Catalytic Finance Foundation began its journey as R20-Regions of Climate Action, an international non-profit organization founded by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009, in partnership with the United Nations, financing institutions and the private sector.
R20 was initially created to work with subnational governments for the design and implementation of low-carbon energy projects. During our early work, it became clear that we urgently needed new financing mechanisms to be able to realize sustainable infrastructure projects in developing countries at scale and speed. Gradually, R20 shifted its focus to enabling sustainable infrastructure through the design of blended-finance investment funds and other catalytic finance solutions. In 2023, this new vision and mission led to the rebranding as the Catalytic Finance Foundation.
