Catalyst Fund secures $30 million to support African climate startups

Pan-African climate venture fund Catalyst Fund has hit the second close of its debut fund, securing $30 million in total commitments as it nears its target. The fund is doubling down on backing founders building practical solutions to Africa’s intensifying climate challenges.

The round attracted investors including IFC, FASA, Shell Foundation, Trafigura Foundation, Speedinvest, Blink Impact, and private investors, as well as early backers FSD Africa and Cisco Foundation. Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) joined to help strengthen the fund’s pipeline of women-led startups. A final close is expected later this year.

Catalyst Fund is led by four partners: Maelis Carraro, Maxime Bayen, Olúwatóyìn Emmanuel-Olubake, and Amolo Ng’weno. The fund invests from pre-seed to Series A in startups tackling climate resilience across agriculture, food systems, energy, water, mobility, and fintech, with a target of backing 40 ventures across Africa.

It has already invested in 28 startups across 10 African markets. The portfolio reflects the breadth of the problem the fund is trying to solve. Keep It Cool, a 2024 Earthshot Prize winner, builds solar-powered cold-chain infrastructure for fisherfolk and poultry farmers in Kenya, addressing a gap that causes significant post-harvest food losses.

MazaoHub in Tanzania combines AI-driven soil intelligence with on-the-ground agronomy support to help smallholder farmers improve their yields. Bekia in Egypt runs a tech-enabled circular-economy platform that connects households and businesses with recyclers, turning waste management into a commercially viable loop rather than an afterthought.

Carraro described climate adaptation as one of the defining investment themes of the next decade, particularly in Africa where the need is immediate. “This second close allows us to double down on our mission: backing ambitious founders building practical, scalable solutions for a climate-changed world and supporting them not just with capital, but with the hands-on venture-building support they need to grow,” she said.

Catalyst Fund builds alongside founders, not just behind them

What distinguishes Catalyst Fund from a conventional early-stage investor is its embedded venture-building model. The firm works alongside founders from the start, pairing equity investment with operational support from BFA Global, helping companies refine strategy, hire, build commercial traction, secure partnerships, and prepare for follow-on fundraising.

The approach is designed to fill the gap that kills many early-stage African startups: they receive funding but lack the practical infrastructure to use it effectively.

IFC’s Farid Fezoua said the partnership reflected a commitment to helping early-stage ventures scale sustainably and attract private investors. FASA contributed $5 million in junior equity to de-risk the fund and unlock additional capital from co-investors, and committed to providing technical assistance to its most promising agriculture-focused startups.

For Trafigura Foundation, the Catalyst Fund commitment represented its first impact investing deployment. “We aim to be catalytic, helping unlock additional capital into a space that is critical, yet chronically underfunded,” said Director Dario Soto-Abril.

Africa contributes less than 4% of global carbon emissions but faces some of the most severe climate consequences: disrupted rainfall, flooding, droughts, and food insecurity threatening hundreds of millions of people.

Catalyst Fund’s thesis is that the startups solving these problems represent not just an impact opportunity but a significant commercial one, and that backing them early is where capital has the most leverage.

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