Boston-based venture accelerator Catalyst Fund is seeking to finance early-stage start-ups building climate resilience solutions in Africa to scale.
Start-ups in Kenya are targeted with up to Sh45 million in funding which is broken down into Sh11.9 million in cash and a similar amount for venture building support and up to Sh20.8 million in catalyst fund perks alongside dedicated public relations and marketing support and lifetime access to the global network of 61 alumni companies, among other long-term advantages.
"We are actively looking for early-stage start-ups that improve the resilience of underserved and climate-vulnerable communities in emerging markets," said the Catalyst Fund in a statement.
Catalyst Fund is further looking for pre-seed fin-tech and climate resilience startups with local founders or co-founders and gender-balanced leadership teams operating in Africa with a product in the e-market, some customers and working toward product-market fit.
The call said the targeted start-ups must specialise in financial resilience, which is about emergency payments, insurance, disaster relief, data for pricing risk, asset building products together with climate-smart livelihoods which is about green jobs, recycling, sustainable agriculture, carbon credits, fishery management, as well as sustainable utilities meaning operate in water management, energy, cooling, cold storage, ventilation or clean energy access.
With up to 40 start-ups making up its portfolio, Catalyst Fund's previous beneficiaries include Kenya-based Top Up Mama, a one-stop-shop providing restaurant owners with a B2B e-commerce platform for access to inventory, access to credit, and access to business tools, helping thousands of restaurants in Kenya and Nigeria save time and money so as to grow their businesses.
Top Up Mama works to find key manufacturers and food providers and uses its own warehouse with cold storage facilities to provide inventory. It also manages the last-mile delivery process, where since its creation, Top Up Mama has reached more than 3,500 restaurants in Lagos and Nairobi. The start-up has already made more than 20,000 deliveries, 20 per cent of which were fresh products.
The fund has previously dealt with Kenya's Aqua Rech, a platform for fish farmers to source quality feed, transition to tech-enabled precision fish farming, find new routes to market, and access credit to fuel growth.
Aquarech has onboarded more than 360 fish farmers in Kenya and contributed directly to the sustainable production of over 1000 metric tonnes of cultured fish over the past year.
