Why we invested in Tenet

The enormous pace of innovation in electric cars and electrified homes has given consumers better choices than ever in how to electrify their lives. But consumer financing for the green revolution has not kept pace with the innovation in the products themselves, leaving a huge market that is wildly underserved.

That’s why firstminute has invested in Tenet, a platform facilitating consumer loans designed specifically for the financing of green consumer products that will bypass the legacy consumer finance channels.

Tenet’s beachhead market is ‘prime’ buyers of electric vehicles and those keen to refinance, with Tenet able to offer cheaper deals in most cases given their laser focus and understanding of the category. But their ambitions are to tackle a huge consumer eco lending market, with climate home plus auto financing market estimated to reach $1tn by 2030.

We believe increased electrification will drive consumer demand for Tenet. On the other side of the trade, there is also a wall of debt capital looking for opportunities to lend to green projects. Tenet can harness that power as well, connecting lenders with consumers.

As with GoodLeap (a $12bn solar financing play backed by Coatue), we believe Tenet has a team capable of becoming a category leader in its space - leveraging a software and data advantage as they scale - to become the lender of choice to any US consumer wanting to electrify their lives.

The founders Alexander Lieg, Andreas Wallendahl and Paul Sebexen are highly capable (ex McKinsey, MIT, Stanford, Atomico). Firstmintue general partner Spencer Crawley and venture partner Will Wells were at INSEAD with Andreas in 2015 and respect him hugely as an intellect and an entrepreneur.

Having just co-led the $18m round with Giant Ventures - with Breyer Capital, Human Capital and GFC also invested - we are seriously excited to help Tenet to scale up, firstly by building out their team and secondly by helping them expand across the US and roll out additional climate products.

In macro terms, US (and global) electrification is now inevitable. Tenet is the right team at the right time to capitalize on this generational shift in behaviour.