Quick Read: What’s in store for 2026?

Here’s looking back on recent lessons learned, or still being learned, thanks to all the commitments, hard work and challenges of 2025.  We also offer a sneak preview of what’s emerging this new year.

New In3CAP options for 2026 to help ease qualification:

1. New Guidebook: Though they might not realize it, new In3 Clients will benefit greatly from a new In3 publication coming ASAP in 2026 — a readable, succinct and action-oriented “how to” guide for project developers seeking funding, expected by April.
   This A-Z guide has several advantages over the current approach to new client orientation:
   • Singular focus: Instead of largely “a la carte” online guides and templates, a single roadmap allows you to take steps at your own pace, stay focused, and never get lost along the way. It includes In3 Capital’s procedures, qualification, terms and helpful hints along the way.
   • Succinct & Organized: Short introductions to the most important topics, with optional background, speeds up the process. You decide where further explanation would help, and avoid details that don’t seem to apply to your situation.
   • Getting on the same page(s): provides actionable context for finding answers to questions that may arise, gaining common ground with In3 personnel via shared section number and page number references, named process steps and helpful tips “just-in-time.”
   • One-stop-shop for all your project funding know-how, a resource that evolve over time, with optional (free) subscriptions available.
2. As you might expect, we now use AI, though in this profession, value delivery and success are still (always) going to be about human-centered relationships. Project finance, and its cousin, structured finance (part of the Impact Guarantee Fund’s asset pools used as securitization), can be a complex endeavor.  To complicate matters, it is often much harder than it looks. But if we’re too simplistic, vague or rush through key disclosures (getting to the wrong conclusions sooner?) that also doesn’t serve client goals, or ours.  As a matter of In3 policy, unlike many similar firms, we will always disclose if client messages are the result of Agentic / Generative AI. We want you to question assumptions, as this policy reflects a cornerstone of our core values.  So, until we publish our new client guidebook (#1, above), we will strive to position our flagship offer so that the risk/reward equation becomes crystal clear as quickly as humanly possible.
3. In3 CAP funding continues to hold promise for most developers, a great solution in situations where favorable terms (described here) are desired, despite the need for 100% “full leverage” funding, structured as an equity Joint Venture, without initial costs. To make qualification easier, we now offer tailored service options, from pre-seed to completion, that may be worth considering.
4. Why establish a Bank or Private Line of Credit (LOC)? We learned recently that some banks want their clients to open a Line of Credit in order to issue a requested Standby Letter of Credit (SbLC).  Although somewhat inefficient (direct use of cash as surety can be leveraged ~50% more), it can be nonetheless quite cost-effective and expedite the project’s Security to start CAP funding draws that much sooner. This becomes the involved banker’s insurance policy, hedging their perception of risk, thus enabling their full cooperation with aligned, “everyone wins” incentives.
   Although it is easy to demonstrate that there’s almost no chance of a Standby Letter of Credit (SbLC) ever being called, bankers are much more comfortable with an SbLC backed by cash or equivalent “liquid” asset classes such as a credit line. Thus, the real conversation is with the banker(s) about what assets they would deem acceptable, or financial depth (via statements, especially a balance sheet) to open such a line.
   At first, we tried to argue that if clients had cash, using it as cash surety deposit would be more efficient, and we would not need the bank at all. Many bankers are just not listening. Why? Marketplace uncertainty and being overleveraged plays in, at least for many US and EU bankers. In other words, their perceived downside (however remote) outweighs their potential upside, but establishing a LOC improves both upside and lowers the downside. That way, they won’t look bad to upper management if things go sideways while gaining upside within their regulatory compliance requirements for an established or new, creditworthy client for one of their most profitable products. But the line, once established, probably doesn’t need to be drawn.
   This is not a one-sided arrangement (not exclusively in the banker’s self-interest) as the line is typically left at zero balance while the SbLC is issued for a nominal fee (US$300 in 2 of 3 cases) where the SbLC is allowed to serve its purpose of short-term CAP funding completion assurance. Opening a new LOC may carry an administration or facility fee, but the net cost of this is actually far less than the traditional 0.25%-3% of SbLC face value that some banks charge to SWIFT transfer an issued SbLC. In3CAP can reimburse for these costs in any case.
   Even if you chose to draw on the LOC and use those proceeds as more leveraged cash surety (steps), the line’s interest expense would be amortized over the life of the project, making that a streamlined and still capital-efficient way of accomplishing the same goal — securing CAP funding and the many benefits it offers.
   Clients during 2025 showed us that by accepting a banker’s need for comfort with a new Line of Credit opened at the bank (but not necessarily drawn), the SbLC Security for a project’s funding was suddenly within reach. This preference for an LOC is largely a matter of the banker’s self-preservation.  It is too easy for bankers to say “no” or refuse to help work something out (many will effectively ignore requests that make them uncomfortable), so now we have witnessed several major US banks that offer an SbLC backed by their own LOC for a nominal fee. More practical SbLC tips.
5. Lower CAP minimums — minimum investment is normally $25 million, but we temporarily offer as little as $15 million in total funding per project or portfolio with a minimum 35% cash deposit ($5.25 million). We still prefer projects above ~$75-$200 million.
6. New capital solutions coming that go beyond CAP, or can be used in combination with CAP, including bridge lenders, diverse senior lenders (anticipating lower interest rates), Green Bonds, Tax Equity investors and more … are coming in 2026. For example, we are running a pilot program for an innovative Ground Leasing or “lease-back” structure that delivers the necessary Security for 100% project funding as a Done-For-You (DFY) Service. Check back with us around mid-March 2026.

See also: In3 client case studies and testimonials

The 2026 Playing Field — what Impact Investors see on the Road Ahead

Stepping back to consider the bigger picture, we find a $15 trillion investment gap for sustainable infrastructure between now and 2040, says the World Economic Forum, April 2025. Why we must invest in sustainable infrastructure | World Economic Forum:

• Infrastructure forms the backbone of modern economies but there is an estimated $15 trillion infrastructure investment gap until 2040.
• Private capital is critical to closing this gap but institutional investors allocate an average of only 5% of their portfolios to infrastructure.
• Sustainable infrastructure outperforms conventional infrastructure by over 20% under a net zero scenario.

Another study, focused on the net-zero transition by 2050: Its cost and benefits | Sustainability | McKinsey & Company reports that worldwide pledges to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, will require $9.2 trillion in annual average spending on physical assets, $3.5 trillion more than today.

Seems we have job security. In3’s role as an impact investor, venture catalyst, and ESG advisors, helps create a more sustainable and resilient future, and has never been more vital. “Sustainable investing identifies unmanaged risks and unlocks investment opportunities in order to safeguard and increase long-term portfolio value,” says 11/24 Sustainable Investment Forum (SIF). Investors require transparency through clear reporting requirements, the ability to engage the companies they own on financially material issues, and certainty that policymakers will support robust climate action. That remains true regardless of the political landscape.

The economy tilts toward lasting value, and market manipulators eventually get their comeuppance. In other words, good business always works, no matter what the political climate.

Is corporate ESG and related “openness” on its way out? When challenged about their “open door policy,” an HR director for a client company that disagrees with this approach recent said to me “I haven’t listened to a single complaint all day.” :>o