In 2025, raising capital above USD 10 million has become paradoxical: global liquidity remains high, yet access to funding is fragmented, slow, and conditional. Many mid-sized companies across core industries now face a structural bottleneck, banks are cautious, private credit is selective, and equity is dilutive. Startups aren’t our focus here; the real capital gap lies in the operational core of the global economy: energy, infrastructure, mining, logistics, healthcare, and beyond.
Traditional Financing Is Failing Mid-Market Operators
Despite trillions in AuM across private markets, 2025 has seen a retrenchment of bank lending and a tightening of non-bank credit criteria:
- Global private credit AuM exceeded USD 1.7 trillion by Q2 2025, yet deployment rates remain below 65%.
- The World Bank and IFC both reported that over 45% of growth-stage industrial firms in emerging and frontier markets face prolonged credit approval timelines exceeding 120 days.
- U.S. regional banks reduced commercial and industrial (C&I) lending by 18% year-on-year as of April 2025.
- Project finance deals under USD 50 million often fail to close due to underresourced due diligence teams and internal return thresholds.
Even firms with viable projects, operating revenue, and collateral struggle to pass rigid criteria: EBITDA floors, historical cashflows, or country risk ratings that ignore the deal’s real merit.
This is where CPPE becomes transformative.
What is CPPE?
CPPE stands for Capital-Protected Participating Equity.
A modern financing wrapper that blends institutional-grade structure with real-world capital deployment. It creates a pathway between project owners and global investors via a capital-protected note, offering upside participation with principal safety.
Unlike traditional bank loans or direct equity, CPPE instruments are:
- Capital-protected at 100% by a FINMA-regulated A-rated issuer
- Callable after a defined period, typically 2–5 years
- Structured and arranged by Invess.ai, ensuring regulatory and execution integrity
- Backed by the underlying project or company, with custom participation terms
Funds are released not by Invess.ai, but by the issuing bank as part of the note’s settlement protocol. Our role is that of financial architect, designing the structure, aligning counterparties, and delivering the investment-grade documentation required for execution.
20 Industry Sectors Most Suitable for CPPE Financing in 2025
The following sectors have demonstrated high structural demand for non-dilutive, flexible capital, and are historically underserved by traditional finance despite strong project viability:
- Renewable Energy (Solar, Wind, Hydro)
- EV and Battery Manufacturing
- Commercial Real Estate (Logistics, Warehousing)
- Sustainable Agriculture and AgriTech
- Mining and Rare Earths Extraction
- Water Infrastructure and Desalination
- Ports and Logistics Infrastructure
- Healthcare Facilities and MedTech
- Modular Construction and Housing
- Telecommunications Infrastructure
- Industrial Equipment Leasing
- Data Centers and Cloud Storage
- Maritime Shipping and Vessel Acquisition
- Aviation Services and MRO Facilities
- Grid Modernization and Power Storage
- Educational Infrastructure (Private Institutions)
- Cold Storage and Supply Chain Upgrades
- Green Hydrogen and Energy Transition Projects
- Waste Management and Circular Economy
- Hospitality Refurbishment and Expansion
These sectors share two traits:
- Projects tend to be cash-generative within 24 months
- Capital needs often fall in the USD 10m to USD 100m range, too large for local banks, too small or unscalable for global private equity
Why CPPE Works Where Others Don’t
The CPPE structure appeals to all parties in the financing equation:
For Borrowers:
- Non-dilutive: No equity surrender, unlike PE or VC
- No personal guarantees: Structured against project risk, not personal assets
- Speed: Decisions within weeks, not quarters
- Capital protection reassures Boards and LPs
For Investors:
- 100% capital protection via FINMA-regulated issuer
- Equity-like upside with reduced downside risk
- Defined maturity with optional early exit
- Auditable, enforceable contracts structured under Swiss or UK law
For Issuers and Banks:
- Participation is risk-transferred via robust structuring
- Underlying asset or project is pre-vetted by Invess.ai’s architecture team
- CPPE sits comfortably within structured finance and ESG mandates
Why This Matters in 2025
Raising capital in 2025 is no longer about pitch decks or roadshows, it’s about risk distribution. Projects that once closed with a single lender now require three. Sovereign risk premiums have spiked across LATAM and Southeast Asia. Yet, the appetite for yield remains enormous, particularly among family offices, pensions, and sovereigns unable to deploy via vanilla bond or equity allocations.
We designed CPPE to unlock that gridlock.
Invess: Who We Are
Invess is a financial architecture firm serving institutional investors and project sponsors across the capital spectrum. Our team designs bespoke investment structures that enhance risk-adjusted returns and enable capital formation at scale. We are not a bank or a brokerage. We act as the architect; structuring, validating, and delivering bank-executable capital notes.
CPPE is merely one such solution in our portfolio. Others include capital-protected gold exposure, AI-linked equity participation notes, volatility-controlled index overlays, and algorithmic allocation structures that dynamically adjust market exposure. Each is designed with the same institutional discipline: capital protection, issuer credibility, and real-world application.
We work exclusively with FINMA-regulated issuers and institutional allocators.
To explore a potential CPPE financing for your business or project (USD 10 million and above), contact me directly:
📧 terrence.w@invess.ai
DISCLAIMER: This material is intended for institutional, corporate, and qualified project sponsors. It does not constitute investment advice or a solicitation to sell any security. All structures referenced are illustrative only. Capital protection, where applicable, is issued by FINMA-regulated banks. Invess.ai acts solely as a financial architect.
Originally posted on Substack