Accelerating climate tech innovation: the SS&C Intralinks and EVC partnership

The climate tech sector stands at a critical juncture. As the planet faces unprecedented environmental challenges, innovative startups are racing to develop solutions that could reshape our future. Yet these ventures face significant hurdles in securing funding and managing complex transactions. A new partnership between SS&C Intralinks and the Eco Venture Council (EVC) aims to remove these barriers and accelerate the path from innovation to impact.

The mission behind EVC

The Eco Venture Council operates on a simple but powerful premise: our planet is in crisis, and lawyers want to help. Founded by Mitesh Jagatia, EVC emerged from a personal commitment to climate action and a recognition that legal professionals could play a unique role in supporting green innovation.

The organization's genesis traces back to the lead-up to COP 26 in Glasgow, when Jagatia realized that while law firms were doing excellent pro bono work for individuals, few were supporting climate tech companies. This gap presented an opportunity to leverage his legal background to connect startups with the professional support they desperately needed.

"I didn't want to be at the dinner table when my daughter was a teenager saying the planet's on fire, what have you done?" Jagatia explains. "I wanted to be able to say I've done this program to try and help."

Supporting real climate solutions

EVC's first cohort includes 21 ventures tackling some of the planet's most pressing challenges, from waste and pollution to biodiversity loss. The diversity of innovation is striking:

Backtree has developed a battery that generates electricity directly from soil, creating a renewable power source that recharges itself through contact with the earth.

Marinaex transforms fish waste from oceans and seas into alternatives to plastic packaging, simultaneously reducing waste and eliminating harmful plastics from the food supply chain.

These ventures represent the cutting edge of climate innovation, but brilliant technology alone isn't enough. They need capital, legal support, and the right tools to manage complex fundraising and M&A processes.

The fundraising challenge

Climate tech startups today face a particularly difficult fundraising environment. They must clear an even higher hurdle than other ventures, demonstrating not just exciting ideas but strong traction and clear paths to scale.

Beyond the macro challenge of attracting investment, startups struggle with the mechanics of deal execution:

• Reviewing and negotiating complex contracts
• Organizing and sharing sensitive documents securely
• Managing access for multiple stakeholders
• Tracking investor engagement and document review
• Coordinating workflows across lawyers, founders, and investors

Traditional tools simply weren't designed for this level of complexity. Generic file sharing platforms lack the security, granularity, and tracking capabilities that sophisticated transactions demand.

Why technology partnership matters

For EVC, finding the right technology partner was critical to ensuring ventures started on the right foot. SS&C Intralinks, which pioneered the virtual data room decades ago, has evolved its platform to meet the demands of modern deal making.

The new Deal Center AI platform represents a fundamental shift from document management to intelligent deal orchestration. It provides:

• Enterprise-grade security for sensitive information
• Granular access controls and revocation capabilities
• Detailed tracking of who has viewed documents and when
• AI-powered document analysis and summarization
• Automated identification of key terms and provisions
• Streamlined workflows that reduce repetitive tasks

"It was a no-brainer to talk to SS&C Intralinks," Jagatia notes. "You pioneered the traditional VDR a long time ago, and I recall using Intralinks as a training solicitor many years ago. But now it's gone to the next level with your new AI capabilities."

The AI advantage

Artificial intelligence is transforming how deals get done. Deal Center AI enables users to quickly analyze thousands of pages of documentation, finding critical information that might otherwise require hours of manual review.

Need to know if a contract contains an indemnity clause? Want to compare investment amounts across multiple term sheets? The AI can surface these insights instantly, allowing legal teams and founders to focus on strategy rather than document review.

This efficiency translates directly to cost savings. By reducing the time junior lawyers and bankers spend on repetitive tasks, ventures can move faster and preserve precious capital.

"AI is no more optional now," says Mikuel Matisia of SS&C Intralinks. "The companies using AI will always do a better job than the ones that don't."

The technology will only become more powerful over time, making deals faster, better, and cheaper. This acceleration effect compounds, creating competitive advantages for ventures that embrace these tools early.

Building credibility and confidence

The partnership delivers benefits beyond pure functionality. For EVC's ventures, using a platform like Deal Center AI signals professionalism and readiness to investors. It demonstrates that a startup understands the demands of institutional fundraising and has the infrastructure to manage it properly.

For EVC itself, the collaboration with a global technology leader like SS&C validates the organization's mission and approach. It shows that established players recognize the importance of supporting climate innovation and are willing to commit resources to the cause.

This credibility creates a virtuous cycle. As more ventures succeed using these tools, other climate tech startups gain confidence that support systems exist to help them navigate the challenging path from idea to impact.

Ripple effects across the ecosystem

The program's impact extends beyond its direct participants. By supporting approximately 50 ventures per year with free legal support and access to institutional-grade deal technology, EVC is creating a demonstration effect throughout the UK green tech sector.

Aspiring climate entrepreneurs can see that they won't be alone in their journey. Programs like EVC exist to provide critical support, and partnerships with companies like SS&C Intralinks ensure they'll have access to the same tools used by established players.

This knowledge reduces barriers to entry and encourages more innovation. Talented individuals who might have hesitated to start a climate venture due to concerns about legal costs or deal complexity can move forward with greater confidence.

The market benefits from increased competition and diversity of approaches. More ventures means more shots on goal, increasing the likelihood that breakthrough solutions will emerge and scale.

Looking ahead

EVC plans to launch cohort two with approximately 20 additional ventures, followed by cohort three in early 2025. This steady expansion will create a growing community of climate tech companies that have received professional support and learned to leverage sophisticated deal tools.

The partnership with SS&C Intralinks represents just the first step in what both organizations envision as a long-term collaboration. As the platform evolves and AI capabilities expand, the support available to climate ventures will only improve.

The stakes could not be higher. Climate change represents an existential threat that demands urgent action. While policy and individual behavior change matter, technological innovation will play a central role in any viable solution.

By removing friction from the fundraising and deal execution process, this partnership helps ensure that promising climate technologies can secure the capital they need to scale. Every deal closed faster, every fundraising round completed more efficiently, potentially accelerates the timeline for bringing world-changing solutions to market.

The planet needs these innovations. Through strategic partnerships that combine legal expertise, cutting-edge technology, and a shared commitment to climate action, organizations like EVC and SS&C Intralinks are helping ensure that the next generation of green tech startups has what it needs to succeed.