I want to tell you something I've watched happen many times.
I grew up in Arequipa, in southern Peru. Later I spent years working in financial services in Zurich and Frankfurt, developing investment products, growing assets under management for institutional clients, closing enterprise deals across Europe.
At some point I realized I was sitting in two different worlds that desperately needed each other and couldn't figure out how to talk.
On one side: capital. Real capital. With mandates, with timelines, with teams genuinely trying to deploy into climate and sustainability assets. In Zurich I sat with fund managers who had written "impact" into their investment documents and meant it.
On the other side: projects. Real projects. In Peru, in Chile, in Colombia. With land, with community agreements, with forestry professors who could tell you which slopes would hold and which wouldn't. With tens of thousands of trees already in the ground.
The two rooms never transacted.
Not because either was wrong. Not because either was lying.
Because the project's evidence couldn't be read by the institution. And the institution's evidence couldn't be produced by the project. The cost of becoming legible, auditors, validations, legal opinions, was more than the project's annual budget.
I thought it was a communication problem. I no longer believe that. Both rooms understand each other perfectly. What's missing isn't understanding.
It's the commercial function in between.
Last Thursday the European Commission announced its most ambitious climate industrial package in years.
A revised EU Emissions Trading System. A €100 billion Industrial Decarbonisation Bank. A serious commitment, on paper.
And then this number, buried in the technical analysis:
Of 208 projects that received signed Innovation Fund grant agreements, only 16 are currently operating. Real payments disbursed to projects so far: €331.8 million, less than 1% of the fund's total expected capital.
208 signed grant agreements. 16 operating projects.
That is not a capital problem. The capital was committed. The agreements were signed. The projects were selected.
What failed, quietly, without a press release, is everything that happens between a signature and an operating project.
The market entry work. The commercial relationships. The partner that needed to be found in a market nobody had entered yet. The conversation between a technology team and an offtake buyer who didn't speak the same language. The deal that kept stalling because nobody with the right seniority and the right network was running it end to end.
I've watched this pattern from both sides for thirteen years. In Zurich conference rooms and in Peruvian valleys. In Frankfurt and in Lima.
The pattern is the same everywhere.
This is the specific problem I work on now.
Climate-tech companies with real technology and real missions, where growth stalls at exactly the point it gets hard.
The first sale that won't close. The market across the Americas with no team, no network, no warm doors. The pipeline that keeps stalling before the enterprise deals that actually matter. The founder who is the only one who can sell, and is completely maxed out.
I come in as a senior BD lead, not a consultant, not an advisor with a slide deck. I build the commercial engine: outreach, partner relationships, negotiation, closing. Across the Europe-Americas corridor, in the markets and languages where these deals actually happen.
If that gap sounds familiar, on either side of it, send me a message and let's explore how can we help you!
— André
Source: Clean Air Task Force · July 17, 2026 · European Commission reply to ECA Special Report 11/2026