Two former heads of the Department of Energy’s loan office are starting up a new advisory firm to help “sustainability-focused” companies grow faster.
Jigar Shah, who headed the loan office during the Biden administration, is partnering with Jonathan Silver, executive director of the office under former President Barack Obama, to form Multiplier, Shah wrote in a LinkedIn post Tuesday.
“We have thousands of companies that have been started and funded over the last ten years to scale up solutions to our global infrastructure challenges. As these industries evolve, success isn’t just about raising capital, scaling headcount, or even market share,” Shah wrote.
He said the firm planned multiple strategies to boost low-carbon energy, including stepping in to advise companies when board members are not available and helping technologies get out of “pilot hell.” There needs to be an interim step where investors can hand off responsibility to strategic buyers “with more patient capital earlier in the process,” he said.
