I want to tell you about a number that should make every climate founder in Southeast Asia angry.
US$37 billion.
That’s the combined JETP commitment across Indonesia and Vietnam alone. Indonesia signed for US$21.6 billion. Vietnam signed for US$15.5 billion. These aren’t projections or targets. These are commitments. Money that governments and international partners put their names on specifically to accelerate the climate transition in this region.
Now tell me how many founders you know who’ve seen a dollar of it.
I’ll wait.
The gap nobody is talking about
There’s a version of the SEA climate story that looks great on paper. Policy scaffolding going up. Carbon taxes rising. ASEAN sustainable finance taxonomy finally giving investors a common language. International capital showing interest. Conference panels full of optimistic people in linen shirts.
And then there’s the version on the ground.
Founders pitching VCs because they don’t know any other door exists. Climate ventures structured wrong for the instruments available. Development finance sitting in disbursement queues while startups run out of runway. A US$37 billion commitment slowly moving through bureaucratic channels while the companies that should be receiving it are busy preparing their fifteenth investor deck.
The money is not missing. The translation layer is.
Also Read: Funded: I keep a notebook by my bed with one question about SEA climate
Why the capital isn’t moving
JETP money doesn’t flow like VC money. It moves through governments, multilateral institutions, development banks, and implementing agencies before it ever gets close to a founder. Each layer has its own compliance requirements, reporting standards, and risk appetite. By the time it reaches the ground, it looks nothing like what a climate startup can actually absorb.
Development finance institutions want projects at a certain scale. Foundations want specific proof points. Grant programmes want reporting frameworks that most early-stage founders have never heard of. The instruments being offered and the ventures trying to receive them are speaking completely different languages.
This is not a criticism of the institutions. They’re doing exactly what they were designed to do. The problem is that nobody is sitting in the middle translating.
What the best climate funds understand
The funds that have stayed consistent in the SEA climate, and there are very few of them, understand one thing clearly. Commercial viability and emissions impact are not in conflict. The best climate companies create real economic value for their customers first. The impact follows from the business working, not the other way around.
That framing is what makes a climate venture legible to multiple capital sources simultaneously. A venture that creates genuine value can absorb VC, attract development finance, qualify for catalytic grants, and access JETP-linked programmes. But only if it’s structured correctly from the start.
Most aren’t. Not because the founders are wrong. Because nobody showed them the full map.
The US$37 billion translation problem
Here’s what the translation layer actually looks like in practice.
A climate founder in Indonesia building in solid waste or energy efficiency has potential access to multiple capital sources. JETP-linked programmes for energy transition. Foundation capital for proof of concept. Development finance for scale. Equity for growth. Each instrument has a different entry point, different evidence requirements, different timeline.
A founder who sequences these correctly can build a genuinely well-capitalised company without giving away equity too early, without taking on the wrong kind of debt, and without spending two years pitching VCs who were never the right fit to begin with.
But the sequencing requires someone who knows all the rooms. Most founders only know one.
The real opportunity
US$37 billion committed to SEA climate is not a problem. It’s an infrastructure waiting for founders who know how to access it and intermediaries who know how to connect them.
The next wave of SEA climate companies won’t be built by founders who pitched their way to a VC term sheet. They’ll be built by founders who understood the full capital landscape, sequenced it intelligently, and used the right instrument at the right stage.
The money is already here. It has been for a while.
The question is who’s going to help founders find the door.
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