Catalyst Fund, a pre-seed venture capital (VC) fund and accelerator has announced that they will be investing a total of $2 million in ten startups that are working on developing solutions to improve the resiliency of communities in Africa that are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
This is the first group of startups to receive funding from Catalyst Fund’s new $30 million investment fund. The fund is supported by the financial sector development agency FSD Africa, and its goal is to assist early-stage founders in the development of technologies that will make Africa less susceptible to the effects of climate change.
Catalyst Fund managing partner Maelis Carraro said they are excited to engage with 10 innovative African entrepreneurs building a more resilient and sustainable future. They support mission-driven founders that share our vision of a future where everyone has the tools and opportunities to succeed. These firms use finance, software, and business models to help communities adapt to climate change.
Carraro words, “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with 10 groundbreaking African startups working to build a more resilient and sustainable future.”
She continues, “Our goal is to back mission-driven founders that share our vision of a world where every individual has the tools and opportunities they need to thrive. From agri-tech to insurtech, waste management, disaster response, and carbon finance, these startups display finance, tech, and business model innovations that will help communities better adapt to climate impacts and grow their resilience.”
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About Catalyst Fund
Catalyst Fund is a pre-seed venture capital fund and accelerator that provides financial support to high-impact technology firms with the goal of enhancing the climate resilience of underprivileged areas.
It collaborates with entrepreneurs who are driven by a mission and who share our vision of a future in which every individual possesses the resources and opportunities necessary for them to succeed.
Catalyst Fund currently has a portfolio of 61 startups invested in emerging countries, and these companies will be added to that portfolio.
The portfolio firms of Catalyst Fund have so far raised more than 640 million dollars in follow-on funding, and more than 14 million consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises all around the world have already profited from the solutions that these companies have developed.
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The Beneficiaries of Catalyst Fund
Three of the chosen businesses are based in Nigeria; they are cloud-native EMS (Emergency Medical Services) platform Eight Medical, sustainable agricultural firm Farmz2U, and insurtech platform PaddyCover. All three businesses are in the technology sector.
Two of them come from Kenya in the form of the startup for the food supply chain known as Farm to Feed and the Direct Air Capture (DAC) company known as Octavia Carbon. The other two come from Egypt in the form of the tech-enabled waste collection solution known as Bekia and the precision agri-tech startup known as VAIS.
The cohort is completed by the mobile layaway system Agro Supply from Uganda, the insurtech platform Assuraf from Senegal, and the agroforestry firm Sand to Green from the United States.
Each of the ten startups received a total of $200,000, broken down as follows: $100,000 in capital contributions and $100,000 in individualised support and guidance from Catalyst Fund experts, all with the goal of increasing the companies’ rates of growth. In addition, direct ties with investors and talent networks that enable the startups to develop may be made available to each startup individually.