Investment strategy

We take minority stakes in seed to Series A companies that cut energy cost and emissions for industrial and commercial businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean. Mexico is our core market.

Investment criteria

Stage at entry
Seed to Series A, with follow-ons through Series B.
Initial check
USD 500,000 to 1.5 million. USD 250,000 to 750,000 in nascent markets such as Central America and the Caribbean.
Ownership
8% to 15% at entry, with a board seat or observer rights.
Instruments
Preferred equity, SAFEs and convertible notes. Minority positions only.
Customers
Businesses, from multinational plants to small firms.
Impact condition
A measurable cut in customers' energy cost or emissions, with a baseline set before we invest.
Holding period
5 to 8 years. Likely buyers include energy service firms, equipment makers, utilities, industrial software companies and later-stage funds.
Excluded
Project SPVs, project debt, utility-scale generation, asset-owning business models, fossil fuel production and any activity on the IDB Group exclusion list.

Sectors

Every company sells to businesses. We weight each sector by the evidence that customers will pay.

Distributed energy and storage software

Design, monitoring, financing and control software for on-site solar and storage.

Mexico reached 5.19 GW of distributed generation in 2025. The 2025 law requires self-supply projects to carry storage or pay CFE for backup.

Energy efficiency and process optimization

Sensors, analytics and controls that cut the energy a site uses per unit of output.

Small and mid-sized firms are 19% less energy efficient than larger ones, according to an IDB Invest study of 6,000 firms in 19 countries.

Energy procurement, metering and grid-edge software

Software that helps multi-site companies buy, meter and manage power.

Peak demand in Mexico is projected to grow 2.8% a year through 2039. CFE's 2026 investment budget is 16.7% lower in real terms, and grid losses reached 12.3% in 2024 (IMCO).

Industrial decarbonization software and efficiency controls

Emissions software and efficiency controls for manufacturers.

We back the software and controls layer. Hardware-heavy models need more capital than an early-stage fund should supply.

Energy finance and efficiency for MSMEs

Embedded finance and pay-as-you-go models for efficient equipment.

The IDB runs a USD 60 million program to finance efficiency at about 450 small businesses in El Salvador.

Where EHI Cleantech Ventures invests Map of Latin America and the Caribbean. Mexico is the core market. Colombia, Peru and Chile are secondary markets. Central America and the Caribbean are nascent markets. Brazil is for co-investments and follow-ons only. Mexico City

Markets

Mexico is our base. We rank the other markets by what businesses pay for power.

Mexico
Our core market and home to the industrial buyers that Mexico Energy Partners advises. USD 1.43 billion of venture capital went into 107 Mexican deals in 2025, and about 990 MW of distributed generation was added the same year. LAVCA; CNE
Colombia, Peru and Chile
Colombia and Peru have the highest business power prices of five countries in a 2025 study. Chile, at USD 0.148 per kWh after a fivefold increase in solar and wind capacity, is a source of tested companies ready to expand into Mexico, and of co-investors. Energy Master, 2025
Central America and the Caribbean
Caribbean power prices are among the highest in the Western Hemisphere. We write smaller checks here, often alongside managers based in these markets. IDB, June 2026
Brazil
Co-investments and follow-ons only. Brazil was the region's largest recipient of foreign direct investment in 2025, at USD 74.1 billion. ECLAC
What businesses pay for powerUSD per kWh, 2025
Colombia
0.200
Peru
0.175
Chile
0.148
Mexico
0.132

Energy Master, 2025. Business electricity prices for four of the five countries in the study.

Sourcing and diligence

The plants that pay for energy show us which startups they will adopt.

Most of our deal flow comes from the industrial buyers that Mexico Energy Partners advises, from plant operators, equipment makers and developers in Mexico and the United States, and from early-stage funds and accelerators active in Latin American climate and energy.

Diligence starts at a customer site, where we test the savings a company claims, audit the financials tied to them and review the technology. A buyer outside the company's reference list tells us whether it would buy. The investment committee memo then sets out probability-weighted return and currency scenarios, the likely acquirers, the impact baseline with five-year targets, and a 2X Criteria assessment.