The archive · Climate & Energy · Strategic decision · 2022–2025
Crux bets IRA transferability creates a tax-credit market; $77M raised, $25B traded
Ex-Treasury aide Alfred Johnson launched Crux in April 2023 as a marketplace for tax credits the IRA made transferable; the market hit $22–25B by 2024.
Crux
What the business is
A marketplace where clean-energy developers and manufacturers sell the tax credits created by the Inflation Reduction Act to banks and corporations that can use them.
Starting capital：$4.6 million seed round announced at launch; over $77 million raised in total by April 2025
How it started
Alfred Johnson, a two-time U.S. Treasury staffer who served as deputy chief of staff to Secretary Janet Yellen until April 2022, co-founded Crux with Allen Kramer. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 let clean-energy tax credits be sold to unrelated parties, so in April 2023 Crux launched as the marketplace for that brand-new market, announcing a $4.6 million round led by Lowercarbon Capital.
What happened
Transferability took off faster than expected: Crux forecast market volume rising from about $4 billion in 2023 to $22–25 billion in 2024, with over 80% of its 2023 deals under $50 million — sizes too small for traditional tax-equity financing. By April 2025 its network reached 630 developers, buyers, lenders, and advisers, it had closed more than 70 transfers, and it had launched a debt marketplace. A $50 million Series B led by Lowercarbon Capital brought total funding above $77 million.
How it ended up
Still running and scaling: Crux says it is building the central capital markets platform for the clean economy, targets more than 1,000 counterparties, and prices deals using a dataset of over $30 billion in tax-credit transactions.
Background
Crux is a bet that a tax-code change could create a financial market from nothing. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 allowed clean-energy tax credits to be sold to unrelated parties for the first time, which mattered because most developers earn credits worth more than their own tax bills. Alfred Johnson, who had just left the U.S. Treasury as deputy chief of staff to Janet Yellen, co-founded Crux with Allen Kramer and launched in April 2023 with a $4.6 million seed round led by Lowercarbon Capital.
The company built a marketplace where solar, wind, battery, and advanced-manufacturing projects list their credits, get bids, and compare prices — replacing a process that previously meant months of manual deal-making. The bet paid off quickly: transfer volume grew from about $4 billion in 2023 to a forecast $22–25 billion in 2024, and over 80% of Crux's 2023 deals were under $50 million, a scale that traditional tax-equity financing rarely served.
By April 2025 Crux had connected 630 developers, manufacturers, buyers, lenders, and advisers, closed more than 70 transfers, and launched a debt marketplace. A $50 million Series B led by Lowercarbon Capital, with participation from a16z, OMERS Ventures, and others, brought total funding above $77 million, backing the company's plan to become the central capital-markets platform for clean energy.
What has to be true
- The IRA created the supply and demand in one stroke: developers held millions in unusable credits, and banks and corporations wanted tax offsets.
- The old tax-equity route was partnership-heavy and favored deals over $100 million; transferability let small developers sell credits directly.
- Crux chose the infrastructure layer — pricing data, bidding, compliance — so every transfer in the market made its platform more valuable.
What can be applied
A new law can mint an entire market overnight; the winners build the rails — pricing, trust, compliance — for that market rather than competing inside an old one.
Aftermath
As of April 2025, Crux is scaling: it targets more than 1,000 counterparties on the platform by the end of 2025, runs a growing debt marketplace with over $11 billion in capital raises, and publishes market-intelligence reports built on more than $30 billion in tax-credit transactions. Its stated ambition is to become the central software platform for clean-economy capital, from tax credits to debt to the full capital stack.
Sources
- Startup aims to help climate companies unlock billions in Inflation Reduction Act tax credits
- The tax code change unleashing $25B in clean energy investment
- What our $50M Series B means for Crux partners
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