NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 21 – Climate-focused startups will receive funding through Catalyst Fund (Kenya) after getting about Sh33 million ($260,000) from Village Capital, which supports emergent social, economic, and environmental challenges.
Under the 2025 Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Africa (ESEA) program, the fund is supported by Norway through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.
It builds on the successful completion of the first phase of the initiative, which supported 14 ecosystem builders across five countries.
In the 2025 phase, five organizations will be empowered to run investment-readiness programs and channel direct capital to startups driving impactful climate solutions.
Catalyst Fund joins Ennovate Ventures (Tanzania), Emerge Livelihoods (Malawi), IdeiaLab (Mozambique), and Reach for Change (Ghana) under the program.
Together, they will build a pipeline of 500 startups, provide pre-acceleration support to 100 startups, accelerate 30 startups per country across two cohorts, and award $25,000 in grant funding to four top-performing startups per country.
“By equipping these ecosystem builders to fund and support climate-focused entrepreneurs directly, Village Capital aims to create a sustainable pipeline of innovative solutions that drive both climate action and economic growth across the region,” it said.
The call for applications is now open to early-stage startups in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, and Ghana developing scalable sustainability solutions in climate adaptation, renewable energy, blue economy, and food security. Applications close on April 30, 2025.
