The House of Bankability Framework
A structured way to move from technological promise to financeable infrastructure.
The framework evaluates the major risk categories that determine whether a project can attract capital across the financing stack:
The foundation
Who stands behind the project: a credible sponsor with governance, committed equity, a ring-fenced legal structure and the permits to build and operate. Without a sound foundation, no risk allocation above it is financeable.
The core risk categories
Technology, construction, operations, feedstock, offtake, project economics, legal structure and insurance. For each, lenders ask the same question: is the risk evidenced, allocated to the party best able to manage it, and priced?
The roof
When every category holds up, the project carries bankability: access to debt, project finance and infrastructure capital at commercial terms.
Click any room in the house to see what lenders look for.
From vision to financial close
Each stage is funded by a different kind of capital, and each asks a different question. Most failed financings are a company trying to answer stage-three questions with stage-one evidence.
Focus: technology, team, market potential
Focus: cash flows, assets, contract certainty
Focus: stability, predictability, scale
Build bottom-up
Lenders read the house from the foundation. A strong offtake contract does not compensate for a team that has never built a plant.
Every room is a contract
Most building blocks end in a signed document: offtake, supply, EPC, O&M, insurance, permits. Bankability is mostly paperwork that transfers risk.
Gaps can be bridged
Grants, DFIs, export credit agencies and guarantees exist to fill specific rooms. Knowing which room is empty tells you who to call.
What to look for, room by room
A short guide for each building block: what lenders look for, what I would do as a founder, and the red flags that stop a deal.
The Bankability Checklist
Key questions before raising debt. Tick what is true for your project today. Your answers stay in your browser.