Catalyst Fund, a Kenyan pre-seed accelerator, will receive over KSh 33 million as it joins four other African VCs in the 2025 phase of the Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Africa program led by Village Capital and backed by the The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD).
- •The program intends to support ecosystem builders that will provide capital to 30 climate-focused startups strewn across Sub-Saharan Africa.
- •The first phase of the program supported 14 Ecosystem Builders across five countries.
- •Other ecosystem builders selected by Village Capital include the Reach for Change Foundation (Accra, Ghana), Ennovate Ventures (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania), Emerge Livelihoods (Mzuzu, Malawi), and IdeiaLab (Maputo, Mozambique).
“We are committed to reimagining capital deployment and building a more connected ecosystem where ESOs play a pivotal role in driving entrepreneurship and facilitating access to capital,” Susan Nakami, Region Lead, Africa at Village Capital said.
Village Capital has run over 14 accelerator programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, serving innovators in 15 countries across the region in 12 years. Its portfolio includes over 120 locally-based startups and 78 Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESO) across sectors such as financial health, hardware, sustainability, and the future of work.
“We are proud to walk alongside these organizations every step of the way, co-designing tailored accelerator programs for startups in their markets and empowering them to deliver scalablesolutions to climate challenges,” Nakami said.
Through this initiative, Village Capital aims to resolve the funding shortage that has plagued the climate-tech ecosystem by tapping into NORAD’s long-standing financial support for green solutions in Africa.
