It’s known as the first-of-a-kind (FOAK) “valley of death” — when climate startups are developing a novel product, but don’t have enough cash to build a capital-intensive factory to produce it.

But help may be on the way: there’s a new fund, run by French VC firm Axeleo Capital, specifically dedicated to the problem.

“There is a financing gap,” says Marc Lechantre, partner at Axeleo. “There is a lot of public funding for R&D and a lot of seed financing at the beginning of a startup’s journey. At the other end, there are a lot of large funds ready to fund growth with big tickets, but we have a gap in the middle.”

Axeleo is based in Lyon and was founded in 2017. The new, first-of-a-kind (FOAK) fund is its third — two prior funds focused on b2b SaaS and construction and energy tech.