3. Where does the GFI Lab operate?
The GFI Lab is initially focused on the UK, supporting delivery of domestic clean energy and industrial strategy priorities.
Over time, the ambition is to expand the focus to include nature-based solutions and to export and replicate the model internationally, applying lessons learned to other markets and sectors where similar financing barriers exist.
4. What is the governance structure of the GFI Lab
Governance of the GFI Lab is delivered through a light-touch but robust framework, emphasising transparency, inclusivity, proportionality, and integrity. Participation is voluntary and non-remunerated. The GFI Lab is non regulated, does not provide investment advice, or make funding decisions, ensuring clarity of role and appropriate risk boundaries. By developing replicable models, supporting early commercialisation, and enabling progression from FOAK to next-of-a-kind (NOAK) deals, the GFI Lab seeks to play a catalytic role in driving investment into the UK’s clean, resilient, and nature-positive economy.
The GFI Lab:
- Does not undertake regulated activities;
- Does not make investment or funding decisions;
- Does not represent participants commercially or negotiate on behalf of participants;
- Does not arrange, or make arrangements with a view to, any transaction between project sponsors, companies and funders,
- Makes no recommendation as to the merits of any transaction between project sponsors, companies and funders, or as to whether any such transaction should proceed, which is a matter solely between the relevant parties;
- Makes no representations or assurances regarding commercial outcomes;
Nothing in the GFI Lab’s work should be relied upon for investment, pricing, or commercial decision making.
5. What type of projects does the GFI Lab support?
GFI Lab focuses on companies in energy transition sectors whose growth is subject to accessing debt funding or other affordable capital to build FOAK infrastructure (pilot plants, production facilities), which are being held back due to market limitations, including demand and more specifically offtake, technology risk perception and others.
Example Case Study:
A business in the Hydrogen Supply Chain space is looking to build a new production facility to manufacture their unique pods, requiring high capital investment. They have been going for 10 years, have successful pilots, the technology has been de-risked, and the company is now ready to move to commercial production.
The management team is highly skilled and experienced thanks to extensive support from venture capital investment over time and they have exhausted all options for additional support in the public and private equity markets. Due to market limitations, more specifically offtake, the business is not managing to de-risk its proposition sufficiently to secure additional funding for this capital-intensive investment.
The GFI Lab will support this business by:
- Refining how to present the business, its technology and its market positioning to a range of funders, including PuFIns;
- Clarifying what final gaps need to be addressed ahead of securing funding;
- Supporting the business in considering a range of blended finance solutions that could solve these issues;
- Stress testing these proposed solutions with private sector partners (financing, legal, insurance, etc experts);
- Working with the business until it is “term sheet ready”, at which stage it will pass out of the GFI Lab.
The GFI Lab will also feedback to policy makers how, assuming finance is secured outside the GFI Lab, this approach can be replicated across other parts of the supply chain in Hydrogen and beyond.
Advisory board
Contact us
Have a project that requires innovative financing solutions? Interested in helping bring transition-critical transactions to market? Explore collaboration opportunities with the GFI Lab.
