Five standout ecosystem builders have been selected to continue to the next phase of Village Capital’s Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Africa programme.
Backed by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), this Village Capital initiative focuses on scaling the impact of climate-supporting entrepreneur support organisations (ESOs) across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Building on the success of the first phase, which supported 14 ecosystem builders across five countries, the 2025 phase will empower them to run investment-readiness programmes and channel direct capital to 30 climate-focused startups driving impactful solutions.
The selected ecosystem builders are Catalyst Fund (Kenya), which runs a pre-seed fund and accelerator investing in tech startups that offer climate adaptation solutions to enhance the resilience of communities in Africa; Reach for Change Foundation (Ghana), a social enterprise supporting local social entrepreneurs; Ennovate Ventures (Tanzania), a venture factory supporting early-stage, innovative businesses; Emerge Livelihoods (Malawi), which fosters a thriving ecosystem so that individuals and communities become self-reliant through an impact hub; and IdeiaLab (Maputo, Mozambique), which has a 14-year track record of developing and enabling entrepreneurial potential.
“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,” said Susan Nakami, region lead for Africa at Village Capital.
“Each organisation will receive up to US$260,000 to support their work, including strengthening their team capacity, organising workshops for climate-focused ventures, and providing re-grants to startups in their local markets. We are proud to walk alongside these organisations every step of the way, co-designing tailored accelerator programmes for startups in their markets and empowering them to deliver scalable solutions to climate challenges.”
