The availability of climate capital does not guarantee its effective deployment. The climate finance gap is also an intermediation problem. Climate-conscious investors and viable local opportunities may coexist, yet remain disconnected without institutions capable of organizing projects, structuring appropriate financing and managing capital through implementation.

Recent milestones from GCFF members Courageous Land and BRAC Bank demonstrate what closing this gap can look like. Across two very different markets, both are building pathways through which capital can reach the businesses, producers and projects delivering climate solutions.

FROM AGROFORESTRY PROJECTS TO INVESTABLE PORTFOLIOS

Agroforestry can restore degraded land, strengthen rural livelihoods and produce commercially valuable crops. Yet individual farms and projects are often too small or fragmented to meet the requirements of institutional investors and large-scale buyers.

Courageous Land is building the infrastructure needed to overcome this fragmentation. Its Agroforestry Intelligence Platform integrates the functions required to develop and manage projects across their lifecycle, including land diagnostics, project design, monitoring, traceability and commercialization. More than 1,000 users have completed diagnostics through the platform, identifying nearly 370,000 hectares as suitable for agroforestry.

Identifying suitable land, however, does not automatically create an investable pipeline. Projects must still be structured, financed, implemented and connected with buyers. By coordinating these functions across multiple projects, Courageous Land enables investors and institutional partners to engage with larger portfolios rather than evaluating individual farms and transactions separately. This can reduce transaction costs, support consistent technical and environmental standards and create the scale required for institutional participation.

Its flagship project in Roraima demonstrates the model in practice. The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) has approved R$116 million (~US$23 million) in financing for a project that will begin with 2,000 hectares of agroforestry systems on degraded land and has the potential to scale to 10,000 hectares. The financing will support the planting, nurseries, farm management and processing capacity required to move the project into production.

Courageous Land is also developing Courageous Land Agroforestry Capital, a dedicated investment vehicle intended to make this process replicable. The vehicle will finance projects originated and structured through the company’s platform, creating a route between identifying suitable land and securing the capital required to develop it. Its first capital pool will support coffee and cocoa systems in the Atlantic Forest, with potential revenues from agricultural production, carbon credits and sustainably managed timber.

Commercial momentum further strengthens the model. Courageous Land’s agroforestry coffee is now sold across Brazil, while its açaí recently completed its first international export to Lisbon, with additional European shipments planned. These milestones demonstrate how aggregation can connect locally rooted production not only with institutional capital, but also with larger and more diversified markets.

MOVING INSTITUTIONAL CAPITAL INTO LOCAL BUSINESSES

BRAC Bank is addressing the same structural challenge from the other side: developing financial instruments and domestic lending capacity through which larger pools of capital can reach local businesses and projects.

The bank has now deployed ~90% of the proceeds from its fully subscribed Tk1,000 crore social bond, demonstrating the institutional capacity to move that capital toward its intended uses. BRAC Bank has also proposed a Tk1,000 crore green bond. Structured as a non-convertible, fully redeemable three-year bond issued through private placement, it would create an additional channel for mobilizing institutional capital for green financing. The issuance remains subject to approval from Bangladesh Bank and the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission.

A 12-year, €60 million facility from EIB Global, the development arm of the European Investment Bank, will further expand BRAC Bank’s capacity to finance green and circular investments. The facility includes €40 million expected to support more than 2,500 small enterprises and €20 million for projects across the garment, textile and other export-oriented sectors. Rather than requiring an international institution to identify and assess businesses individually, BRAC Bank can use its domestic presence to originate transactions, evaluate borrowers and manage the resulting portfolio.

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Courageous Land and BRAC Bank operate in different sectors and direct capital through different structures, but their progress reflects the same underlying principle. Mobilizing capital is only the beginning. Scaling climate finance also requires institutions capable of organizing local opportunities, structuring them around investor requirements and managing the path from capital commitment to implementation.

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