The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation, together with AIM Horizon Investments, the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), ING and DBS Bank, have closed the Fund for Energy Efficiency Technologies (FEET), securing total commitments of up to $35m, surpassing initial targets.

FEET is the world’s first vessel retrofit fund to use a pay-as-you-save repayment mechanism, directly linking repayments to verified fuel and regulatory savings. The fund aims to address long-standing barriers to energy efficiency technologies (EETs) uptake, including uncertainty in fuel savings, difficulties in predicting ROI, and the split-incentive issue between shipowners and charterers.

FEET offers up to 100% upfront financing for retrofits and provides unsecured leases that decouple retrofit financing from vessel mortgages—removing a key barrier for shipowners. The fund employs blended capital and project diversification to balance financial risk while keeping financing costs competitive.

GCMD and AIM Horizon Investments plan to scale FEET to $500m by 2030, supporting around 200 vessels.