Encina Lender Finance Provides Inaugural Senior Credit Facility to Urban Us Capital

Atlanta, GA – October 20, 2021 – Encina Lender Finance, LLC (“ELF”) announced today that it has provided an inaugural senior credit facility to Urban Us Capital, LLC (“Urban Us Capital”), a leading venture capital platform providing both structured equity and debt investments engaged in origination and servicing of asset-backed capital to early-stage companies and startups focused on upgrading cities for climate change (climate tech and urbantech).

Based in New York, NY and building on the 10-year investment history and sourcing network of its venture equity division, Urban Us Capital originates, deploys and services asset-backed loans and other collateralized debt investments focused on the intersection of urban technology (urbantech) and climate technology (climate tech) sectors. Companies in these areas have seen significant market growth and capital inflows in recent years as the magnitude of the global need and opportunity around climate-linked investments has become apparent.

“We are thrilled about partnering with Encina,” said Mark Paris, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Urban Us Capital. “The new credit facility provides us with significant additional capacity to accelerate the growth of our platform and, equally, to accelerate our startups’ transformational work across cities and climate.”

“Encina Lender Finance is pleased that the Urban Us Capital team has trusted us to help grow their platform,” said Alex Knowland, Vice President at ELF. “The Company has long been a staple in the VC community and has an exceptional track record in the space. We look forward to supporting them in their core mission of providing capital to promising early-stage companies who seek to fight climate change and improve quality of life in major urban centers.”

About Encina Lender Finance

Headquartered in Atlanta, ELF offers revolving lines of credit and term loans ranging in size from $10 to $150 million to specialty finance companies (sponsored and non-sponsored) across a wide range of asset classes including, but not limited to, asset-based lending, factoring, equipment leasing, floorplan financing, commercial real estate bridge lending, tax lien/deed financing, venture debt lending, SMB lending & merchant cash advance, middle-market private credit, charged-off debt buyers, rent-to-own consumer leasing, unsecured consumer lending and specialized student lending. ELF’s customers use financing proceeds primarily to fund the origination of new finance contracts and to refinance existing debt, and ELF’s loans are secured by portfolios of notes, loans and/or leases. For additional information, please visit ELF’s website at https://lenderfinance.encinacapital.com.

About Urban Us Capital

Urban Us was founded in 2013 and is the leading early-stage investor for startups upgrading cities for climate change. Today, over 100 investments including many industry and category leaders such as Onewheel, Swell, Bowery Farming, One Concern, Thrilling, Mark43, Cove Tool and Versatile are leading the way in areas like electrification of mobility, high performance building design, resilient food supplies and climate risk management. Urban Us partners were ranked in the top 10 of nearly 400 VC investors in TechCrunch1 and #1 early-stage climate fund in North America by Climate502.

1 2020 VCs Who Founders Love The Most, TechCrunch

2 https://climate50.com/2020-list/ (see Winners 2020)