The funding winter that chilled African tech ecosystems over the past two years is beginning to thaw, and the green economy is leading the charge. In a major boost for sustainability-focused startups, Catalyst Fund has announced the successful completion of its second close, securing $30 million in total commitments.
The pan-African venture capital fund, which backs early-stage startups building climate adaptation and resilience solutions, is now aggressively moving toward its ultimate $40 million target.
As reported in Catalyst Fund completes $30 million second close to back Africa’s climate-tech startups ,the timing of this capital injection coincides with a significant macroeconomic recovery. The broader African climate tech funding landscape suffered a severe slump in 2024, with total annual investments plummeting to $754 million. However, the sector mounted a dramatic comeback, rebounding past $1.1 billion by late 2025.
Catalyst Fund’s second close signals that institutional investors are increasingly viewing climate resilience not merely as an impact metric, but as a critical, high-yield commercial frontier.
“Climate adaptation is one of the defining investment themes of the next decade, especially in Africa,” said Maelis Carraro, founder and general partner at Catalyst Fund. Carraro emphasized that the new capital will allow the firm to double down on ambitious founders building practical solutions for a climate-changed world, supporting them through a mix of direct equity and hands-on venture-building infrastructure.
The second close unlocked significant capital from a diverse, heavy-hitting roster of institutional limited partners (LPs) and development finance institutions (DFIs). New backers joining the fund include the International Finance Corporation (IFC), financing for Agri-SMEs in Africa (FASA), the Shell Foundation,the Trafigura Foundation, Speedinvest, Blink Impact and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) the latter explicitly backing the fund’s efforts to scale its pipeline of women-led climate startups.
By securing these institutional balance sheets, Catalyst Fund plans to expand its portfolio to roughly 40 tech startups across 10 distinct African markets.
Since completing its $9 million first close back in late 2023, Catalyst Fund has already built an active portfolio of 28 companies and deployed nine follow-on investments into its top performers.
The fund’s existing bets demonstrate the practical, tech-driven approaches being deployed to insulate vulnerable communities from environmental volatility. Core portfolio examples include Keep It Cool (Kenya) which is a startup building decentralized, solar-powered cold-chain logistics networks to eliminate spoilage for fish and poultry farmers, MazaoHub (Tanzania) which is an end-to-end agritech platform optimizing supply chains and data management for smallholder farmers and Bekia (Egypt) which is a digital marketplace streamlining waste management by connecting municipal waste producers directly with industrial recyclers.
See also: Afreximbank Pivots from Mineral Mining to Africa’s Battery Future
By equipping early-stage operators with both institutional cash and technical development support, Catalyst Fund is helping tech startups bridge the gap between initial pilot phases and long-term, bankable scalability.
With a final close expected before the end of 2026, the fund’s expansion reinforces a critical paradigm shift: Africa’s tech ecosystem is successfully positioning itself as a global hub for climate innovation rather than a passive observer of climate risks.
