The Leading Edge - Welcome Edition!

Weekly Word

Welcome to the first edition of Edge Management’s new weekly newsletter, “The Leading Edge”! Each week, we will cover topics across our industries of focus, and highlight the latest and greatest at the intersection of innovative insurance and finance.

We’d love your feedback on what you enjoy most about the newsletter and what you’d like us to cover in upcoming editions of The Leading Edge. We look forward to hearing from you!

Insurance as Capital

Good news for founders/technology creators in the seeking capital: did you know you can raise money for your company without giving up early-stage equity or taking on expensive debt? That’s right! In addition to traditional capital sources, debt and equity, there is a third, less well-known, source of capital: insurance. We can use insurance as capital? How does that work? Glad you asked…

Two of the central challenges that industrial technology developers face are (1) proving their technology’s reliability and (2) going from bench scale to commercial scale. Both challenges require capital, and both are key to a company’s long-term success. Typically, founders have to decide between giving up valuable equity in the company or hoping that they can find a lender that will offer them manageable terms on debt financing. Neither is optimal and both are expensive. So, how can Edge specialty insurance solutions solve this problem?

Edge has developed proprietary solutions that place an insurance wrapper around clients’ technologies. We identify technology and project risks that will be important to potential investors, and we place specialty insurance coverages that mitigate those risks. Through these coverages, our clients can leverage the balance sheets of large, well-known insurance companies, and use insurance wrappers as collateral when raising capital. So, instead of giving up equity or taking on unmanageable debt, founders can present their insured technology to potential investors and unlock capital sources that would have otherwise been unavailable.

Our primary mission at Edge Management is to help our clients achieve their goals.  We want our founders and developers to have the option to scale their technologies in the most cost-effective ways possible. That’s why we have spent so much time building insurance solutions that mitigate risks and make transactions appealing to potential investors. One of our core beliefs is that insurance can be used as a form of capital, and we work with companies to make that a reality for them. If you’d like to learn more about the Edge process, or how we may be able to help your company, please reach out and let’s discuss!

Leading Headlines

The State of Bioenergy Technology

As you may know, the US Department of Energy has been leading the charge on funding the R&D of bioenergy-related technologies through its BETO division. The group released its 2020 State of Bioenergy Technology report this week, which details BETO's approach to assessing technology through project through "pathway configurations". Definitely worth a review to get a sense of where emerging technologies stand!

Price to End EU Dependence on Russian Energy? $800B According to Gates

Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy group, in a recent report, highlighted technologies where the EU should be spending in order to end its dependence on Russian energy. By allocating 800 billion euros to four key green technologies, the EU will cut its energy dependence by nearly 10% and stay on track to reach its 2030 clean energy goals.

The Circular Economy of Table Scraps

It turns out that food waste accounts for 8-10% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. Whoa! As a result, several companies have dedicated themselves to repurposing food waste that would otherwise end up sitting in a landfill. Check out this article to learn about these companies' areas of focus.

Meme of the Week

Elon on Twitter. Need we say more?