With Ace closed, our debut investing opp is complete. Here’s our take on chapter one of the Plural story.

We’re lucky to say we launched the Plural Energy investing platform on a high note. Just six weeks after announcing $2.33 million in pre-seed funding, the team was networking our way through the Ethereum Community Conference in Brussels when it struck us: now is the perfect time to share Ace with the world.

Less than a day later, in a trendy Belgian office-turned-launch-space, we debuted the Ace investing experience to a full house of reporters and conference attendees. The event featured a live demo, cozy bean bags, and an incredibly engaged audience.

And just like that, Plural was officially live, making us the first company to bring renewable energy investing on-chain. We took ourselves by surprise with the last-minute move, but in the end, we couldn’t have asked for a better launch.

Four months later, we’re proud to say the Ace Portfolio exceeded its fundraising goal, closing with $601k raised.

So, in the style of mom-and-pop shops framing their first dollar, here’s a closer look at the Plural mission, learnings from Ace, and what lies ahead for the future of renewable energy investing.

Accelerating the Clean Energy Transition with Plural

If you’re new to Plural, here’s everything you need to know: the old way of clean energy financing doesn’t work, and we’re determined to fix it.

The financial problem:

Renewable energy assets offer serious returns, with long-term contracts, low default rates, and yields in the mid-teens. However, access to these lucrative projects has largely been restricted to mega infrastructure funds that dominate climate finance, leaving the majority of investors on the sidelines.

Plural’s financial solution:

Our platform expands access to renewable energy investments of all sizes, opening this asset class to everyone — from fund and asset managers to alternative retail investors and retirement savers. In other words, we introduce an attractive asset class to a much broader and diverse range of investors operating both in and out of traditional financial institutions.

The environmental problem:

Although an additional $4 trillion in renewable energy investments is needed by 2030 to achieve 2050 climate goals, large funds focus only on projects exceeding $100 million. Small to mid-sized projects, which are essential for achieving a 100% clean energy grid, are left out of financing opportunities — ultimately slowing down the global response to the climate crisis.

Plural’s environmental solution:

Plural lowers the barrier to entry for investing in renewable energy by fractionalizing ownership of renewable energy assets, increasing how much localized renewable energy projects can raise and how quickly they can do so. The faster clean energy projects of every size receive funding, the sooner we can reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Who Funded Ace, Why It Matters, What We Learned

The Ace Portfolio gave Plural users the opportunity to invest directly in operating solar projects built by Solaris Energy, Inc., an experienced solar development, finance, and asset management firm based in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Solaris chose us because we strived to make clean energy investing easy, accessible, and scalable (with minimal back-office stress).

Investors chose Ace because it offered up to 15% annual yield, over 80% of investment available as a loss to offset applicable income, and the chance to support something important.

We couldn’t predict who exactly would invest in Ace, but breaking down the numbers:

• Both individuals and companies invested, totaling 50 participants.

• 68% were first-time clean energy investors.

• 96% of capital came from investors who never invested via blockchain before Ace.

• 1 in 4 investors were women.

Ultimately, three lessons emerged.

First, in working with Solaris, we learned even more about just how hard it is for renewable energy projects in the middle market to form capital. Even smaller lenders who want to support infrastructure like Ace lack the bandwidth to properly allocate and underwrite into a deal — proving our thesis that renewable energy players are in desperate need of technology that enhances and improves processes across the capital stack.

Second, we learned so much about investor interest and bandwidth for understanding deals. For example, investors are more interested than ever in asymmetric upside over consistent wealth growth, and many want much faster returns of capital than we were expecting.

Similarly, when it comes to understanding investor behavior in this new space, we learned that the more diligent an investor was about researching Ace, the more likely they were to invest. Looking at our underlying telemetry data, we see Ace’s investors often spent multiple ten-minute sessions clicking around the data room.  This contrasts the average session length for all users who visited the data room, which was under one minute.

Finally, we learned more than we would have ever expected about taxes. In short, the US tax code is not made for you. Accessing tax benefits for renewable investing is so much more challenging for individual investors than it is for corporations and high-net-worth individuals with the resources to hire full tax teams.

Perhaps most importantly, we learned that we have our work cut out for us!

What’s Next For Plural?

On the Ace front,  distributions will be automated through smart contracts. Investors can choose to receive them in stable coin, or opt for direct bank deposits. First distribution is projected to occur in early 2025, and as always, Plural/Ace investors track the financials and production data and sell their investments at any time.

As for future investing opps, we’re steadily working toward a future where dozens of assets are available for Plural users simultaneously. One day, when we look back at Ace, we hope to see it as the first drop in a limitless bucket of clean energy financing. Luckily, the second drop isn’t too far away!

For now, we’re content to know that Ace is proof of what’s possible when innovation meets impact. More than ever, we’re motivated to build on this momentum and unlock a brighter future powered by accessible, on-chain clean energy investing.