Catalyst Fund Hits $30M Second Close for African Climate Adaptation
TL;DR
Catalyst Fund, the pan-African pre-seed investor and venture builder focused on climate adaptation and resilience, has completed a $30 million second close on its debut equity fund, moving within reach of its $40 million target. The close brings in heavyweight new LPs — IFC, FASA, Shell Foundation, Trafigura Foundation, Speedinvest, Blink Impact, and We-Fi — alongside existing backers FSD Africa and the Cisco Foundation. The fund has already backed 28 startups across 10 African markets with $200K pre-seed checks and plans to grow the portfolio to roughly 40 companies, with a final close expected later this year.
Key Takeaways
Adaptation, not mitigation, is becoming Africa's investable climate thesis. While Western climate funds chase industrial decarbonization, Catalyst Fund is underwriting the other side of the problem: cold chains, resilient agriculture, water, and waste infrastructure for communities already living with climate change. In Africa, adaptation is not an ESG label — it is the addressable market.
The LP roster is a blend of catalytic and commercial money, and that mix is the point. IFC and We-Fi bring development-finance credibility; Speedinvest's participation puts a European commercial VC's name behind African pre-seed climate deals. Blended capital stacks like this are how frontier asset classes get underwritten before purely commercial LPs arrive.
From $9 million to $30 million in under three years is real momentum in a brutal market. The fund's first close in Q3 2023 was $9 million. Growing commitments more than threefold while African venture funding contracted overall suggests the team's track record and portfolio data are doing the convincing, not the macro narrative.
The venture-builder model is a genuine differentiator at pre-seed. Through BFA Global, Catalyst pairs every check with hands-on product, hiring, and commercial support. At the $200K stage in markets with thin talent pools, that operational scaffolding arguably matters more than the capital itself.
Fund Overview
Fund Name: Catalyst Fund (debut equity vehicle)
Fund Size: $30M second close; $40M target, final close expected later in 2026
Stage: Pre-seed through Series A (entry at pre-seed, equity only)
Check Size: ~$200K initial, with reserves for follow-ons
Geography: Pan-African; largest markets Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Tanzania
Focus: Climate adaptation and resilience — agriculture and food systems, clean energy, water, waste, cold chain, and fintech for climate-vulnerable communities
Key LPs: IFC, FASA, Shell Foundation, Trafigura Foundation, Speedinvest, Blink Impact, We-Fi, FSD Africa, Cisco Foundation
Why This Fund Matters
African climate tech is emerging from a genuine trough. Sector funding fell to roughly $754 million in 2024 before rebounding to about $1.1 billion by late 2025, and Catalyst Fund's second close lands squarely on that recovery curve. But the more interesting story is thesis positioning. Most global climate capital targets mitigation — cutting emissions from industrial systems. Catalyst Fund is built around adaptation: helping farmers, fishers, and small businesses survive the climate volatility that is already here. On a continent responsible for a small fraction of global emissions but bearing outsized climate damage, adaptation is where demand is most acute and least contested by other investors.
The fund's structural history also matters. Catalyst began life as a grant-making accelerator and converted to an equity fund model in 2023, which means its team entered fund management with years of pattern recognition across inclusive fintech and emerging-market startups already banked. The organization has since built a 28-company portfolio across 10 markets and made nine follow-on investments into its strongest performers — an early signal that the portfolio is generating the data LPs need to underwrite a final close.
The LP composition tells a story about how frontier venture categories get built. Development finance institutions (IFC, We-Fi, FASA) provide the risk-absorbing base; corporate and commodity-linked foundations (Shell, Trafigura, Cisco) bring sector adjacency; and the presence of Speedinvest — a mainstream European VC firm — hints at the beginning of commercial crossover. We-Fi's participation specifically supports expanding the fund's pipeline of women-led startups, a segment where African climate tech has produced disproportionate founder representation relative to other verticals.
The obvious challenge is exits. African venture's structural weakness remains liquidity, and climate adaptation startups serving underserved communities will not be obvious targets for the acquirers that dominate African M&A today. Catalyst's bet is that resilient infrastructure — cold chains, agritech, waste systems — becomes essential-services revenue that either compounds into profitable independence or attracts infrastructure and strategic buyers over a longer horizon than typical venture timelines.
The Team
Catalyst Fund is led by Managing Partner Maelis Carraro, who founded the vehicle and previously led its accelerator era, alongside General Partners Maxime Bayen, Olúwatóyìn (Toyin) Emmanuel-Olubake, who also serves as Chief Investment Officer, and Amolo Ng'weno. Bayen is one of the most visible chroniclers of African tech funding data; Ng'weno brings decades of East African financial-inclusion experience, including leadership at BFA Global. The investment committee adds external discipline, chaired by Vikas Raj of ResilienceVC with members from The Lightsmith Group and CommerzVentures — notably, two of the very few global firms with dedicated adaptation and resilience mandates. BFA Global serves as the fund's general partner and venture-building provider, supplying the hands-on operational team that works inside portfolio companies.
Early Portfolio
The fund has deployed into 28 startups across 10 African markets, concentrated in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Tanzania. Representative positions include Keep It Cool, a Kenyan company building solar-powered cold-chain infrastructure for fish and poultry farmers; MazaoHub, a Tanzanian agritech platform; and Bekia, an Egyptian marketplace connecting waste producers with collectors and recyclers. Nine follow-on investments have already gone into the strongest performers — a healthy graduation signal for a pre-seed portfolio of this vintage.
What This Means for Founders
If you are building climate adaptation or resilience technology in Africa — agritech, cold chain, water, waste, clean energy, or financial products for climate-exposed households — Catalyst Fund is arguably the most focused pre-seed capital available on the continent. Expect a $200K initial check delivered with genuine venture-building support: BFA Global's team embeds on product strategy, hiring, commercial growth, and follow-on fundraising. For first-time founders in thin ecosystems, that support model can substitute for the co-founder-level talent that is hardest to recruit locally.
Founders should also understand the filter: this is an equity-only investor with impact underwriting discipline. Your solution needs a credible commercial engine serving climate-vulnerable users, not a grant-dependent model wearing a startup costume. The fund's largest markets — Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Tanzania — indicate where its networks are deepest, though it invests continent-wide.
Fund Momentum Take
Catalyst Fund is executing one of the more credible playbooks in African venture: convert a decade of accelerator pattern recognition into a fund, prove the model with a small first close, then scale commitments as portfolio data comes in. Tripling committed capital between 2023 and 2026 — through the worst African funding drought in a decade — is the kind of evidence LPs cannot ignore. The adaptation thesis is also refreshingly honest about African market reality: mitigation is a Western capital allocation; resilience is an African revenue line.
The risks are structural rather than execution-driven. A $40 million fund writing $200K checks needs multiple genuine breakouts to return meaningfully, and African exit markets remain the binding constraint no fund can engineer around alone. There is also concentration risk in the model itself: BFA Global as GP and venture builder creates deep operational leverage but blurs the line between fund and services organization in ways LPs will watch closely. Our bet: Catalyst's final close lands at or near target by year-end, and this fund becomes the reference dataset that determines whether African adaptation graduates into a standalone venture category.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Catalyst Fund?
Catalyst Fund is a pan-African pre-seed venture fund and venture builder backing startups building climate adaptation and resilience solutions. It has completed a $30 million second close toward a $40 million target, with final close expected later in 2026.
Who are Catalyst Fund's partners?
The fund is led by Managing Partner Maelis Carraro and General Partners Maxime Bayen, Olúwatóyìn Emmanuel-Olubake (also CIO), and Amolo Ng'weno, with BFA Global serving as general partner and venture-building provider.
What check sizes does Catalyst Fund write?
It invests exclusively through equity, typically writing $200,000 initial pre-seed checks and reserving capital for follow-on rounds through Series A.
Who are the fund's LPs?
Second-close investors include IFC, FASA, Shell Foundation, Trafigura Foundation, Speedinvest, Blink Impact, and We-Fi, joining existing backers FSD Africa and the Cisco Foundation.
What has Catalyst Fund invested in so far?
The portfolio spans 28 startups across 10 African markets, including Keep It Cool (Kenya, solar cold chain), MazaoHub (Tanzania, agritech), and Bekia (Egypt, waste marketplace), with nine follow-on investments completed.
Have a fund closing to announce? Submit your fund here.
Need help raising capital? Check out our Fundraising Advisory services.